Nebraska Doe, Utah Buck, and "I shoot professionally"

Well, we made it to NE after spending a new gun's worth in gasoline alone, but I like it here a lot. We've moved in and school is starting next week. You can see the house and read up on all that on Courtney's blog.

It's opening day of hunting season in Utah today and all my friends are up in the hills without me. Instead, I'm pity partying while staining my porch in the hot, saturated air of Lancaster county. JD shot his first bow-kill deer this morning at only eight yards away just after sunrise.


I'm proud of him. He is one of those guys that when he says something, that's how it is. No exaggerations. No fish stories. Often after meeting fellow outdoor-lovers, they proceed to entertain me with stories of their special access to private land with "monster" deer, or that they teach fly tying classes and compete professionally in archery competitions. Then, when you get to know them better you realize that the fly tying lessons they teach are actually to their younger brothers once every other month, and that they shot once in a competition where Dave Cousins attended, and their private land access belongs to their nephew's dog's first owner's brother who said to stop by anytime he's in Mexico.

After awhile you tend to believe only half of what people say, but not JD. He said he has a dog that is trained to follow his hand signals to find downed birds, and sure enough, I've seen Lily follow his directions into the most ridiculously thick of places and come up with a bird in mouth. When we found this buck earlier in the year he said he was going to shoot it when hunting season opened, and he did. It's refreshingly nice. Here's the video of us scouting.

I saw my first Nebraska whitetail on a drive the other day. It's a blurry picture but I was thrilled. I can't remember the last time I got so excited about seeing a boring old doe.


Hopefully soon I'll have pics of my own to post of me in camouflage with a little buck and my bow in hand. But my hunt doesn't start for another month, so till then I'll probably keep making posts about pics I have from the good old days.