BuckTracker: Opener Eve
Tomorrow is the Minnesota archery deer season opener. Naturally, I’m excited….but not for the reasons you might suspect. Sure I...

Tomorrow is the Minnesota archery deer season opener. Naturally, I’m excited….but not for the reasons you might suspect. Sure I want to get a deer, and I hope I do. But I have 100 days to pull that off, so I’m in no hurry. I also realized long ago that tagging a buck is only a tiny part of why I adore bowhunting.
Mostly, I love the process and the pursuit. Reading deer sign and hanging stands. Interpreting dozens of little clues that lead—I hope—to the perfect spot to ambush a buck. I used to do a lot of trapping, and I’ve come to realize that there’s little difference between a great stand site and a perfect trap setup. Trappers have to know their animals well enough to guess where a fox (or coon, or mink, or..) will place his foot in order to be successful. Bowhunters need similar precision, given the larger range of their quarry. If a buck’s home range is a square mile, which 25-yard circle do you choose to wait for him? It’s a chess match that can take 100 days to win…or not.
The other thing I love is the phone call. I’ll start getting it now. From a friend who’s had an awesome hunt and wants to share with me. He might need help tracking or dragging. May simply want to share a tale of a buck sighting, or that he saw a coyote, or watched a hawk strafe a flock of turkeys. I don’t care when these calls come, or how long it takes to hear them out. I’ve got enthusiasm to last 100 days…and it all starts tomorrow!