Bright Idea Outdoors Weblog

Notes from the First Few Days of Muzzleloader Deer Season

The Virginia Muzzleloader Deer Season is off to a great start. Here are some of the highlights--and a couple lowlights--from the first few days of the two-week season, which began Saturday.

Nick got to come out with me for the first time this year. He has really matured since the 2010 season and is able to stay still and quiet for much longer periods of time. Nick also did a great job navigating some tough terrain on our way to the stand. His first hunt of the year almost came to a thrilling end when Nick put the crosshairs on a monster buck at 91 yards.

"Do I have the green light?" he asked me.

"No, let it come a little closer."

That distance is never an easy shot with a muzzleloader, although I know it's more than doable. But this would have been Nick's first shot at a live animal, and I wasn't about to take a chance on ruining it for him by letting him take too difficult a shot; even if I did want to see him take that trophy buck as badly as I've ever wanted to shoot one myself!

Tough thing about it was, right after I told Nick to wait, the buck disappeared into the woods. Even tougher, about 20 minutes later a shot rang out on the neighboring property. That guy is a trophy hunter, and I knew he wouldn't take anything but a wall hanger on opening day. I figured he'd gotten Nick's buck. More on the not-so-friendly relationship I have with that guy in a minute...

Meanwhile, Jake's friend Jake, who hunts a property not far from us with his dad, killed a huge 10 pointer. I've seen a picture of the 10-year-old hunter and his deer; it's amazing. I'll post it here later in the week if I get his dad's permission...

My son Jake actually had a couple chances as bucks but elected to pass on the young four pointers, even though one of them practically begged Jake to shoot it. This deer hung around us for at least half an hour and several times stood broadside at less than 20 yards. I was surprised that Jake, who killed his first deer earlier this season but has yet to harvest a buck, elected not to shoot, but I'm proud that he trusted his instincts, made his decision and stuck by it...

My instincts had told me to go ahead and squeeze the trigger when a doe stopped by my tree stand at 6:45 a.m. I shot, and the doe ran off toward the south. Pretty sure she was down, I figured I'd stay in the stand for a half hour or so and see if anything else came along. Something did, but it wasn't a deer. It was that hunter from the neighboring property.

He asked me what I was shooting at and then moaned and groaned about quality deer management and "cutting him off" and how my stand (which was put there by my predecessor in hunting the property) is too close to the property he hunts. I tried really hard to be friendly with this guy, and he could probably have a great hunting neighbor in me if he would just relax a little. Unfortunately, I don't think this guy has a friendly bone in his body...

But enough about that (at least for now); I should also mention that my cousin Tom shot two deer on opening day. Like I said, the season if off to a great start. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have some even more exciting tales to tell!

Northern Virginia Drivers: Be Very Careful of Deer This Time of Year

The "seek-and-chase" phase of the whitetail deer mating season, or rut, is in full swing here in Northern Virginia.  Bucks are chasing does and staking their claims.  I had two young ones simply try to stare me down over the weekend when I encroached into their territory.

That's good news for hunters.  The next two weeks will likely be the best part of the 2010 deer season.

But it's bad news for motorists.  This is also the time of year that you're most likely to be involved in a deer-related vehicle collision.  Be extremely careful on the road, especially at dawn and dusk and at night.  If you see one deer cross, you can bet there's one or more behind it so take it easy and be aware of eyes glowing in the darkness and any movement on the roadside.

One young buck that got hit by a car on the Dulles Toll Road turned up in the parking lot of a Reston hotel this morning.  Luckily for the property management company, all they needed to find me was a quick Google search.  The company called me at 9:00 a.m., and the removal I arranged had been executed before noon.

So if someone else hits a deer, and the carcass turns up in your yard or at your place of business don't hesitate to to call me at (703)431-0182 or email outdoorblogger@verizon.net.  We make dead deer dissapear!

And if you're fortunate enough not to need dead deer removal service this fall, please,  just be careful out on the road.

My Business is Picking Up

Picking up dead deer that is! 

The big doe pictured below flopped over in the parking lot of a Sterling, Virginia shopping center.  Luckily, she was in the shade, and I was able to get there before the stench scared off too many shoppers.

Before

After

If you need same day service on a deer or other animal that has chosen your property as a final resting place, please give me a call at (703)431-0182 or email outdoorblogger@verizon.net.

I make dead deer dissapear!

Deer Dropping Like Flies in Northern Virginia Yards

It's just amazing how many dead deer are turning up on lawns all over Northern Virginia.  After removing deer carcasses for several area homeowners last fall, my dead deer hotline phone stopped ringing over the winter.  But business picked back up in the spring and has been booming for the last few weeks.

This evening, it was an Alexandria resident who found herself in need of my services.  Her house wasn't hard to find; I could smell the decaying deer from two blocks away.

The lady said she found me after Google searching dead deer removal.  Who says you can't make money blogging!

Random Notes on a Rainy Monday

Rainy day today; same thing for tomorrow.  It's cool, like the day of my dad's memorial service, and I have to admit I like this kind of weather.  I enjoyed what I'm sure will be one of the final cool wet days of the season before the onset of summer heat and humidity. . .

My mom mentioned something yesterday that made me stop and think: what if the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico can't be stopped?

"All the oceans are connected," she said.  "This might really be the end."

I hadn't thought about that and have tried not to since. . .

But just in case this isn't the end, I've got a lot of work to do.  Some of it, I actually enjoy; feeding horses, cutting grass, termite inspections, and my favorite, dead deer removal.  Other things--staining my fence comes to mind; my truck needs new brakes; and there's a ceiling fan I've been putting off fixing for about three years--are a little harder to bring myself to tackle. . .

I've also found a renewed joy in the game of baseball.  I loved the sport as a kid--both playing and watching--but somehow let myself drift away from it.  Now that one of my sons is playing baseball (pretty well, I might add) I've returned to the first sport I ever really enjoyed.  I'm fortunate enough to be helping coach his team, and I watch at least part of almost every Nationals game.

That's what I'm getting ready to do right now. . .

Maybe I can get some work done while I'm watching. . .

If the world doesn't end before the seventh inning stretch, that is. . .

Dead Deer Removal: Things Are Pickin' Up

It's no secret among my friends and family that I get kind of frazzled in the spring.  That comes from spending the last nine years in the landscape business, where every year you try to get 10 months worth of work done between the middle of March and the middle of June. 

Now that I'm in the termite and pest control business, it's no different.  The busy season for bugs is the same as the busy season for grass, plants and mulch.  Just to keep things interesting, I'm still working part time as a landscape consultant, so I'm always on the verge of a work-related meltdown.

That's why it was somewhat therapeutic today for me to do something that's normally one of my late summer and fall sources of income: dead deer removal.  Call me crazy; call me a redneck; call me what you will.  But of all the things I do for money, dead deer removal is second only to writing in how much I like it.

I got the call late yesterday when I my son and I were on his way to his flag football practice.  A deer had expired on a construction site, and it was stinking up the neighborhood.  I told the builder I could pick it up today or that night for $50 extra.  He took the daytime option and my standard rate of $150 per deer.  We arranged to meet at 3:30 today, and, by the time he got there, I had the carcass triple-bagged and ready for proper disposal.

Today was a good day.

Deer-related car crashes and dead deer turning up in yards is not as common this time of year as it is in the fall, but it does happen.  So if you find yourself in the same situation as that builder, don't hesitate to give me a call at (703)431-0182.

I make dead deer disappear; and love every minute of it!

Buckenstein

My suspicions were first aroused two years ago.  I was climbing down from a tree stand, when the Captain called.

"I just shot a doe and 10-point, and I need your help!"

I arrived on the scene a few minutes later to find the doe in a heap beneath Mike's stand, but the buck was nowhere in sight.

We picked up a blood trail and tracked the animal into a swamp as darkness fell.  Just when we were sure it would turn up any second, however, the trail disappeared.  A couple hours later, so did our hopes of finding the big buck.

Over the next two seasons, there were more instances of big deer that had been hit right in the vitals but never recovered.  Then, when I lost my job this past summer and started a part-time business removing dead deer from people's yards to make ends meet, I began to realize that something was really wrong.

People called to have dead deer removed, but often when I arrived the carcass was already gone.  One lady called before I even got there.

"The deer was in my yard this morning, but when I got home from work it was gone," she said.

It didn't happen every time.  I was paid well to scrape up a number of does and small bucks.  Yet it seemed that every time a homeowner called to ask me to render a big buck, the animal was gone before I could get there.  At one such scheduled pickup earlier this week, a camouflage van sped past me in the other direction as I pulled up to the house.  I knew the deer and accompanying payday were a loss to me, so I made U-turn and went after the van.  My efforts at solving the mystery were in vain though, as the driver proved to be a master of evasive action.  The van vanished in traffic at dusk.

Then yesterday, as I glassed a field at Camp Cowboy, I saw the van again.  Only this time it headed down a narrow track into the woods at the edge of the same swamp where the Captain lost the buck in 2007.  I donned my camo and crept toward the spot where I'd last seen the vehicle, determined to find out what was going on.

The woods and swamp seemed to have gotten bigger, and I passed stumps and crossed creeks that I'd never seen before.  I followed the trail for hours, undaunted even as rain began to fall.  I noticed a dim glow coming from a clearing up ahead and glanced at my watch.  It was 11:50 p.m.

Muffled noises came from the source of the light as I belly-crawled toward it.  Lightning flashed in the distance, and thunder rolled through the gloom a moment later.  The rain got harder, the sound of the drops making it easier for me to creep undetected toward the light and whoever or whatever was in that clearing.

At the stroke of midnight, lightning flashed again, this time filling the woods with blinding light.  A deafening clap of thunder was followed by a blood-curdling shriek.

"It's alive!  It's alive!"

Too bewildered for further caution, I scrambled to my feet and peered into the clearing.

There stood a bespectacled old man, his face covered in beard stubble and camouflage face paint.  He wore a lab coat, also in camo, and I noticed that something was emerging from the back of the van. 

At first, all I saw was a huge set of antlers; then a nose and a neck as big around as a tire.  The top of the van buckled and ripped in half as the huge buck stood.  It bounded out of what was left of the vehicle and revealed its full stature.

The 28-point buck stood taller than any moose and looked like it outweighed some elephants.  Its grunt sounded more like a roar, and the hole it made when it pawed the earth with its massive hoof looked more like a crater.

The madman who had created this beast stood in front of it and cackled.  His maniacal laughter came to an abrupt halt, however, when the buck lowered its head.  I shuddered and covered my eyes as the man I've since come to call "Dr. Buckenstein" was impaled on an antler and tossed off into the swamp like a rag doll.

How I was spared the wrath of this 28-point killer buck I'll never be sure.  The only possible explanation is that earlier that evening I'd sprayed down my clothes with scent-elimination spray (and we all know those things really work, right?")

The buck lingered in the clearing only a moment longer before it charged off into the swamp thickets.  On the way out of the swamp, I moved slowly and quietly, careful not to give away my location to the monster.  For the first time, I felt like the deer were hunting me.

I made it home at dawn, but I know he's still out there.  And with the rut kicking in, he'll want to breed.  If Buckenstein's monster reproduces, Camp Cowboy will be overrun.

We must kill that deer!  Before it's too late. . .

Boo!  Happy Halloween Everybody!

Deer Crashes a Major Fall Hazard for Northern Virginia Drivers

Dead deer are a familiar site on Northern Virginia roadsides all year round.  It's no secret: we have a major deer overpopulation problem, and the biggest threat to humans comes from the dozens, if not hundreds, of deer-related crashes that occur on our highways every day.

The incidence of these crashes increases at this time of year as the whitetail deer mating season, or rut, heats up, and bucks lose their inhibitions in pursuit of does.  Northern Virginia drivers need to be on their guard against deer-related crashes in late October and in the month of November more than any other time of year.  No matter how careful you are, however, if you drive in Northern Virginia, particularly at night, you are eventually going to hit a deer.

Whitetails hit by vehicles will often keep going on adrenaline for some distance after being struck.  Sometimes they die on the roadside; sometimes they make it to the woods or a field; but sometimes they die in the most incovenient of places--like right in the middle of someone's yard.

Fairfax County homeowners who wake up to find dead deer in their yards may feel like they have nowhere to turn.  But the truth is, professional dead deer removal is only a phone call away.

Give me a call at (703)431-0182.  For a reasonable fee, I make dead deer disappear!