When this writer stepped out of the house Tuesday morning, there was something very distinctive about the way it felt. The air was cold and crisp. The trees were devoid of leaves and there was a slight overcast. It felt to me like deer season. It brought me back to the years when hunting deer in New Hampshire was a very special thing for a teenage boy who loved the outdoors. The season in the Granite State always opened around Veterans Day and on most years that created a chance for my father to join his “gang” that got together to do some deer hunting.
For several of those years, they set up an army surplus 40-man tent in the middle of New Hampshire. That was because the state was divided into a northern and a southern zone and the northern zone opened first. Time was spent before the season finding a location and setting up the tent. There was a bunch of army surplus cots and a stove made from a 55-gallon drum. Firewood was gathered and a primitive outhouse built, and the camp was everything a teenage boy could dream of when I was old enough at age 12 to buy a New Hampshire non-resident hunting license. It cost $25 and I saved all year to buy it after taking Hunter Education from Game Warden Arthur Lovely at the Orange Fire Station.
The regulars that come to mind include Leo Jean and his son Roland, Joe LaBonte and his son ‘‘Butch,’ the Killay brothers, Bill Cameron, and a changing cast of local characters whose names escape me. Most were WWII vets and there were many memorable moments including the night a skunk came by and was rattling the cans of beans from dinner. Someone had a surplus Jeep that dropped hunters off at “their spot” off the woods road at the place they hunted the one year I joined the crew and every day was an adventure.
There were also very memorable trips north to Ossipee, New Hampshire which then was a very remote and undeveloped part of the state. In Ossipee, an encounter with a big bull moose turned me from a bold young man who was going to “shoot the bulls horn off to show my friends” to a very scared kid who was afraid that big (and very smelly!) bull was going to do me great harm! My father killed a number of bucks over the years in Ossipee from his special “point” and I missed a few running deer myself with the Winchester Model 94 lever action .32 Winchester Special. It was a special time.
Over the years, that cool November weather around the peak of the rut remains special and a number of people have shared their seeing deer around local roads. Bucks have rubbed saplings with their antlers and made ground scrapes to mark territory and leave their “calling card” for willing does as they come into estrus. Steve Johnson, Joe Adams, Pete and Gabe Murphy, and Jim Carr are in the middle of their annual hunt in search of big bucks in Pittsburg, New Hampshire and this cold weather might mean tracking snow for the boys!
Bow hunters were lamenting the warm temperatures but these colder temps usually get deer moving. With so many variables including moon phase and weather you never know how deer will react but one thing is for sure. You need to spend time in the woods because you never know when that moment will happen. It appears that there are excellent deer numbers statewide and locally.
After the long spate of unseasonably warm weather, it is time for a return to normal. Yeah, that means turning up the thermostats and eventually firing up the snow blowers but after all, we love New England winters, right! Waterfowl should be moving through and woodcock probably are through. Unfortunately, for this hunter my woodcock season stopped on Oct. 28 when Laney cut her paw. That season remains open through Nov. 21 but we will see if the cut heals before in time for some hunting. Pheasant and ruffed grouse seasons close Nov. 26 and we will get out at some point I am sure.
My wife is recovering nicely from her recent back surgery and is becoming more independent each day. That means that there may be some “hands on” outdoor experiences to write up in the near future. Looking forward to putting some miles on the boots!
Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has written the Sportsman’s Corner since 1984 and has served as advisor to the Mahar Fish’N Game Club, Counselor and Director of the Massachusetts Conservation Camp, former Connecticut Valley District representative on the Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife Board, has been a Massachusetts Hunter Education Instructor and is a licensed New York hunting guide. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.