" The First on the Last " By : Austin Atkinson of Rexburg , Idaho
Growing up my father always taught me that the prepared will become the successful . I have tried to apply this principle in all of my hunting endeavors . In the fall of last year , I found myself studying as a business management student in Eastern Idaho . Having been unsuccessful in drawing a controlled hunt , I knew I had to turn to a general deer hunt . The problem was that I had almost no experience with the elusive whitetails that roamed the golf courses and river bottoms near my home . I met up with a local friend in my first aid class that said he would show me what to look for as far as buck sign and good areas to start . After an intense study session of Google Earth and the IDF & G Online Map Center , I learned quickly that most low-lying areas were composed entirely private land . Almost feeling that I should give up , I came across a small piece of BLM land accessible from the main road , near a popular river location . I thought maybe , just maybe there would be a buck moving through the area as the rut got started in late November . With the help of Mountain Archery in Rexburg , I was able to get a small lightweight tree stand and a simple trail camera ready for my hunt . On a cold day in late November , I placed my Covert camera on a large tree overlooking a junction of buck scrapes and trails . With only one location selected , one camera , and one tree stand , I felt as if I was placing all of my eggs in one basket . My wife , Chelsie , wondered how I was going to kill a deer so close to town and with so much hunting pressure . I assured her I had felt that I did my homework and that I would get lucky . A few weeks later and being busy with school , I was left with little time to actually hunt . I checked the camera on December 12th , and to my amazement I had caught the tail end of four different bucks and many does crusin ' the trails in my " lucky " spot . There was hope for my whitetail hunt !
The weather turned warm the second week of December and I never had a chance to sit in my lonely tree stand until the last day of the season , December 19th , but I was bound and determined to kill a deer ! My wife also helped me decide that we needed the meat more than I needed a trophy , so she instructed me the night before to kill any legal deer and fill the freezer . At 5am on the closing day of the season , I carefully made my way under the cover of darkness to my stand and climbed the tree . I strapped myself in , knowing it would be a long day . As the sun rose , so did my hunger and thirst levels . I am not experienced
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