A Different Kind of Season
I’ve got no one but myself to blame.
I’ve had this aching, pinching feeling in my left shoulder for over 20 years now. Each of the past three years I’ve gotten a cortisone/steroid injection into the shoulder joint to allow me to draw my bow for bow hunting. Well, they only let you do that so many times, apparently three. This past summer, as bow season was approaching I was told that I would have to take more drastic measures to correct this condition or just live with it. Not being able to draw my bow is not something I could “live with”.
Maybe I should have looked into this in, say April. Then I’d have been through the surgery and physical therapy in plenty of time for bow season. Procrastination has a price and it came due this past September.
Surgery was scheduled for the ominous date of 09/11/02, only three days before the opener of bow season. The prognosis was that, if everything went well, I might be able to bow hunt the late season. The surgery did go well and I was a very motivated patient. I attended all my physical therapy appointments and did “my exercises” faithfully each day.
After five weeks I asked my physical therapist if we could test my “draw” strength. The meter showed 82 pounds at my maximum but it was kind of painful. Fortunately I could crank down my bow to just 60 pounds. Armed with that info and a letter from the physical therapist, I requested an early return to hunting from my doctor. He granted my wish and I was back in the woods before the rut even got rolling in late October!
It felt weird to be just starting my bow hunting, six weeks after the season started. Sort of like showing up at a movie 15 minutes after it began. Fortunately our woods are pretty predictable and my stands, which I placed the week before surgery, turned out to be in pretty good areas.
The first night out I almost got to fill a turkey tag with my bow and passed up an 8 yard shot at a little fork horn. I was just so grateful I could even be out there that I didn’t even consider shooting that little buck.
Several more hunts produced numerous buck sightings and one shot opportunity which I blew. I shot low and grazed the chest/brisket of a very nice 8 pointer at 21 yards. So ended my abbreviated 2002 archery season.
Gun season arrived to find my wife Louise, my brother Brett, my friend Gerry from Ohio, and I all totally stoked for the rifle hunt. No snow but plenty of cold wind greeted us opening morning. It was surprisingly quiet (very little shooting) on opening morning. Brett passed up a small buck and numerous does; Louise never saw a deer; I shot a bonus tag deer at 1:30 and a second one at 4:40; Gerry shot a dandy 8 pointer and a bonus tag deer at 2:00 pm. When we rendezvoused at the end of the day, Gerry excitedly told of his harvest and said, “You might be interested to know this buck has a graze wound across his chest”. Remember my blown shot opportunity?
The next morning, Louise assumed Brett’s stand and shot her 8 pointer at about 7:00 am. No other deer were taken though we did have a blast the second Saturday doing some little drives with some friends including two young hunter-safety graduates. We saw three bucks and two does but no deer were taken.
Muzzleloader season has not produced, as of yet. There are still a couple days left as I write this. Late bow season runs into early January so there is still time for that too.
Maybe I’ll be blessed with another harvest maybe not. I just know I was blessed to be able to hunt at all this fall, even if it was a different kind of season.
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