Deer Season 2004 Summary Letter
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Well folks, I am taking all of my complaints straight to the buck god, he is the one that caused us such a tough season I am sure. I understand it wasn’t just here, it was strange all over the country, and I hope you don’t think I am just using this for an excuse. We have no excuses and are not looking for any. The only explanation I can think of for the way the deer acted is that I forgot to wear my lucky hat, not really. I want to say it was the weather and I feel at times it did have something to do with it, but other times it didn’t. I do know that during the bow season I sat out there filming most of the three weeks that we hunted and I noted that the days the humidity was low and the temps were reasonable, we saw good deer movement. But the days that the humidity was high, we saw very little. I really think that has a lot to do with the rut out here, they just wait till after dark. Us guys should relate to this, I know I do some of my best work after dark. They are smart too and they know what their bodies can take. Hey, if this fat boy feels bad you know those deer feel bad too, and I was just walking out to a tree stand, not chasing tail like it was the last thing to do on earth. Well, enough of this crying and trying to figure it out. I am just going to let all of those “professional writers,” do it for me. You know they will let us know just what we need to do to get that big monster out in front of us once again. So read up, you know I will, or maybe I just need to learn to speak the language a little better. Yea, that’s the ticket. Speak the language. Wow, now I can hardly wait for next year. Grunt, grunt, bleat, rattle, rattle.
Now it’s time for “The Truth.” Muzzy season wasn’t as bad for us this year as last, but if you asked the hunters they might not think the same way I am. We had two guys out from North Carolina this year and we had a lot of fun. These two were young enough to be my kids, but I’m not going to claim them after what they both did. They both missed on the last evening. I felt terrible for both of them, but that didn’t help the situation. The only thing lucky for them was that, that was the only time I didn’t set with one of them filming. Man, I might have had that big boy missing that 160” class buck on the big screen. They were both good sports about it, and one even came back in the second week of gun season to try his luck again. He did manage to see the biggest deer of his life during that hunt, but was not able to get a shot off. I won’t tell you what happened this time, but I think he could use a little therapy from the good Doctor, if you know what I mean. You may have to read last years letter to fully understand, (website).
Well we also took two youth hunters this year, but when that season came ‘round, it was HOT and just coming out of full moon. Right when you would give anything for some deer movement for these two young lads, there was very little. I think the Uncle, Nephew team struggled to see a deer that weekend, and the Father, Son team that I was filming had only a little bit better luck. We saw 3 doe’s on the first day, and up until 9 o’clock on the second day we hadn’t seen a deer. I was discouraged and trying to talk the Dad into moving when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I stopped talking and turned my head just in time to see the buck move a little. There he was, and just what we were looking for, a nice 8 pointer. The boy took a shot and it looked perfect. We waited awhile and went and looked for blood, but there was none. We decided to wait longer, so we went back to camp and watched the action we had on TV. The shot looked good, but maybe just a little to far forward into the shoulder. A few hours went by and we tried our luck again. This time we jumped him and could tell he had a broken front leg. We got around him and tried a little drive, but he got away. Sorry son, but that’s hunt’en. We felt certain the buck would live to be hunted again.
Now it’s bow season. For some the dreams of a lifetime came true, and for others it was confusing and down right disgusting, but not because of anything we did. All we did was put them out there where things can happen, and they did, but that’s when the rest is up to you! I can’t help it that these big bucks tend to boggle the minds of some of you guys. All I can do is offer some therapy sessions after the fact, free of charge. Remember, I’m just a phone call away. We ended up taking 20 guys out this season. From these we had 14 opportunities with 9 of these successful. It was a strange year. It seemed like the ones we had a good blood trail are the ones we never found and the ones with not much blood, we found. Figure that one out. One buck we trailed well over a mile and a half. All the way we thought that we would be walking up on a dead deer and it never happened. We have found two of the wounded deer from bow season dead so far since the season ended. One I had gotten on film getting whacked in the neck, and I still think if that arrow would have been a half-inch or so in any direction we would have had that buck in a few minutes. Oh well, that’s bow hunting. It scored 140”, and the other we trailed for over a ½ mile before we ran out of blood. Actually our friend, “the trapper” found him floating in a pond about another ½ mile north of where we lost all the sign. This buck is now the top scoring buck this year. It scored 160 inches, and was a perfect 12-point. We knew this buck had to die sooner or later, by the amount of blood he was loosing and the way that he ran, but what can you do when you loose the blood trail and his tracks. You’re done, plain and simple. Believe me we don’t give up easily; you can ask anybody that we have ever trailed a deer for and they would say the same. I don’t think that too many have ever gotten away from us that died. These two didn’t, it just took a little longer, and believe me the guys are just as happy now, if not more.
Well gun season was our busiest ever. We took 21 guys opening day and everything went smooth. Thanks to a few guys that drove themselves out. That really helped a lot since we were a little short handed in the guide situation. We had a couple down with some health problems and we wish them both the best. Eight deer were harvested opening day and that relieved the pressure on us guides. Three were also taken the next day, and so on. The season was tough because the rut was pretty much over when gun season began. There was still some chasing going on, but it was mainly the smaller ones. We ended up with 15 kills out of 28. Not to good, especially after last years record breaker for us. Our biggest deer was taken by none other than, Rick Morris, he harvested a real nice 8-pointer that scored 144 inches. We had several taken that were just a few inches smaller. Oh well, everybody said last year would be a tough act to follow, and they were right, it was.
New for 2005 Deer Hunters: There are going to be some changes made this year at Paradise Adventures. The first thing is that all monies still owed to us will be paid before the hunt begins, or other words, upon arrival. The second thing is the hunt will initially cost you $500.00 more for a management fee, but you have the chance to get that extra money back. This is how it will work. The first way is if you do not harvest a deer, (and that means no more than two blood trails) you will get your extra money back. The second way is if you harvest a deer above our limitations you will get your extra money back. Our limit for gun hunters will be nothing below a 135-inch deer, with a 10-inch margin of error. This making everything under a 125-inch buck will cost you the management fee. The bow hunters will have a little tighter range of 5-inches. Their limit will be a 130-inch buck with the margin of error taking it down to a 125-inch buck. This will be a gross score of all points over 1-inch long. Two blood trails will be considered a kill in any deer season. Another thing we are changing at P.A. is, NOT HUNTING the second week of the rifle season. There is one exception to this rule. Any early muzzleloader hunter that was not successful may return to hunt the second week of gun season. That is if there is not enough room during the first week, for a preset fee per day, (check price sheet). This is all done to help ensure you that we will have trophy deer in the future and that no 1 ½ year old deer will be taken. We hope this will cause no hard feelings and you can understand what we are trying to do here. We are strictly protecting our future trophies here at P.A. I know it can be hard to judge them at times, but we think that if you’re having trouble sizing him up, then he is probably to small. If you have paid in cash it will be paid back in cash and so on. Thank you very much and good luck wherever your hunting adventures takes you. Also, a big THANK YOU goes out too, Harv, Ray, Bernie, and cookie, (Jamie) they each did an excellent job. I also want to thank God for another safe and fun season. Without him we have only death to look forward too and I am convinced that he didn’t do all of this, for nothing. There is only one word between Hell and Heaven, can you guess what it is? Believe! Think about it.
Sincerely yours,
Kurt Nunnenkamp
Written: 01/03/05
