This was a great and memorable deer hunting season for me, just throwing it out there to start. To re-visit, unlink many of my fellow hunters who begin bow-hunting in early September, I compress my personal deer season down to two partial weeks, both using my personal favorite weapon of high-powered rifle. Week #1 starts in south-central West Virginia, where I am granted the privilege of hunting the 1st two days on the most beautiful private land I've ever had opportunity to hunt. Following that in the next week is a week of public land hunting on Maryland's beautiful eastern shore, specifically on my beloved Deal Island.
OK, so we open in West Virginia, home of the Mountaineers. I arrive to my hunting destination Sunday prior to season, but in time to carefully sight in the scope on my Remington 30-06. Monday morning arrives, and I can't WAIT !!! After a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, we head out on my buddy's 4-wheeler to our hunting spots. I'm riding "bitch", meaning that I'm sitting behind him on the same 4-wheeler, which I'm really just about getting too old to do but maybe I've got one year left. I'm the first drop at about 75 yards from my stand, as my buddy Pat plans to roll on to his stand about 1/4 mile away. Just near my stand Pat realizes that he has lost his back pack, and we must now back-track. Five minutes back-tracking on steep terrain, we find the pack and resume our journey to our stands. This has cost us a precious 10 minutes, typically not a big deal but we had cut our timing close this morning and I arrived at the road to my stand at 6:35AM, putting me in my stand at 6:40- dawn was soon breaking over the steep mountains. After putting my 2nd foot in the 15-ft high stand, I quickly began to organize m self and my gear, including finding mu bullets, loading my clip mounting clip to rifle and then chambering the 1st round. Last thing I recall is giving one quick grunt using my deer call. Within 2 minutes of the grunt call, no exaggeration, I hear what I estimate to be a sizable deer crashing though the woods on the mountainside above. Looking in the yet still dark through the woods uphill, I see a dark silhouette of a deer, and I'm pretty sure topped my a pretty nice set of antlers. Game ON !!! I raised my gun to see this deer through the scope, and quickly recognize that I've got at least a 6-8 pt buck crossing down the hill above my, right to left. With many large trees between me and this buck, I then moved the scope to the left, placed at where I estimated the deer would eventually walk into in short time. And exactly as predicted, this buck moved into the cross-hairs of my modest 3-10x40 Bushnell scope, and the kill-shot was placed. This buck dropped instantly, just the way I like. 845AM 1st day of the season, SCORE 8pt!!!
Two hours later almost to the minute, buck #2 comes walking across the hillside above me, also hiding behind the trees. But I knew this was also a nice buck, so I play the same game, moving scope to the left and waiting for him to walk into the cross-hairs. And,... POW!!!!, that, he did. This won was also an 8 pt, but atypical with 5 points on one side and 3 on the other. So here's the one part of this story so far I haven't told,... I have family about an hour and a half west of here that I never see and have mostly lost touch with, except for one cousin, who I love dearly. I had prayed (to the Lord) to be able to kill 2 deer my first morning, so that I would have time to visit her with my remaining brief time in the area. Same scenario unfolded 3 years prior. And both times, my prayers were answered and I was given a great time of fellowship with my cousin.
OK, fast-forward to the next week, Monday after Thanksgiving. I've set up camp at my Deal Island camp location. I've become pretty successful at taking 1-2 smaller deer (by comparison) here each year. I was warned in advance that not many deer available to shoot. Scouting the local public land on the preceding Sunday, I concurred as I observed the state had not left any crops in the fields as they usually do. So as Monday rolled around, I was eager to take the first deer I saw. The deer down here usually come at shots of great distance, and one of my faults is being able to judge the caliber of deer at long distance (150 yards +). Monday evening, I roll into the public hunting area in Dames Quarter and proceed to take the Cemetery location, overlooking the SE corner. At 4:10 a smallish deer emerges from the opposite corner, and I waste no time in placing a bullet right where it belongs. Upon gathering the deer after retrieving my cart and depositing my weapon, I wished I had halted and waited to see what might have followed. Yes, at 55, I am still learning,... but deer #3 nonetheless.
Skipping over my non-productive Tuesday and Wednesday morning. both of which were embraced in cold temps (mid-30's) and gale-force winds, I ventured out Wednesday afternoon to the public area on Deal Island. I was the only on hunting, to no surprise as it was brutally cold and windy. In fact, I would have forecasted that no deer would venture into these conditions. But wouldn't you know it, a hungry small spike buck emerged from the edge of the woods exactly at 4:10PM, and I placed a 30-06 round perfectly in young buck's neck, ending his show right then and there.
And that is IT! A couple of final thoughts,... I winterized my center console (maybe prematurely, but it was "time",..) that same week. The rifle has been cleaned, and I am DONE (for now). For the next 3-4 months, my beloved wife gets her full-time husband back, an I continue to pray that she will allow me to do it all again next year. I have a LOT of venison in my freezer, and I will be making jerky as fast as I can. Contact me of you need some. I'm loaded up on rockfish, oysters, and softcrabs too. It's going to be a great winter, but I can't WAIT for spring !!!
