Deer Season 2007 Summary Letter

Paradise Adventures - Deer Season
+ Class of 2007 +
"Something can be learned in the woods everyday!"

DIVINE INTERVENTION

Well, it didn’t take long for the word to get around. A friend arrived from PA a couple days ago (Dec. 4) and the first thing I heard out of his mouth was, “I hear the deer hunting at Paradise Adventures is so good that even a blind man can get a deer here”. Well that is partially true. A blind man can and did get a deer here, but it is definitely not easy, and it sure is not easy to get a trophy one like he did. Oh yes, I know we all say our little prayers up in the tree. “Please God just let me have one chance at a monster, I’ll do anything you ask. Just one chance, I swear I’ll be good a good boy.” And I’m not saying I’m an angel by no means and neither is Doug or Tony. But, we have all been blessed by knowing each other, by helping each other and by caring for one another. I do know for some reason, which I think is because we all believe in Him; we have most definitely had some “divine intervention” on these hunts with Doug. There is no reason why we got by with what happened and I’m not just talking about a deer hunt here. I am talking about a deer hunt and two turkey hunts that us three were involved in. The turkey hunts were a few years back, but just as exciting as this deer hunt was. If God didn’t have a hand in all three hunts, I’ll eat my hat. (Not the first time you heard that from me is it. They do taste awful.) But this time that hat won’t even get close to my lips. There is no other explanation. God wanted Doug, Tony and I to be successful for many reasons. One is, so that we could share these moments, though brief in reality, to everyone possible, as long as we give Him the Glory. He also gave us these special times as friends to cherish them FOREVER.

I can’t believe we actually got all three of these hunts captured on film and that alone just added to the equation of difficulty. “How did we do it”? My friend Davey did say, “that Tony is one lucky guy”, and I agreed. But luck didn’t keep that monster buck from absolutely tearing down the woods getting away from us. We watched the film 10 - 20 times. That buck was 25 yards away and couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from at first. How weird is that? When he finally realized where it was, he just stood there and looked. Why? And when he finally figures it all out and blows and runs away. Why did he stop and look back at just 30 yards? Big mature bucks just don’t do that. I have the big boy on film for at least 5 to 10 seconds staring at Doug and Tony while they are getting into position. The whole time I am watching the buck through the camera and saying to myself, this is not going to happen, no way, they have to shoot straight behind the stand, and they are making waaay to much noise. Get this, Tony’s eye ended up a half-inch or so from the scope. (Thank goodness it wasn’t a gun.) Doug is left-handed. He used his right. The butt of the stalk of the crossbow was not on his shoulder, it was in the center of his chest. I, myself have no idea how Doug got around Tony. Mind you, they are 12 ft off the ground, in a two-man, side by side, ladder stand with a fixed gun rest in front of them and the deer is directly behind the stand. People, I rest my case. All of the evidence clearly points to, Gods Helping Hand. I will say no more, except, “Thank you Jesus”. Because of you, Doug Little of Pennsylvania is the owner of A GOOD BUCK. A 153-inch Kansas Monster Whitetail, Weighing in at 240 lbs. which as of this date, is the highest gross scoring buck taken in the archery season at P.A. this Nov. “07” season. Now he could get beat in the late bow season we call it. (Dec. 26 – 31) We do have a few guys coming out for that. What’s your prediction? Remember what we just talked about. I believe those poor guys don’t stand a chance at dethroning him. What do you think? Don’t get me wrong here. They might kill a 152.

Anyway, 103-inch Roscoe isn’t going to be lonely any more on the Little’s wall. Yep, Doug and Tony took Roscoe with a muzzleloader several years ago. Right here in good ol’ Kansas USA. But that’s a whole other story.

Well it was a tough season, although we did get a lot of good bucks harvested, we got even more nice ones on trail cameras. Yet we still only ended up harvesting a couple of them that were on film. Cameras are great, but it doesn’t mean they are going to show up at the right time or even show up at all. It is fun looking at the pictures, but it is also a problem when everyone sees them and wonders why they are not the one hunting there. I can tell you one thing. They do look bigger on film than they actually are. A lot depends of course on how they are standing. Just like our pictures of guys with their bucks. Get the antlers high and they look big, down low, they look small. I think that with the pictures we also left some stands less occupied when possibly they shouldn’t have been. Putting more pressure on the others. But it’s hard not to go after them once you have seen them on the big screen. Everywhere we put the cameras but one spot we got some good bucks on film. The spot we did not get a good buck on film is the spot we ended up killing the biggest buck of the year. A 181-inch, 9 point. That just tells me that you never know where they are going to show up.

I am dropping the management fee. ($500 fine for shooting buck under 125 inches) I don’t have the heart to charge you guys more money, and if I did, I wouldn’t be here in this stinking ice storm. I would be vacationing on some southern island. I probably could have retired by now. Not really. But it’s that plain and simple. It all boils down to judging a buck’s antlers in a short amount of time, with full flowing adrenaline. Very close to impossible I am realizing for most, including me. If everyone that reads this would stop and think back, how many times have you shot a buck and if you found him, he was as big as you thought at the second you pulled the trigger. I have several on film that were definitely not what I thought at that moment. It is almost embarrassing to admit it, but I have blown it many times. This year might have been a prime example. Several were taken under 125 inches. But you know what, I think all but one was the biggest buck that person had ever taken. This is where I find it very hard to walk up to anyone and say, “ Hey, nice buck. Oh, that’s your biggest ever. Great, and would you please make that check out to Paradise Adventures. I couldn’t make myself do it. Could you? I was wrong, so therefore I am dropping it. Look at it this way; if everyone else shoots a small one, you and me have a lot more big ones to choose from. That was always Mike’s motto in the first place. But I wouldn’t listen. There are a few occasions where the buck is actually bigger when you find it. I call that ground growage, not shrinkage. That happens maybe once or twice and sometimes three times a year here at Paradise, like Larry Tilton’s, 181 and 14 year old, Owen Franson’s, 166 inch 10 point and Doug Little’s 153 inch 8 point main frame with two matching stickers, making him a 10 point also, all very good bucks.

Now if we were all as calm and collected as young Owen Franson, there wouldn’t be a problem. This guy is something else. I am not sure what it would take to get him really excited, maybe a charging grizzly or maybe a big bull cape buffalo, I don’t know. But when it comes to deer hunting, it was a piece of cake with him. He didn’t get rattled at all. Now Mark (Owens Dad) on the other hand sounded like he was about out of control. I know Owen is on cloud nine this year along with Larry, Doug, Tony and I. But that Mark, he’s just above us on cloud TEN. You’ve probably been there too at some point and time. Enjoy the ride. If you haven’t, your time will come. Look around Mark; Nick Trotta might still be hanging on that same cloud since last year.

Now I’m going to tell you about another way we, (Mike and I) have been blessed and that is good help. I know you have heard this before, but The McDougalls. Wow, what a pair. With just a wee tiny bit of coaching they both did an awesome job. Although Matt was not with us this fall, his bro took over right in his footsteps. Dick and Julie McDougall really have a fine pair of lads if I do say so myself. I truly want to thank them for their great help, always reliable and always ready. A man could not ask for any better. Thanks guys, good luck in the fire putting out business or wherever life leads you. I taught them everything I know and they learned it in less than two months. I’m amazing! Also our new cook, Bonnie, did an excellent job as well. She kept a smile on everyone’s face by keeping plenty of wonderful food on the counter. We were a little short handed this year so I didn’t have much time to film. The only one I ended up filming was Doug and Tony. That did happen to be the biggest buck that I ever got on film being harvested. The one hunt that I thought might not happen and it’s the one that happened. WOW! I should have known.

I am having a hard time keeping focused on the whole season, but overall we didn’t do to bad. We harvested 13 out of 22 during the early bow time and 7 out 11 during gun season. I am sure glad we don’t run any hunts the second week of gun season because it really gets tough then. A lot of deer were saved during the second half of gun season because of the nasty weather that we had. We had a couple friends hunting on Tony’s lease and they saw very little movement. The worst part about that is, that is the only time I have to take out my boy. He did get a chance at a good buck but was unfortunate. He was shooting my gun and the trigger is pretty stiff (different) and I think it caused him to pull off. We didn’t find any sign of a hit and I guess that is better than a wounded deer running around. I know he was heart broken and so was Dads, but that is a part of hunting we have all faced one time or another or probably will. His gun was misplaced, but we have it back now.

I sure hope the weather cooperates with the rut next year. I am sick of 70’s and 80’s during that time. All in all, I think our worst problem is stand hopping. How can we make ourselves stay in one place longer? Anyone that has hunted with us for two or three years should know that a really nice mature buck walks by our tree stands at least once in the shooting hours from time to time. I am not certain about this, but it makes sense. I know that most stands that were set in had a respectable buck seen from it. Yes, and I know that I am one of the worst about moving, but I’m learning to be more patient. Mike on the other hand would put you in a stand and NOT let you move for at least 4 days. One bottle of water and two apples AND don’t crap in the woods or pee near your stand. Good advice, he just needs to mellow out a bit. Just kidding. I was all ready to move the stand with Doug and Tony, and all I heard from Doug was. That’s the most bucks I have seen, (heard) EVER! Really as much as Tony and I slept, he probably did see more than us. He was having a great time. He was right; we saw at least 2 bucks a day. That was good enough for him, but not me. We did go set in a blind one windy afternoon and we saw, of course, two bucks. But that wasn’t working well for filming so we went back to the tree stands on the fifth day and our 9th time out and shot him at 8:35 AM.

I just want everybody to know that we start setting our stands up about the 20th to the 25th of Oct. Two to four a day. We continue setting them until the second week of Nov. and even after that we are still setting a few when we find another hot spot or when we are tweaking them just a little. (Short move) Once we get them set, we do not go back until a day or two before we have a hunter that might be going to set there to make sure the sign is there and that rats have not chewed off the ropes and straps. Some of the first ones, we do go back at least once a week to see if they are still “hot” or “not”. Mike is our scout, and believe me he knows deer sign. If you’ve been here enough times, you know that too. He finds trails out here that most men wouldn’t even notice. Don’t believe me, just ask Patrick. At first Patrick wouldn’t have noticed a trail if it jumped up and bit him. (To much city life and girls on his mind) He does goood now. Good, fresh sign has to be there, or we would not put you there. I hunted that area where the big one ended up being killed with Patrick as my cameraman in late Oct. We didn’t see squat. But we sure noticed the big rubs. Especially the one right beside our trail marker and it wasn’t there when we put the yellow tape on that tree. Patrick and I both said there MUST be a good one running around here too. Ray Howell put up a trail camera there also but not much of anything was on it after a couple days. Still only rubs, scraps and tracks to go by, so we did make sure that we had someone hunting in that area pretty much the entire bow season. In fact, that is where Doug, Tony and I went for that windy afternoon hunt. Remember, we only saw two small bucks. So where was this monster hiding all that time? How many times was he lurking just outside of view of these poor innocent, lonely guys? All I know is that we keep trying to get him (A monster buck) in that 30-yard circle for you, all of you. There is nothing more that Mike and I would like is to see is that every one of you guys goes home with a 140-class buck or better. Nothing! Just hang in there you guys that didn’t get one. Try to stay put as much as possible. And most of all make good decisions and shot placement. We do our best; we expect the same from you.

We should all take a lesson from Nick Trotta; I asked him if he was coming out for lunch one day. He looked at me very seriously and I quote, “No way, are you kidding me, I am not going in and out but one time a day. That is in the morning when I walk in and in the evening when I walk out. I am not leaving any more scent in the woods than I have too”. He also came very close to getting another Kansas Monster and he wasn’t the only one that came very close. A couple others did as well. Take Care! HUNT HARD, HUNT SAFE, and think about the blessings God has given us all. Just to mention a couple. FREEDOM and a place to go HUNT’EN. Thank you all for coming out and having fun this season with Mike, Patrick and Me of course. Also, Thank you Jesus for another accident free season. Well my friends, until we meet again!

Written by: Kurt Nunnenkamp, 12 / 10-13 / 2007