Deer Season 2022 in Summary

Above we see one of the bucks he was hoping to best this season.

Elk season opened a week before the season for whitetailed deer. Squirrel-Eating Jon (SEJ) hunted parcels of private land close to home for these big, tough deer, the New World counterpart of the Red Stag back in his ancestral lands. He was joined by a friend from back east for one of these hunts. This was on a quarter section back of Jon’s hayfield known as Little Alaska for the varied scraggly bush conditions there that host all manner of beasts, from skunk and marten to whitetail, moose, elk, black bear and plentiful grizzlies. There had been a modest fall of soft snow in fact and the number of fresh grizzly trackways boggled the mind of Squirrel’s friend and even The Squirrel-Eater himself. They packed the .375 H&H on this hunt loaded with copper rounds just in case and managed not to get et. They did not manage to kill an elk. Elk are always on the move in these parts, a chancey prospect when you don’t much focus on them and even if you do, and while they had been on this patch the night before, they had exited by daylight.

Fresh grizzly tracks on Little Alaska.

The night of the season-opener for whitetail eight-to-ten inches of snow fell. This was a mixed blessing. There is nothing a deer-tracker gets more excited about than a fresh snow, but on the other hand, given that you will in all likelihood be covering many miles in the tracks of bucks, it is difficult to say the exact increase in energy expenditure a snowfall of this extent has on the hunter, but it’s easy to say it’s multiples. Jon tried not to let this set him back too far, but the truth is he was also convalescing from the global bat-plague he’d contracted the month previous. The main event of which was over in a week or so, the aftereffects however being tenacious, mostly a baseline respiratory congestion and somewhat reduced vigor.

The snow conditions on opening day close to home. It was deeper further into the hills. This picture was taken on opening day just before Jon topped the gentle rise here and had a chance at the big-bodied young buck in the next picture. The rifle is his 1956 Remington 760 ADL in .300 Savage outfitted with a peep-sight by Skinner of Montana.

Jon hunted another bush-and-meadow quarter on the coulee abutting his and A.D.’s farm on the southwest, on the big coulee. 20 minutes into this hunt he stalked up a rise and peeking over and letting his eyes scan was rewarded with the sight of a young, big-bodied buck he recognized from trail-camera photos. It was moving through open mature aspen about sixty yards away broadside, stopping here and there to nibble some dried forage. Jon could have picked his shot and filled his buck tag right there but he was after older deer and let this fella walk. Let him enjoy some more trips around the sun. By the time SEJ deemed him shootable he’d probably be too smart to get shot by SEJ. It being axiomatic at any rate that if you want to shoot big ol’ bucks, you have to stop shooting the young ones.

The young buck Squirrel-Eating Jon could have killed twnety minutes into opening-day, this picture from the day before. He passed him up this day and on hunts later in the season as well for larger, more challenging fare. Look at the frame on this deer. This is going to be a big buck. Some them in the region dressing-out at over 300 pounds. A 200-pounder dressed is considered a real biggee in general.

Jon had several more chances at this same buck, still-hunting up to where he was bedded on a couple later occasions and calling him in once with a grunt-tube. He is still out there.

Most of the season Jon took to the big woods on the far side of town. Here you could get onto the track of a big buck and stay on him all day without having to worry about your movements being stunted by someone’s fence. You are in the meantime gratified by the presence of every creature that lived here when the whiteman first saw it save the bison. You may not see them, but they are there.

A big woods scene from SEJ’s hunting territory. A person could track a deer as far as the eye can see with nothing save thier own endurance limitng their travels.

Out in the big woods this year the going was tough on account of the snow-depth. Jon nonetheless covered many miles and was taken to many amazing hidden corners a person would not venture into without being lead into them by a wild animal. These are the areas he will focus on next season, should he have the good fortune to still be walking the earth and not turning into earth. He passed up six bucks for the bigger, older ones he knew were out there, and ended up this year never pulling the trigger. Nor did he fill his doe tags, something he sets to doing only once he’s bagged his buck. That’s the nature of the game, and it’s always an adventure hunting in this fashion. Until there isn’t, there’s always next season, and every year it seems to come around again a little sooner.

The buck stops here… This is the view from the bed of one big buck Jon was tracking for a day later in the season when the snow had melted off south slopes. This hilltop was lousy with deer-sign, and he’d never have enjoyed this scene had the buck not taken him here. Rest assured, “Stag Hill” and environs will be a go-to spot on future hunts.