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A month back, I wrote an article regarding the Minnesota DNR’s early season antlerless hunt. Somewhere in that article, I vaguely recall touching on some of the potential negatives relating to an early gun hunt and how I proclaimed from my high horse that I didn’t intend to participate, preferring instead to stalk my quarry with a bow, thank you very much.

Well, that was a month ago, and a guy does reserve the right, now and again, to go back on his word. Mind you, I’d never dream of reneging on a promise that actually amounted to anything really serious. It’s not like I promised my kids we’d do something spectacularly fun, only to back out of the deal and dash their hopes and dreams at the last minute.

What I’d like to do is deflect the embarrassment I feel by blaming my decision to lug the shotgun into the woods last October 15 on my brother-in-law, Mark. Yes, now that I’ve had adequate time to look back and give it some clear thought, it was entirely his fault. You see, he called me about a week or so beforehand and really turned the screws – I mean, he practically begged me to go hunting with him. It really was quite pitiful and I felt sorry for him. What was I going to do? The guy wasn’t going to take no for an answer and he simply wouldn’t let up.

“Hey Dan, you wanna do some hunting this weekend? The weather is supposed to be nice and it’d be great to get out into the woods to check on our stands and cut some shooting lanes. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see a deer or two.”

Well, you can understand how being on the receiving end of that kind of pressure was just too much to take and I folded like a house of cards.

“O.K.,” I replied.

That Friday night, I hastily loaded the kids in the vehicle and boogied over to St. Croix Outdoors to purchase my early season permit with only a half hour to spare. I gave the cashier my best sheepish grin and could’ve sworn that the knowing smirk that briefly touched the corner of his mouth as he processed my license was meant for me. Oh well, so much for lofty proclamations and high horses. I never much cared for horseback riding anyway.

Mark and I did indeed have a fantastic time out in the woods that weekend. It felt good to sit in my portable stand and not shiver from the cold for a change. In the early evening on that Saturday, I watched a spring fawn nibble leaves and preen itself eight yards from my tree. Shortly after that, I briefly caught sight of an enormous buck silently cross a logging trail in the half-light and disappear into a thorny thicket. Needless to say, I immediately made plans to set a stand near the trail he was using and bow hunt that spot very soon. During the week leading up to the regular firearms season, some grunting and aggressive rattling just might coax that big boy into bow range. Based on the deer’s size and antler mass, it’s a good bet that he’ll protect his turf leading up to the rut at all cost, challenging any lesser bucks to a good fight if they’re foolish enough to stake a claim in his territory.

By the way, I did take a very nice doe on Sunday, the second and last day of the early gun hunt. My schedule that day only allowed me about an hour and a half to sit in my stand, from 5:30 p.m. until the end of shooting. However, that’s prime time to be in the woods and my last minute decision to hunt that evening––if only for a brief amount of time––was a good one. I took my shot at 6:49 p.m. Shooting time officially ended at 6:53 p.m., so I took my doe with a scant four minutes remaining in the early antlerless season.

I don’t have a very convincing or satisfactory answer to those who ask me how I could so indifferently go back on my word and decide to participate in the hunt. Instead of an answer full of self-incriminating psychobabble, which would be closer to the truth, I casually reply, “Well, it was good to get out into the woods with my brother-in-law. We had a fantastic time. Besides, you couldn’t beat the weather. It was really nice out there.”

So it’s a somewhat flimsy answer that absolves me of any admission of guilt, but to me, those truly are the compelling and justifiable reasons why I decided to get out and enjoy the woods and scenery during those beautiful fall days. And as luck would have it, we even managed to see a deer or two.

Dan Brown’s weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankie’s Bait and Marine, in Chisago City, and St. Croix Outdoors, in St. Croix Falls, Wis.

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