This is the first of a multi-series about deer hunting at The Hut.

The 2013 deer season is half over as of noon today, Wednesday, with four and a half days behind us and four and a half days yet to experience. There have been legal deer within range and many legal deer out of range.

This year the four of us who are hunting have both a regular tag and a second-deer tag. This allows us to kill both a buck carrying antlers with 3-points on at least one side, plus an antlerless critter.

We are The Hut Crew, numbering seven in all. Lani Schorzman is Hut 1, Jerry Lester is Hut 2, Thomas Steffens is Hut 3, Chuck Buck is Hut 4, Ted Nugent is Hut 5, I am Hut 6 and Rudy Lopez is Hut 7.

The Hut is a building/cabin/shelter measuring around 19 by 14 feet in size. It provides a place for us to gather, eat and sleep during the hunting season. The Hut is designed to be used throughout the year, if desired.

This is a magical place to me. It is enchanting, captivating, delightful, mysterious, moving and special all rolled into one spot. My creative juices seem to flow with ease. Looking up from my computer and seeing deer out the east window is more times a fact than fiction.

This observation point allows a place to view deer social behavior, such as young bucks jousting with head butts and does kicking each other in the winter-wheat field across the canyon from my position at a distance of 600 yards.

At this moment there are 25 deer in the field. I witnessed 10 others leave the field within the past 30 minutes. Some days there are 75 to 100 deer eating the winter wheat and sleeping.

The field is off limits to us, so we must wait until the deer cross the fence to the west before we hunt them. This happens quite often.

Last year, for example, Lani and I watched as four bucks crossed the fence and headed west into tall sagebrush. Then the disappeared and our best guess had them bedding down in the tall brush to get out of the wind.

After a short wait, we headed down the west side of the canyon, crossed the valley and headed up the eastern slope. At the fence line we turned north to a point we figured we were close to the deer and turned west. We could not find them.

Next we figured we had passed them, we were too far north, so we turned 180 degrees and headed south. This was a successful move, as they jumped to the standing position with only their heads showing.

We knew they were legal bucks, but their bodies were not visible, so a shot was not possible. They all turned and disappeared again, because of the tall brush. I walked 20 yards and was able to look over the side of the hill. There was my buck at 100 yards looking at me. He dropped at the crack of the rifle.

The others were never seen again. It is amazing how a deer can vanish with such speed. I didn't see them to the south, so they must have headed west and then north when on the downside of the western slope.

Our routine is to get up when we want, hunt together or alone during the day and gather at The Hut for a noon meal, heading out again after lunch. During the evening we visit and share stories.

Our meals are nothing short of fantastic, such as our surf and turf last Saturday evening. Thomas cooked an entire elk tenderloin, while I cooked walleye cheeks and heated up four hasselback potatoes.

Sunday Lani cooked a breakfast/lunch of fried potatoes and onions, with scrambled eggs on the side. There was no Sunday evening meal as we were all too full from the earlier feast. We snacked on crackers and cheese, along with smoked salmon, pepperoni sticks and summer sausage from last year's deer.

This year there are four of us are at The Hut, Thomas, Lani, Rudy and me. Rudy and I hunted together the first day, as it his first hunt in this area and I wanted to show him the boundaries. We jumped two doe as we walked the fence next to the wheat field, but all we could see were their heads.

Thomas had a couple of chances to shoot a doe, but passed them up as being a bit too far. Usually we take our antlerless animals at 100 yards or less, so we don't need to shoot long distances. This reasoning will change next weekend, as we will want to fill the tag, so taking a longer shot at a doe may be necessary.

When a 3-point or better buck appears, we take the shot, even at longer distances, say up to 300 yards.