OT: The last two days

[bigbore442001]

Friday night found me rushing home a half hour early from work to get my bow. It had started to make a funny noise when shot. To make a long story short it was a loose hex screw on one of the cams that would create a resonance that in my opinion jump deer at the shot.

I grabbed my bow and other things and headed to the club property. I intended to hunt my usual black swamp stand. I dressed up at the pistol range as I keep my hunting clothes as scent free as possible in a large plastic box. After dressing up I walk down the familiar cart road to where my stand is. I bear left through some brush and a path cleared through a small stand of laurel. Soon I enter the sanctum sanctorum. The black swamp. I then bear left to a hemlock tree where I make my ascent. Soon I am ready to hunt.

As I sit the cares and worries of the world pretty much disappear. I do dwell on problems but this is my time for them to minimize themselves.

I see gray squirrels scamper about here and there. Soon some birds begin to flitter from tree to tree. All kinds of birds to see and keep my company. After a while I stand up to keep from going numb a little bit. As I was standing I saw a blurr under my tree. It was a barred owl. He had flown under my stand and perched in a branch at eye level about fifteen yards away from me. I watched him for a minute as he turned his head and peered at me. He then flew off into the forest. The experience brought a sense of joy to my heart that only a hunter would be able to understand.

At about 6:00PM with 25 minutes of legal shooting light left I hear something. I hear movement in the brush about sixty yards in front of me. Bear in mind that this is a laurel patch and they might as well be six hundred yards in front of me. I heard a branch pop. I know it is deer. In fact, more than one deer ambling through the patch. I get ready with bow in hand,arrow nocked in anticipation of a shot. I am hoping one will cross my shooting lane and offer itself to me. I waited . The wind is right and they should not scent me. I wait longer. Sooner than it should have passed the legal shooting time has ended. I put my arrow in the quiver and wait. I don't want to descend yet for fear of spooking the deer. I wait until it is dark and I hear them move to the other part of the swamp. All is clear to leave without disturbing the area. I walk out of the black swamp and head home.

The next day I arose at 4:00AM and had some tea. In fact I had three cups of mulan white tea. I head to another stand that is about one mile from the black swamp stand. I am to meet Dad at the end of the dirt road where he has his stand set up. I wait for Dad after arriving well before sunrise. Again I dress up in the woods and wait. Hmm. Dad isn't here yet. I wonder if he forgot or if something happened. I got a little worried so I get in my truck and head down the road. As I went less than one hundred yards I see headlights. Sure enough it is Dad. I back up and wait for him to arrive at the dead end. In my youth, Dad looked out for me. Now it seems that roles are reversing. In a way it is a sad feeling.

We chat and then head to our stands. He goes with crossbow in hand to his ladder stand I head up the road to my lock on stand on the edge of some thick saplings with two shooting lanes cut.

To the south of us is a bird hunting preserve. Soon I hear shotgun fire. I can also hear the tinkling of bells from bird dogs. They are awfully close or maybe the impending rainstorm has allowed sound to carry further than normal. As I stood in the tree I hear a click. It is Dad on the two way radio. We have a signal system where we make audible clicks to indicate everything is OK. Two clicks=All AOK, Three clicks=Talk,Four clicks=Deer shot,Five clicks=come here.

I click back that all is ok. As I was perched I heard something moving through the leaves. I peer to my right and soon spot something running on the ground. It was a fisher. A big chocolate brown fisher cat. Ok.That is the incorrect term but we all call them fisher cats. When in Rome...

The fisher cat in it's characteristic mustelid hopping stance goes down the fallen log soon spots me up in the tree. He then stands on his hind legs with front paws in front of him . He is almost cute in appearance but I know from my trapping experience the fisher cat is anything but cute. After a moment he turns around and scampers off . I guess I scared him off.

After a while nothing is doing. I call up Dad and ask him what is going on. We both concluded that the pheasant hunters have stirred up the woods and spooked any deer that normally cross from one end to the other. I know the preserve borders are south of us but I also suspect that they crossed the border into the property we hunt.

I descend from my perch and look around. I cannot find any discernable sign of deer. No rubs of any kind, no scrapes as of yet. Maybe in two weeks but nothing. I walk the dirt road back and see little in the way of tracks. Down by my Dad's stand area we see a plethora of deer sign. We make a conclusion. On the weekends when the preserve is hunted heavily the deer vacate the woods very early. This place is better on a weekday when there is less shooting. In addition I found large coyote dropping in the road. I am not adversed to loosing an arrow or a shot at such a creature.

We then chat and head home. The afternoon I devoted my time to Mary. We did some shopping and rented a movie.

Soon a new week will start and the cycle of sleep, work and hunt will repeat itself.

[Pete44ru]

That sounds like a fine way to spend a few days afield, IMHO.

Only...........Ya forgot ta tell us aboot da ticks !

.

[bigbore442001]

Very fortunate to have no ticks to report.

[AJMD429]

Sounds like the good life.

[Nath]

What a fantastic read Thanks.
I had a great weekend hunting pheasant and fox (no it was not me whom spooked your deer) on Friday and Saturdy but today I took care of my family. My daughter had her appendix out this week and also moved into a cottage that needed some jobs, it was good to be all together plus I think the dog was glad of a rest!

Nath.