Three Generations of Women Hunters
by Mary Harter
November 15, at the Harters, is always a very busy day. Our whole family hunts and this year with opening day on a Saturday, there were 12 of us in the field. The first day was a little slow this year but very special because granddaughter, Jenna, daughter, Ann, and mother, Mary, all were very successful.
Our daughter, Ann, was hunting on our lake property, in a blind behind our house. Her father, Don Harter, had harvested a nice 8-point with his cross bow earlier in the year from this blind but he had seen several other bucks and was confident that one might cross her path. There were a lot of deer in this area and many buck paws. After seeing several does and fawns, along came a buck and, of course, one shot from her 270 and down he went. Her father was hunting on another 80 around the corner and came to help her and a nice 8-pointer was hanging in our pole barn by the time we came back home for lunch.
Jenna hadn’t hunted for a few years because of college and work, but this year she was able to join us. She sat with her father, Mark Koch, in the back of our 80-acre piece of property with a lot of hemlocks around them. This piece is about 10 miles from our house. There were a lot of buck scrapes here and recent buck activity. After watching a few does and fawn pass, along came a 7-point buck. After a very accurate shot from her 7mm, down he went. This was a large buck but missing a brow tine. Number two for the day.
I was sitting near the middle of that same 80-acre piece of property with Emma, our grandson, Kyler’s girlfriend, that morning and we saw a few does and fawns and a small buck. Emma decided to sit with Kyler that afternoon so wasn’t with me when a nice 9-pointer came by. He was with a doe, a few fawns, and a 6-pointer. The two bucks tussled a bit but when it was a clear shot, I took it with my 30.06 and down he went. He went up on a hill in the woods right in front of me and died. I could see his white belly and his tail twitched a bit as he expired. I texted both Mark and our son, Todd, who were hunting nearby not to come to help until after they had completed hunting for the evening as I could see him and tracking was not required. He had a little drop tine which made him nine points.
What an opening day! Our grandson, Cole, took a doe that evening and I took a 10-pointer out of the lake blind the next day. Mark also took an 8-pointer the next day. Mark and Kyler had also taken does during the early doe season. More hunting to be done by our son, Todd, his girlfriend, Tracy, grandsons Dylan, Cole, and Kyler, and others to fill their freezers.
