Opening Day Traditions

What has become your Opening Day traditions? They need not be things you do on Opening Day, but over the entire first weekend of the General Season. They may be small things that only involve you, or larger group events.

On the small side, I enjoy dropping by Walmart the night before the season opener just to see how many procrasternators are waiting in line at the Sporting Goods Department to buy a new license. On a larger scale, I enjoy hitting a fundraiser luncheon the ladies at a local church put on every Opening Day for hunters in the area. They always have good food that's never short of salt and grease.

I make sure my friends and I all check the zeroes on our rifles. Always the first thing we do when we pull up to the ranch for the first year's hunt. There is something about knowing we are all dialed in that gets us all into full hunting mode.

We, like to count how many blinds and feeders we see rolling down the road on opening weekend...

On opening weekend of rifle season, there is a guy that sets up a canopy on the corner of 2295 and 1329 (Gonzalito's Store) that sells fresh pan de campo for $5. I always try to go get some after the morning hunt.

Its a tradition to arrive at our ranch the day before the opener (Friday.) Will be there with my parents, uncles and cousins (about 8 of us.) Lots of beer, music, dang good food and good jokes to pull off. Everyone goes out right after lunch and checks their blinds and feeders. We corn the roads and senderos then come back to camp and relax the rest of the day. Early wake up on Saturday morning involves a "light snack" and coffee with deer hunting stories. Then after the morning hunt, its a big breakfast! Opening weekend can't come fast enough!!!!!!!

I guess the only real tradition for us is dinner Saturday night fit for a king. No skimping on cheap steak or cheap beer. Only the best will do.

This year will mark my 20th season since I got serious about deer hunting. I plan to hunt with the same 270 that started it all for me 20 years ago. This will be the first time in 17 years I have taken it to the stand.

We get there Thursday night, get unloaded, and get the fire going. Friday morning we get up and go into town to play a round of golf. Friday night Mexican Food and Saturday night steaks. Breakfast is ham and cheese omelets with more bacon than my doctor says I should have in a year.

Starting each season with the same rifle is very common and often includes a rifle that was handed down from a family member who hunted with it for decades themselves. Such things are often seen as carrying on a hunting legacy that has been passed down to a family member. There are no doubt countless events, items, and activities that become a tradition to hunters.

IMO, it's never too late to start a new tradition, which I intend to do later this week. I've decided to buy a new Case pocket knife the day before each Opening Day and use it throughout the season. Once the season is over, I'll put it back in the box with a small note that indicates the year and how many deer or hogs were taken during that season. Then it will be stored away for one of the kids or grandkids to have when I am gone.

That's good stuff. Hell of an idea.

My wife's Granny, who is now 90 years old, always hunts opening morning in her blind (which has a working toilet, sink/vanity and electricity, by the way), and she pretty much shoots whatever the hell she wants. When she was 80, that just so happened to be a 160 inch buck we had never seen before. Something will die. Well, something will get shot at, anyway.

My wife and I make final preparations for which kid is hunting with who, and make sure their bags are full of Halloween candy, a pillow, and some crayons or something (relatively quiet) to entertain them late in the morning. Then it's time to layout the clothing and gallon sized bag of corn for the walk in. If it's cool enough, the hot chocolate is prepared the morning of (butternut used to be the standard). Guns and gear were arranged securely in the truck the night before.
My night's sleep has its own tradition, one of dreams about the one that got away. I've dreamed that my arrow won't stay nocked, my scope is on backwards, and that the trigger has been removed, among countless other hunting horrors.
I treasure the days of the privately leased land that my dad and granddad acquired 30 years ago. We had camp that held true to traditions of decades of hunting. Dedicated skinning tree, a modest but comfortable camphouse, a rock fire ring that heard the truth and tales of centuries of combined hunting experience, the outhouse, and the smoker that had become a permanent addition to landscape.
Sadly, it all burned to the ground during the Bearing Fire in 2011.
The "new" traditions with my wife and kids, and my dad in the wing are why we do it!

Good luck this season!

We drive down I37 south to the ranch and this is pretty common. Bet his other leasers love it.

When at work which seems to happen alot...

Checking forum, FB, meat lockers, taxidermy, or any parking lot with folks gathered around a truck bed to hear stories and see how everyone else has done.

When I make it...

Last minute gear checks and dinner with family to make any last minute plans or strategies. Mostly an overwhelming joyous feeling that the summer has finally passed and they are no longer off limits, the time has finally come to feel alive again in the woods...

ITS DEER SEASON BABY!!!!!

Unfortunately, the last few years' opening day tradition for me has been sweating and swatting wasps.

^^this^^

Making up the grub list with my Dad...this year we are cooking dove for lunch on Saturday while listening to our beloved Red Raiders most likely lose but maybe win. Telling the stories that evening from past years hunts and places. Our steak place closed so I'm not sure about dinner on Saturday night...

Good luck and be safe!

Well, for one of the guys at my lease it's filling his feeders and setting his stand up. And, he wonders why he never sees deer.

Mine happens whenever I kill my first deer of the season. I eat a big steak and smoke a huge cigar...give thanks

I grumble and shake my head when the lease north of us sounds like a war zone because the hunters sight in their rifles the day before opening general season. Great way to tip off the deer and get them spooked

Get drunk......

Neighbors?

Haha, my lease has a rule. Sight in your rifle at the range.