Some 400,000 other deer hunters were immersed in similar feasts of sights and sounds throughout Minnesota Saturday morning.
Near their longtime camp in the northwest part of the state, Mike Eilertson of Detroit Lakes, accompanied by his 9-year-old grandson Decker, together with John Korzendorfer of Hermantown and Mike Scarborough of Alexandria, were seeing only two does and a small 6-point.
Northwest of Park Rapids, in their 45th year at the same camp, Skip Stromberg of Bloomington, Jim Simones of Walker and his son Jer of Bloomington saw no deer Saturday morning, while “Dead Eye Judy’’ — half of the Marv and Judy Koep deer-hunting duo of Breezy Point — shot a doe while hunting with a bevy of gun-toting relatives in the Brainerd area.
“It’s the 63rd year Judy and I have hunted deer together!” Marv said.
Meanwhile, in the blind Pat and I shared, I had poured a cup of coffee not long after 9 a.m. when she exclaimed, “A buck!”
This was a good animal, 8 points at least, and out in front of us. Nose down, he moseyed without apparent purpose. But at about 80 yards from us, it was outside Pat’s marksmanship comfort range by about 30 yards.
