Hunting is more than a hobby; it truly is a way of life. In 2024, I began pursuing big game in an effort to extend my sustainable habits to supplement the number of birds I harvest. As such, deer hunting has become a staple piece of my hunting season.
Table Of Content
This past season, I had the pleasure of hunting deer with my closest friend, Daniel. While Daniel is not a hunter himself, he is intrigued by the possibilities. He flew out to visit me for Veterans Day weekend, and my goodness, what a weekend we had.
Duck hunting, fishing in the pouring rain, Santa photos, and of course, deer hunting made for quite the tale.
Whistling Wings
Daniel flew in from the West Coast, which meant he arrived late on his first day. We planned to go duck hunting with my partner, Amanda, the next morning, and then Daniel and I would go deer hunting that evening.
To that point, my first week of deer season had not been very fruitful. Public land deer hunting in a small state like Rhode Island is difficult, and I was certainly experiencing that for myself in my second season.
We hopped in the car for duck hunting at the ripe time of 0400. That meant we were waking up at 0330, which, for Daniel’s internal clock, might as well have been 0030.
We drove over to Massachusetts, loaded our gear, hopped in three kayaks, and started paddling. Although we had the tide to our back, 1.25 miles of paddling that early in the morning is still difficult. Still, we persevered and got to our spot.
We set up our spread, and just as we were sitting down to load up, we were buzzed by multiple flocks of ducks as the clock struck legal shooting hours. We were not ready, which always puts a real pit in your stomach.
Of course, once we were finally prepared, we did not see any ducks for another half hour or so. Throughout the rest of the morning, we managed to harvest a pair of drake mallards. While I thought we were going to have a chance to approach a two-person limit of mallards between Amanda and me, sometimes, that is just the way things go in duck hunting.
We gave it our best shot, sitting out in the cold until 10 am. The sun got very high that morning, making it difficult for us to remain concealed. We packed in the gear and began the 1.25-mile paddle back to the truck, this time with the tide working against us.
The paddle out took a lot out of all three of us. Turns out 40 minutes of paddling in the bright sun with decent current working against you is enough to burn some serious calories. That was nothing a trip to our favorite local diner (shout out to Francesca’s on Pawtucket) could not fix.
After gorging ourselves on diner food, Amanda headed home, and Daniel and I changed into a deer hunting outfit. We crashed for a few minutes and headed out to our spot. Little did we know the night we were in for.
Last Light, Last Chance
Daniel and I arrived at a deer hunting location that I had not had a chance to scout. As such, we needed to walk around and find recent sign in an attempt to sit between the deer and where they wanted to go.
I decided to sit adjacent to a field on a clearly heavily trafficked line. The woods concealed us, but I was not the biggest fan of our setup at first. As the light waned in the evening, I decided that we should attempt to hunt the actual field itself. I no longer felt comfortable taking a shot in the lighting we had under a dense canopy. It did not feel ethical.
As we approached the edge of the woods and the field, I scanned the opposing edges of the field with my scope. I scanned right, left, and right again with no luck. As I came back slowly to my left, I spotted two dark figures moving into the field. After getting a longer look at them, I realized my eyes were not playing tricks on me. Two large does had just stepped into the field.
I slowly sat down and got comfortable as I prepared for my shot. Daniel went completely motionless as he realized what was happening. I assessed the distance every several seconds. The deer began at 120 yards. They closed to 110 yards, 100 yards, 90 yards, bingo.
The two settled in around 85 yards as they continued grazing, completely oblivious to our presence. I checked my watch for the time. I had minutes remaining in legal shooting hours. I shouldered my muzzleloader, calmed my heart rate, and waited for whichever deer was going to give me the best angle. Finally, the left-most doe gave me a beautiful look at her quartering towards me. I slowly squeezed the trigger until the shot surprised me.
Through the smoke, I was able to watch her fall. This deer did not suffer. The harvest was as ethical as it could be. I will never forget saying to Daniel, “I got her.” He stepped out of the trees to give me a fist bump, and all I could do was hug him. Emotions tend to run high when you make a harvest like that, especially given all the work I had put into deer hunting for the week prior.
The Drag
We approached the downed deer carefully to ensure she was fully expired. My next step was to tag her and gut her. Given that we were in the middle of a dark field with our senses tamped down by the wind, we decided we would rather gut her near the truck to have some light and keep away scavengers.
Luckily, we only needed to drag the deer 400 yards through flat fields. It was probably the easiest drag I will ever have in my life.
Given that I had only been through the gutting process of big game once, it took a few minutes to fully figure it out. However, I was able to lock in and gut her without an issue after a little help from YouTube and trial and error.
We hopped in the truck and began to contemplate the rest of the evening. By this point, it was already after 6 pm. With temperatures in the 50s overnight, we had to process that deer within a few hours.
I live in an apartment in the middle of the city, making it difficult to hang up a deer for skinning and quartering. One of my hunting mentors, whose house I usually use, was out of town. Although he had made it clear I could use his gear whenever, it still felt wrong to show up at his house. That was when we decided to make the hour-and-a-half drive to Bass Pro Shops to buy a hoist for my hitch.
Our Bass Pro Shops trip took much longer than expected. We ended up shopping around, and of course, we had to take a photo with Santa. All the while, the deer was sitting, covered in the back of my truck.
Deer Hunting Process
Upon arriving home, we had a goose pastrami pizza waiting for us to throw in the oven. After taking an hour break to cook and eat our pizza, we decided to get to work. By this point, it was already closing in on 10 pm.
We hoisted the deer, and after some trial and error, we were able to skin and quarter her.
By the time we finished that task, it was closing in on midnight, and we still had to cut the deer.
The next two hours were a complete blur. Daniel went non-verbal around 0045 as he fought for his life, struggling to stay awake. We were on autopilot as we attempted to portion out our cuts correctly. Daniel even accidentally put a tenderloin in with the stew meat. Now that’s just a cardinal sin!
We finally finished processing around 0145, and clean-up took another half hour. By the end, we were completely spent, and Daniel fell asleep sitting upright on the couch.
The Memories
The struggle of that day pales in comparison to the memories I forged with two of my favorite people. The duck hunt may not have been the most lucrative, but everyone had a great time. The deer hunt, on the other hand, built serious character for Daniel and me. It was an experience that no one can ever take away from the two of us.
While not every hunting day is like this one, days like these put into perspective the importance of connection in this hobby. There will always be a conservation and sustainability aspect to hunting, but the human aspect is unrivaled.
As I continue my hunting career, I am always eager to show new people the ropes and meet new people in the wild. You cannot get any closer to your food than we did that day. We endured through hours of labor that our ancestors would commonly experience.
I will be forever grateful for November 7th 2025.
