This year’s deer hunting season is starting out much slower than usual. At the Olpe Locker on Saturday, owner Rex Turner was skinning his 45th deer. He said he is usually on his 100th by this time in the season.
In the average season, Turner said, he will process about 250 deer.
“It’s been real slow this year,” Turner said. “We have one-third of the deer we usually get by now. I blame that on weather conditions.”
So does everybody else. The winter weather definitely put a damper on deer hunters’ luck in the first few days of the season, which started on Wednesday.
“It’s been slower than we’ve had for many years,” said Ed Rathke, a 20-year deer-hunting veteran. “The wind has really hurt us, too. They can’t smell the scent very well so they stay in the tall grass a lot more.”
Rathke hunts with a party of six people and none of them has had much luck, he said.
“One got a doe, but it has been slim pickings,” he said. “I assume it’s due to the weather. I’m hoping it is because of the weather and the count isn’t down.”
Mark Mitchell, who’s been hunting for 15 years, said he got a mature doe on Friday. He was out Saturday morning and didn’t have any luck.
“For me it’s been really slow,” Mitchell said. “I take the first three days of hunting season off work and Wednesday I didn’t see anything. Thursday there was so much (blowing) snow I couldn’t see very far.”
Mitchell said on Friday he was in his stand all day and saw a total of three deer. The weekend before, he went out to check his stands and saw seven deer.
Bret Hopkins shot his first deer ever on Saturday morning. This is the first year he has hunted for deer, he said.
“I’ve been out every day since Wednesday,” Hopkins said. “We scouted them out beforehand.”
Hopkins said when scouting a good place to hunt, they look for deer tracks, buck rubs, scrapes and just various signs that animals have been in the area.
Hopkins said the best time to hunt is sunup and sundown. But not everybody hunts that way. Mitchell said he is in his stand all day, taking a break only for lunch.
Back at Olpe Locker, which was packed with deer waiting to be processed, owner Connie Turner said each hunter gets the meat back from what they bring in. The charge for processing a deer is $75. Making summer sausage from some of the meat is extra. Each deer is tagged with the owner’s name on it so that they get the meat from the deer they bring in.
“We make a tag for the racks and we tag the deer’s body,” Connie Turner said. “What you bring in is what you get.”
andierine (anonymous) says...
Wow I could have done without that pic.
December 5, 2006 at 9:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bob (anonymous) says...
Wow...he must be a fast runner if he "caught" two deer!!
December 6, 2006 at 9:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )