Opening Day Archery Report!

Opening day for Delaware was yesterday, went out to a spot in northern Delaware we have had luck early season before. Unfortunately there are bird hunters who have permission to goose and dove hunt this spot as well.

When we pulled up no one was there at about 4pm so I figured we were ok. My buddy Dan and I headed to the same tree. He was going to film me if we had a shot at a good buck or big doe. We setup about 30 yards back off the edge of a soybean field. We snuck in without kicking anything up out of the beans so I was feeling good about our sit.

After about 30 minutes we saw a little 4 point behind the stand. Definitely not a shooter, but a good start.

About 20 minutes later as it got close to 5pm we hear BANG BANG BANG, and sure enough someone was hunting doves about 100 yards away from us.

After about 3 volleys spaced out 15 minutes apart we talked about packing it up as the deer movement would probably be minimal. Then we saw a good buck, looked like a 7 or 8 point shooter get up out of the beans and head into a hedgerow about 150 yards from us. Just as he went into this hedgerow another buck a decent 5 point came out of the same hedgerow and into the beans and started feeding his way down to us.

The shooting from the dove hunter didn't effect this deer as he took his time feeding down to us. We had him pass within 15 yards, but he was not a shooter and never really offered a good shot anyway.

After that it was a constant flow of volleys from the dove hunters and they were spaced out anywhere from 15 min to 45 min apart. Every time we thought they might have left they'd let out another volley. We stuck it out as the one buck we saw didn't seem to mind the shooting, but we didn't see anything else.

It was still a nice night in the stand. Will try again next week!