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Heading into the 2010 archery season, I was more excited than ever.  I had a huge amount of trail cam photos since I changed my use of them since years prior.  Instead of searching for a tree on or near a game trail, I used the AT-5 Trail Camera Support and mounted them on metal fence posts in my fields so I can cover more trails than before.  Imagine 5, 6 or even 10 deer trails exiting a patch of woods.  How do you cover all of that?  You put a post in the ground in the field or clearing that all of those trails lead to and now you have much better odds at seeing what really lurks in your property.  Since I now had more photos than ever, I was able to better evaluate the quality of deer that frequented my property.  In fact, I had at least 14 bucks over 140"! 

Opening weekend of bow season started well and I saw 2 nice bucks and many does but no shots were fired.  I was lucky enough to film a lot of deer and a pack of seven coyotes, a wolf and a bobcat with the Pro-Bow-Cam Camera Support.  This part of my hunt was amped up a little this year with my purchase of a new Canon video camera.  It was like having a new toy and luckily the animals cooperated and I got some nice footage.

Heading into New Year's weekend, my daughter Kristin, her boyfriend Mitch Havemann and my long time bow hunting partner Kevin Kazynski decided to give three last hunts to cap off the season.  I was lucky enough to harvest a beautiful doe on the first night.  The second day we lost 18" of snow, had unseasonably warm weather and dense fog.  No shots were fired that day, but that was soon to change.

The following day we remembered what cold was as the temperature dropped to 4 degrees with a 30-40 mph wind that felt like razor blades cutting through any exposed skin.  It would have been very easy to camp out on the couch that day, but my daughter Kristin lead the charge and got us all into our stands.  There was no way us men were staying in when my teenage daughter was tough enough to stick it out. 

Kristin and Mitch hunted opposite sides of a food plot and saw about 40 deer on the move.  They even had a couple of big bucks in the mix.  Kristin had a nice doe come by her stand and she delivered a perfect shot right behind the shoulder and watched the deer pile up 100 yards from her in the middle of the field.  From the other side of the field, Mitch was even able to witness the event!  Once I received the text "BDD" from Kristin, I could not have been happier.

A few minutes later, I got another text from her saying a coyote was already eating her doe!  Everything in the woods that day was just trying to survive...including us.  The weather had made everything harder and this coyote was not going to pass up a free meal.  Who could blame him?  Mitch got to Kristin first and scared the coyote away and we were able to recover the doe and celebrate a hard but rewarding hunt.  Congratulations to Kristin and to us all for braving some truly tough conditions. 

All in all my season was great.  I never connected on any of my big bucks that I watched all season, but I was fortunate enough to spend another hunting season doing what I love with my family and friends.  I could never ask for anything more.