Sunday, December 1, 2013

Hunting: Second and third hunts

We weren't expected for dinner until 3 so I decided to head out hunting mid-morning on Thanksgiving. It turns out, the deer were spending Thanksgiving with their families out of town. There were no deer to be found anywhere. After a few hours, I gave up.

I could have gone out on Saturday morning, but I would have had to go out at dawn (20 degrees) and only would be able to stay for an hour or two. I couldn't get out on Sunday morning, so I planned to go out for the afternoon. Seeing so few deer, I made plans to stay out until the end of shooting light.

There was a light drizzle, unseasonable warmth (48 degrees) and a very light breeze. I just have to say it is soo much easier to walk quietly on wet leaves than dry ones. Plus, the dripping rain concealed some noise too. I swung wide around the area on the North side since the wind was out of the South. I set up on a bedding area for an hour or so and saw nothing. I moved back out and continued around to a treed area. I squatted there for a bit but there wasn't any cover or natural funnel so I moved on. I explored a few more trails that I hadn't the first time, to no avail. I moved back to another, better spot on the bedding area.

I forgot my phone at home, but I knew it was official sunset when I heard the bugle call on the base. So, with half an hour of legal shooting light, I decided to go back to the wooded area since I read that early-rising deer will hang out in the trees before total darkness.

Well, the Internet was right. I saw a fluffy white tail bounding away through the trees before I got within 30 yards. For reference, my effective shooting distance is about 15-17 yards. It wasn't moving fast, so I backed out of the trees and tried to find a way to get ahead of it. There was no access to the woods on my side and I couldn't call to check if the other side was claimed , so I moved back to the trees to see if there were other deer that I didn't alert. Turns out, the answer was yes. I saw another white fluffy tail bounding away at about 50 yards. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

It was mostly too dark to shoot by now so I headed back to the car flushing another deer in the process. Seeing no other car, I decided the other side was empty. I took a quickish walk around the other side. I flushed another deer, heard a deer bounding away behind me, flushed 3 more deer and
heard one deer bleat-laughing at me. As a final, mocking gesture from the deer, 2 does were standing behind the guardrail on the side of the road watching me as I drove away.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Hunting: A first hunt

For those that know me, I am all about learning; Specifically, I have an obsession with learning how to do things and why. In some ways, I am a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. With a few exceptions, I learn just enough to be dangerous but not enough to be dangerous to others. For years, I have wanted to become proficient at archery. More accurately, I wanted to become proficient at archery so that I could become proficient at hunting. I am a bit of a traditionalist, so ideally, I would like a nice wooden longbow. The biggest problem is that wooden longbows are usually expensive, custom made jobs where you pay an amateur to mid-level bowyer to eventually make you a bow to his specifications. I could learn to make one myself (I actually have started that process) but it takes a lot of time to find the perfectly right piece of wood to make a nice American Flat Bow (the style I would make) and then a moderate amount of skill to not screw up that piece of wood. So, the alternative that I elected was to purchase a recurve bow from eBay. The particular bow I got is a laminated maple and fiberglass Bear Super Grizzly from the early 70s (I keep forgetting to look it up), so that will have to be traditional enough.

So, I practiced, took the hunter safety course, got my hunting license and permits, signed up for a lottery and then waited (impatiently) for my first session to start. Yesterday, it finally arrived. Unfortunately, it was a morning low of 22 with winds from 14-29 mph. More unfortunately, the wind climbed to 22-37 mph while I was out there. Even more unfortunately, in all my practice and planning, I neglected to plan for Winter to be cold. I don't get cold easily, so I figured long sleeves and fleece would be quiet and stealthy and plenty warm. In this case, 3 layers was not enough. I have never shivered so much in my entire life. To make matters worse, the wind was screaming so I couldn't see any deer movement because everything was in motion constantly. In addition, I couldn't hear any deer movement over the wind. The only thing I could hear was my insanely loud "stealth" finding every crunchy leaf and stick plus catching every briar on my pants. After 3 hours, I finally called it quits without seeing 1 single deer. I went back home and tried (unsuccessfully) to warm up. I decided to give it another try and went back out for a late afternoon hunt. Being more familiar with the area now, I moved to the spot I thought would be best. I sat and scanned for deer for a bit and saw nothing. I slowly stood up to move to one other area and then locked eyes on a deer bedded down 15 feet from me. It was much more reactive than I was because it bolted before I could even think of reacting.

All in all, it was a fun and informative experience. The best part is, I have 13 more days in this hunting session to try to bag a deer. If I fail, then I have another 2-week session in January. All I need is slightly better conditions and lots more luck (and skill) and I should have some meat in the freezer in no time.