by Bob Rudzik

The deer-hunting saga continues. My son, Robert, has moved his tree stand to a new area and he is now seeing more deer than his 17-year-old twin, David. David is still happy with his location. All is quiet for now. Sometimes the old man does know best.

The mornings have been cold, but the afternoons have been very comfortable. On Saturday, my sweetheart was layering on the clothes for the day, and I told her she was going to be peeling them off in the woods. I was right, but like she says, it’s better to be with than without. Going back to the truck for more clothing is not something we want to do at 7 a.m. with working dogs all around.

Robert has a lot of activity around his stand, with dogs running and deer moving through. He took a really nice doe on Friday. He is seeing so many deer that he is now being selective. I think that decision was also brought on after dragging that doe out of the woods! He is now waiting for a nice buck. I think he has a very good chance at one.

David also took his second doe of the season on Friday and is seven-for-seven in his young lifetime.

Another good thing is we have fresh venison in our freezer again. It’s time to pull out some of the recipes and get cooking!

Deer season is at a fevered pitch and will remain there for some time. Robert and David are querying me about hunting in Pennsylvania on our family Christmas trip, as well as heading back to Hyde County, N.C., where I have a friend who owns 800 acres. Don’t try to tell me that hunting doesn’t have a huge economic impact; I live it every year! I think next year, I am going to keep close records on what my family spends.

There are four of us hunting out of our house this year. That’s 24 deer tags to fill. At the end of one week, we are one-eighth of the way there. It looks like we are going to have to step up our efforts. I sure hope everyone else is doing just as good, or better than us.

Mark Pope of Southampton Outfitters tells me he has been having a pretty good year so far. Matt Tweedy of Bedford harvested an 8- and 10-point buck during a three-day hunt on Pope’s Drewryville farm. Marti Ohora of Pennsylvania took a 10-point.

As this season moves along, please stay safe out there. If you’d like to share some of your success with our readers, we would be happy to print your stories and pictures. Send them to editor@tidewaternews.com.

BOB RUDZIK is a Newsoms resident. He can be reached at outdoors@tidewaternews.com.