Deer hunting 2013

I love to deer hunt.  Its something I learned how to do and fell in love with while in college at WVU.  I have shot a fair number of deer over the years, and some of them fairly nice size.  I can now field dress, skin, and butcher my own deer.  I then take the meat and process most into jerky.  Unline some hunters, I'm not into spending my entire Fall chasing deer.  As a result, I haven't gotten into bow hunting, and I don't own a muzzleloader.  Maybe some day, when I have more time.  So, I focus my effort on rifle season in Maryland.  The season lasts a total of 15 days, and make that 13 days for hunting public land (no Sundays).  My wife gives me the grace to disappear for 6 consecutive days, 5 of which I spend out in the field.  I stay at the camper, and my goal is to take at least one deer, and to put meat in the freezer.  I'm no longer particular like I used to be when it comes to my choice of deer.  I can't put up a permanent tree stand and I don't do climbers, so I am now hunting on the ground.  I will happily take a doe, and I'll gladly take a small one. That said,..

I got down to Deal Island Sunday afternoon and it was really cold.  After putting up my ground blind, I went to evening church at Faith Independent in Wenona.  A small gathering of folks but most went out of there was to make me feel welcome, and I am certain that I stuck out like a sore thumb.  Monday 4:20 AM came early, and I had to scrape significant ice off my windshield before leaving the camper at 4:55.  By 5:25 I was in ground blind, which I had decided to use for some morning hunting.  My evening plan was to hunt the main field, sitting on my bucket.  Monday was a blank, as was Tuesday, which was slightly warmer.  The attached photo shows all of my hunt spots.  Fast forward to Wednesday morning, where I was hunting in the upper left corner of the field.  I had hunted here Monday night, and seen deer after 5:15, about 250-300 yrds down the field, too far and dark to take a shot.  Wed. was overcast and upper 40's.  No breeze, and it was actually quite pleasant.   It was a quiet morning, with nothing moving.  I had the entire area to myself, which was nice.  Just before 9AM, when I was considering to leave, I pulled out my phone to check messages, read email, and a quick look at facebook.  As soon as I put the phone away at 9:15, two young doe popped out of the entrance to the impoundment, 130 yards away.  I raised my M1903 onto my tripod and took aim on the larger of the two, then squeezed the trigger.  CLICK!  Apparently, I had neglected to chamber a round after loading the rifle.  So, I pulled back the bolt to find that the next round was jammed.  Oh crap!!  I quickly cleared the jam and got a bullet chambered.  The deer had somehow decided to ignore all of the noise I was sure to have been making and were still standing perpendicular to to me, providing a perfect shot.  This time it all went right, and hit the targeted deer at the beck of the neck, severing its spinal cord and dropping it right on the spot.  A PERFECT KILL.

Within 3 hours, I had the deer gutted, tagged, checked in, transported to the truck, back to the camper, hung up, skinned, butchered, processed, bagged and in the freezer.  Hey, time to hunt the afternoon.  Fast forward to Thursday, which was much warmer and rainy.  And foggy.  Nothing, hunting down at the far right corner of the field although I did see a deer come out there Wednesday evening for a brief second.  Friday was also a bust, although I ended my week hunting down at Pinky's, on Deal Island.  I will spend some more evenings at Pinky's,  I like the layout and it is 3 minutes from my camper.  Final thought:  These deer go almost totally nocturnal come December.  Delaware shotgun season captures more of the true rut, where the deer are roaming some during daylight.  I believe the deer are hunkered down in the daylight during rifle season and often dont move until later at night, particularly if the weather is warmer and they don't need to feed.  I'm thinking about how to adapt my strategies to this,....

There is a final two-day season in early January, and I may hunt it if it is not too cold.  So, until 2014,.... Merry Christmas  !!!!