Opening Day

[richhodg66]

Today was opening day of the Kansas firearms deer season so I took a personal day and spent it on a tree stand in my favorite spot. The lake flooding has receded enough to where my honey hole stand is kind of on dry land and oddly, despite the mess it made, the deer are back to their regular movement patterns.

I decided before going out I didn't want to use my buck tag on another doe, I can use the meat, but can always use that tag in the extended antlerless segment in early January. 20 minutes into legal shooting light, a good 1 1/2 year old doe saunters under my stand. An hour later an old doe with triplet fawns (the fawns are bigger than deep south deer generally get), again, let all of them walk. Took a break to nap in the truck at noon and then went back out, saw a few more, no shots presented. Sure are a lot of ducks in the lake and squirrels in the woods.

There's buck sign all over that place, several big rubs and scrapes that are easily visible from the stand. A couple of years ago, I hunted that stand every weekend through the rut looking for meat does or mature bucks and then, every hunting session was a virtual parade of little dink bucks, which I would have gladly taken today. I can't seem to win.

The weather was great, more hunters out than usual, Kansas starts on Wednesday and most people won't take a day off from work like I will. I met a couple of them for a few minutes, one was a woman out with her husband who was using a Stevens 322 (AKA, Savage 340 with a butterknife bolt handle), which I was a little surprised to see.

All in all, a good day, even with no deer. I'll likely only get to hunt the next two Sundays and probably won't. The first weekend on public land here is wall-to-wall bozos and generally unsafe to be out. The second weekend usually sees less of that, but by that time, the deer are real skittish. I might regret being so picky today, but not at the moment.

[ole_270]

My season didn't last very long unless I pick up another doe tag. I hadn't been getting any really nice bucks on camera so with the wife complaining that the hamburger supply was almost gone I took the first big bodied buck I saw. Took all of 15 minutes after legal shooting time. Heavy bodied and racked 10 pointer, but he only measures 14 1/2" inside spread. Used my old favorite 257 Roberts with 100 gr Hornady Interlock sp. since the place I was hunting was close to the property boundry and I didn't want to chance one getting over the fence.
Went over to our other place and hunted the beanfield this afternoon. Took a doe at 100 yards with a cast bullet out of the old 308. Saeco #315 clone at 2200 fps dropped her in about 60 yards even though she saw me line up on her and was alarmed. 1st 30 cal cast bullet kill in quite a few years for me. Used a 30-30 with the 31141 gc bullet at about 1900 for several years before selling the rifle.

[smoked turkey]

Rich, sounds like you had a great "opener" today. I know what it is to second guess your self and think "I regret not taking that shot earlier". I think you will get another opportunity before you hang up your gun for the season. I passed on a nice sized 4 point on our opening day. Then within about 3 hours I was able to take a nicer 6 point. So just be patient and it will pay off because as you have said that your stand is a tried and true stand you are using and there is plenty of good sign around it.

[richhodg66]

My season didn't last very long unless I pick up another doe tag. I hadn't been getting any really nice bucks on camera so with the wife complaining that the hamburger supply was almost gone I took the first big bodied buck I saw. Took all of 15 minutes after legal shooting time. Heavy bodied and racked 10 pointer, but he only measures 14 1/2" inside spread. Used my old favorite 257 Roberts with 100 gr Hornady Interlock sp. since the place I was hunting was close to the property boundry and I didn't want to chance one getting over the fence.
Went over to our other place and hunted the beanfield this afternoon. Took a doe at 100 yards with a cast bullet out of the old 308. Saeco #315 clone at 2200 fps dropped her in about 60 yards even though she saw me line up on her and was alarmed. 1st 30 cal cast bullet kill in quite a few years for me. Used a 30-30 with the 31141 gc bullet at about 1900 for several years before selling the rifle.

I was just looking at the KDWP map and learned that there are three management areas close to my south and east which allow five antlerless tags and, more importantly, 12 days during the January extended season rather than the three we'll have here. I'm gonna pull out the WIHA atlas and look closer. I live in Dickinson County and do most of my hunting in Clay county, all in an area that allows me two tags a year and short extended season. Kinda wish I had looked at it closer sooner, but I may have just extended my deer hunting by a couple of weeks this year.