This morning Brooks and I climbed up into the backcountry to hunt deer, and the sun was just coming up when Brooks dropped a nice 3 point. I think we had only been really hunting for about 15 minutes or so. It is Brooks' first deer which is funny considering he has already shot 2 Afognak Elk (a far more difficult quarry). He pointed out that all packs seem light after packing out an elk.
Deer hunting on the road system closes in a few days. You are only allowed to shoot bucks on the road system, and it has been a banner year. All told, the group I hunt with harvested 11 bucks on the road system and most of them were unusually large. For my group I think there were only 3 or 4 unsuccessful hunts. That's a pretty good success rate and far better than it has been for a few years now.
However, even if the road system stayed open for deer we'd be done hunting for bucks. The rut (deer mating season) is close and the bucks are starting to smell. The scent glans on the deer Brooks shot were weeping musk. We cut the glans off and skinned the back legs, and got rid of the musk smell. It had not yet gotten into the meat. But I bet that in a week things will have amped up a bit and all the bucks would taste pretty rank. It is time to stop shooting bucks!
Patrick
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