38X Lake Lowell

[andrew12gauge]

So the season ran out on my extra tag today and I thought I'd share a little insight into my experience on this hunt with you all. I didn't get to spend much time hunting this tag due to my wife giving birth to a baby boy on the opener and once that was through I was busy with work. In total I probably spent about 15 hrs in a tree stand(required on the lake lowell controlled hunts)over 4 afternoons, which is about 15 hrs more than I had spent in a tree stand previously. I bought a self climbing stand so I was more mobile on the hunt and of my 4 stand locations I saw only 3 does as they sprinted by my stand after one of the 5 buck hunters pushed them out of the brush. I did run into another of the extra doe tag holders who managed to tag out tonight after not hunting any of the season, he said he went in to pull his stand and the deer just wandered by. Also talked with 2 of the 5 buck tag holders one was not seeing much of anything while the other said he had been in deer every day just hadn't had a good shot opportunity yet. All in all I think that if I had committed a little more time to this hunt I may have brought home some meat but I will be applying again in the future though I think I may try for one of the later hunts in the future. This hunt was definitely not the gimme I expected but there are deer out there and I think this hunt may have a little more "right place, right time" kind of luck to it than others as it seems there are deer trails littering that refuge and narrowing down the right one to hunt could be a crapshoot