My First Deer Stand

Texas with Russell R. Graves

 It was probably half an hour before first light when my brother and I hiked

Photo by Russell Graves

across a successional meadow on our way to a thin strip of timber where our treestands waited.  Two years ago this field was an old growth oak forest.  As part of the Post Oak Savannah ecological region of Texas, oak forests rise from the sandy soils that flank the black-dirt bottomlands along the creeks in northern Fannin County.  Over the past few years, however, the landowner decided to harvest every viable tree from his property.  His reasoning was simple:  due to a proposed lake project, he and other landowners like him decided to squeeze every bit of revenue from their property before the powers of eminent domain take over and they lose control of their property.  Therefore, the property was logged and 95% of the trees were removed from the 250-acre parcel where I have spent my life hunting.

I don’t complain about his decision to harvest the timber.  The property doesn’t belong to me and I do hunt the place at his pleasure.  In fact, I have hunted the land every season since I started hunting back in the early 1980’s.  However, the change in landscape is challenging for both me and the deer.
 While last year the place was barren and we never saw a deer on the property, this year abundant rains caused to forest to rebound and the wildlife returned.  Where a mature forest with limited understory once stood now is a bluestem meadow complete with small oaks, redbud, beautyberry, honeysuckle, and a whole host of wildlife-friendly plants. 

 When my brother and I ascended one of the few big oaks left on the place, the surrounding landscape was black.  When the sky lighten, I saw something I thought was long gone.

You see, last year, after the logging, I thought the viable trees were removed from the place. I was surprised when the sun rose on Thanksgiving morning and I saw my old tree stand
.
 Before we knew any better and without regard to personal safety me, my dad, and my brother built a wooden platform and ladder in an old oak tree back in 1986. Fifteen feet high and made from pressure treated lumber, it was the first deer stand I ever hunted from.  A year after we built it, I shot my very first buck from this tree.

 For some reason, it seems that the loggers skipped the tree.  Now in the wide open, it was easy to spot. After the hunt that evening, I ventured back to the spot and photographed the tree that started my deer hunting career.

As I stood there in the dark waiting on the five minute exposure to lapse, memories of my first deer as well as hunts past flooded my mind.

 After I shot my deer from this stand, my dad helped my track and find the buck and drag him out of a tangle of greenbriar and Chittamwood. Almost 24-hours later, my dad took and almost identical deer from the same stand.

 It goes without saying that this concoction of wood, wire, and nails is special to me.  Now that I’ve photographed it for the first time, its significance will linger on.

Russell Graves is a freelance writer and photographer who travels Texas and Oklahoma and shares his wonderful experiences and beautiful photographs with friends and publications in the Southwest.
Any questions or comments?  Contact Russell at russell@russellgraves.com or visit his website at www.russellgraves.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any questions or comments?  Contact Russell at russell@russellgraves.com or visit his website at www.russellgraves.com