Camron Stover:  Owner/Hunting Gear Deals

My 2021 season kicked off with a BANG!  As luck would have it, I drew an Urban Archery tag in my neck of the woods and set my sights on helping reduce the deer population in the area by harvest a few does.  I never guessed I would be wrapping my hands around my first ever velvet buck.  Here’s the story of how I filled my doe tag and buck tag while introducing a kid to hunting for the same time.

What is the Importance of Urban Deer Hunting?

Urban deer hunting is a management practice used throughout the country in cities and suburban areas to reduce deer numbers to a healthy level.  Hunting is the most cost-effective and sustainable population management solution to safely and humanely reduce deer populations.  Some cities have gone to crazy lengths to euthanize deer and other inhumane ways to help reduce deer numbers, but thankfully my home state of West Virginia supports deer hunters and continues to allow us the opportunity to manage these evergrowing deer populations.

Typically, I wouldn’t recommend early season morning hunts.  In fact, I rarely hunt in the morning during the early season due to the increased risk of educating deer.  I prefer to hunt for a buck that doesn’t know he’s being hunted and without the perfect morning set-up, it’s hard to pull off a successful hunt in the morning.

However, urban archery hunting is different.  Especially when you’re not targeting a specific buck.  On this hunt, I was targeting a doe.  The Urban Archery hunting regulations require me to harvest a doe before I’m legally allowed to kill a buck.

So my goal was simple, kill a doe early and then be prepared if a buck was to show up later in the season.  Little did I know how quickly things would come together.

I felt defeated watching the mature doe slip by without me getting the shot on camera.  Without the self-filming set up, she would’ve hit the dirt. However, there’s no rush, so I wanted to make sure I got the shot on video.

I watched as the young bucks meandered through the field, sparring non-stop.  I didn’t anticipate this much sparring action with most of these bucks still in velvet.

Finally, another group of does appeared on the hill above me, and this time I had the camera on them and my bow in hand.  The largest doe made her way by the stand and I made a perfect shot that ended her falling less than 20 yards from the base of my tree.  I had hopes of utilizing my tracking dog, Fly, to get her some practice for the upcoming season, but the well-placed shot made quick work of the doe.

Excited to have everything go according to plan, I grabbed my phone and began the check-in process.  Technology is great when it works and having the ability to check in a deer in the field is a blessing.  The old days of driving to the check-in station and wasting the entire day are over.

However, West Virginia’s new online check-in system wasn’t working properly.  I tried and tried to check the doe in but it wouldn’t go through.  Then I recalled the call-in option, so I elected to call the doe in over the phone.  This process takes forever but what took place during this phone call was incredible.  Deer came from every direction to check out the dead doe that I had just shot.

Multiple deer, bucks and does, walked right up to the dead deer and even touched her.  This went on for 20 minutes or more. all while I’m on the phone checking that same deer in.  After checking in the doe, I double-checked the regulations to make sure I could legally kill two deer.  While on the phone, another big doe appeared and I was ready to put an arrow in her too!

As soon I put my phone away after checking in the first doe, I saw a big velvet rack appear on the horizon.  I instantly recognized the tall racked velvet 10 point buck.  I had told my buddy that I wouldn’t shoot this buck if I saw it due to the fact that it wasn’t old enough.

However, that all changed when I saw him come my way.  Just as the other deer, he came in to investigate the dead doe in front of my treestand and this was all captured on video.  The beautiful velvet buck presented my a quartering away shot as I came to full draw and my video camera captured everything!  The buck ran up the hill, hitting the dirt a few seconds later.

I’ve killed much bigger deer in my life, but this hunt had me fired up with excitement.  I never imaged I would have the opportunity to harvest a velvet buck in West Virginia, but I had just arrowed my second deer of the day, a beautiful full-velvet 10 pointer!

I gathered my gear and climbed down to go get Fly, my tracking dog, and my new hunting buddy.  This was the opportunity that I needed to introduce a kid to hunting.  Fly, the future youth hunter, and I began to track each deer from where I shot it as I explained how and why the hunt unfolded the way it did.

A few minutes later and I was elbow deep in (if you’re a hunter, you know) explaining how to field dress a deer.  I was careful to point out the organs and describe in detail how and where to cut.  I field-dressed the doe, but then it was his turn as he grabbed the buck by the balls and he began to field dress a deer for the first time.  He was impressive in his field dressing debut and did an outstanding job from start to finish.

We loaded each deer in the back of the truck and headed towards the processor where I donated them to local people who were in need of meat.  (My freezer is still full from last season).  This hunt could not have worked out any better.  It’s not often that you set the foundation for a youth hunter and that will be a memory with both remember for years to come!