I scanned the swamp bottom from my tree stand perch on opening day of the 2019 deer season while watching a creek crossing. I was hoping to intercept a buck heading to his bedding ground from a night on the town. As a youngster, I could hardly contain my excitement or get any sleep the night before opening day. My dream was to harvest a buck, and that was the dream of most every country boy, and that was a rare accomplishment in those days.

Though my excitement for opening has since been tempered by many successful hunts, I still dream of harvesting that opening-day buck, and that enthusiasm grows with the sunrise on opening day.

I’d hunted my way to the stand carefully making sure not to spook any game in the area, pausing for about 30 minutes to call up a flock of turkeys on the crest of a knoll overlooking the creek bottom. But now I was in my stand and immersed in the sights, sounds and the rhythm of nature.

Suddenly, a deer burst into view from the hollow to my left just across the creek. I could see antlers shining brightly as the buck headed towards the creek crossing. As he disappeared behind a tree, I raised my rifle and aimed at the opening at the creek bend.

As the buck stepped up on the crest of the creekbank, he stood magnificently surveying the bottom, and I squeezed the trigger.

“Tic-boom!” The .270 belched fire and roared, piercing the still morning air as the buck collapsed into the creek bed below. I waited breathlessly for a few minutes and finally realized that he wasn’t coming out. I got down from my stand and quickly made the 100-yard trek to the creek and found a beautiful 9-point buck near the water’s edge. He’d collapsed instantly with one well-placed shot, and I’d fulfilled an opening day quest. But it wasn’t the buck or stand I’d had in mind for the past month and a half.

Opening day 2019 had dawned with the sky opening up and rain pouring down at my camp house. I took one look from the kitchen window, saw the rain and went back in and drank a cup of coffee. As night turned to dawn the rain quit, and I walked out onto the camp house porch ready to head to my honey hole. I was hit square in the face with a brisk westerly wind, and my opening-day hunting stand was history. As bad as I wanted to hunt the creek bottom funnel, I knew the wind was blowing from the wrong direction and I would never have a chance at harvesting a buck on the stand that day.

So I’d quickly gathered my gear and headed a few miles up the road to another stand site to hunt in a similar creek bottom funnel. This stand overlooked a thick creek bottom and was on the east side of the bottom, in perfect position downwind of the deer trail and creek crossing. Thick pine timber populated either side of the narrow funnel.

I’d actually found both deer trails and creek crossings while scouting during the squirrel season about a month and a half prior to opening day and had not disturbed either area since that time.

Opening week affords hunters an opportunity to hunt bucks before the pressure of rifle hunters makes the bucks become nocturnal. If you can locate one before the season, there’s a good chance you can pattern him before he knows you’re there.

As it turned out, the first two hunts I made last year — opening day and Thanksgiving morning — resulted in trophy bucks. While that doesn’t usually happen, my hunts had paid off because I’d spent time scouting, concealing stands and waiting until the weather and wind was right to hunt those stands. Sometimes timing is everything, and it certainly was on those two stands, as I never saw another deer on either stand the rest of the season. Food sources changed, and deer’s patterns did, too. If you’re looking for an opening day deer, then head to the woods Saturday and spend time in the stand getting back to the basics, and you just might harvest a buck, too!

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.