By Alex Comstock
This time of the year, I periodically get twitchy and it revolves around one thing - whitetail deer. You know what it's the tell tale sign of right? The itch is back in full force; the whitetail itch. I don't know that it ever truly goes away, at least not for a lot of us. But there is no doubt that it subsides during the winter doldrums, even if just slightly.
But now, with summer in full swing and velvet antlers flourishing from the skull of whitetail bucks, the itch undeniably gets worse. There's more than one way to "scratch" that itch, but they all lead up to one glorious thing. And that's to be back in a treestand. But before we get back in the timber, here are a few ways you know that whitetail itch is back in full force.
Hunting Shows Become Background Noise
All of a sudden, it seems that there is some type of hunting show being played on my TV. Heck as I write this, I'm watching episodes of Midwest Whitetail that I've probably seen too many times to count. As season gets closer and closer, I find myself naturally tuning into any type of deer hunting video that can get me even more pumped to get back in the stand. Heck, if you can't go out and hunt, mine as well watch others do it right?
Gravel Road Detours Become a Regular OCCURRENCE
Who knew it took an hour to run to the grocery store to pick up snacks? A main sign that whitetail season is near are the detours spent driving around the gravel roads in search of velvet bucks. Any time that I can make an excuse to get out there and look for deer, I do it. Once that whitetail itch needs to be scratched like never before, getting eyes on a velvet buck can almost be therapy.
Gravel road detours become a common thing for me this time of year.
You Get Easily Distracted at Work
I suppose this ultimately comes down to what you do for work, but I'd venture to guess that one thing starts to creep into your mind more and more right about now, even during the work day - big bucks. With what I do for work, I'm in front of a computer most of the day. Odds are, I've got a tab pulled up that has something to do with deer hunting (hopefully my boss isn't reading this!). The more you start to get distracted thinking about big bucks, deer, sitting in a tree, the sights and sounds of a hunt, etc. the closer you know it's getting towards deer season.
Aerial Maps Become the Morning Paper
I seriously wonder how many hours I spend a week just gazing at aerial maps. Most of it is spent scouting areas that I can hunt, or places that I want to get permission to hunt. But when that itch gets really bad, I find myself looking at amazing pieces of property usually somewhere in Iowa. I start wondering what it would be like if I lived in some of these places, and I'll pick out spots I would put a treestand, even though I'll more than likely never step foot in some of these spots in my life. Either way, when google maps becomes your reading material, odds are that whitetail itch needs scratched ASAP.
You and your buddies plan out dream scenarios
What I love about when this "itch" is back in full force, is that you start dreaming about that season of your life. It's almost similar to how people dream about winning the lottery, but to us, a big buck is the lottery. My hunting buddies and I will sit around a fire, and just talk about how sweet it'd be if we shoot this buck or that buck, or how we'll both tag out opening day, etc. I'm going to guess we're not the only ones who dream about things like this!
Conclusion
For the hardcore whitetail hunter, deer season never truly ends, and therefore there is always that itch lurking and wanting to be scratched to a certain extent. But sooner or later, it comes out in full force, and we all know when that happens. Buckle up folks, we'll be back out there soon.
