The way it works...

[Lilred]

I'm most likley to be the same story like most of ya'll....workin all week and then tryin to put in as much huntin as i can on the weekends. My weekend huntin consists of me and hubby takin turns. I usually hunt the mornins and he hunts in the evenins on saturdays. Caint hunt on sundays here. We have no babysitter on saturdays, so we switch off huntin. Right now I'm at the kitchen table drinkin coffee and he's out huntin. Caint say I heared a shot so I reckon he aint got nothin yet. So on average I hunt 4 hours a week. Most of the time yer out waitin to hear some dogs run through..no such luck the past couple of saturday mornins. But the Saturday fore Christmas, I had one of the best times I ever had huntin and I aint even kill nuthin. I been meanin to post this but never really got around to it...but i think it's worth it even now. I reminded myself of it hopin that hubby wouldnt shoot this deer this mornin.

Since October bow season I been seein this small group of does hangin round in the woods here. Our place joins the state forest so they have plenty of room to roam. But this one deer (doe or button buck) has done very well for itself. She has succeeded to jump the 5ft garden fence in the summer and mow down the butterbean sprouts and so forth, her tracks roamin all through the rows. Come October, I see her often runnin round the place, she even came up to the persimmon tree at the house eatin em too. Well, a couple weeks ago I sat down on a hill beside a fell over pine overlookin a creek that the deer travel. Was not the best spot, I was in wide open oaks...but I knew a deer with dogs on it's trail wouldnt see me all that well runnin the creek.

Across the creek on the other hill I see her amblin down to the creek directly in front of me. I lifted up my knees and readied the shotgun to my shoulder restin on my knee. Once I seen there were no horns on it's head I decided to hold my shootin position just in case a buck came down behind her. That deer crossed the creek and 20 yards from me she saw me. She turned, jumped the creek and stopped. She threw her head up and down up and down. She stomped over and over. The gun was gittin heavier and heavier. I didnt dare move cause i aint want to spook her. 10 minutes went by. She stomped some more....lookin and lookin. She finally trotted down the creek and jumped it again 40 yards down from me. Still lookin, she slowly made her way up the hill. Thank God I thought, shes goin in the pines. What does the rascal do? She walks straight towards me! Dern gun gittin heavier ....leg was startin to cramp. I held my stone position. I kid you not, she walks right up to me, I thought she was gonna smell me! She had no clue what i was...and the curiosity was killin her.
10 ft from me she stopped, more bobbin of the head..more stompin feet, more leg & arm cramps.
She turns, takes 10 more steps...good lordy..she gits behind me. Stand there fer an eternity...walks towards me! Felt like she was right on me...started walkin to me right...came back down the hill on the other side of me not 5 yrds away. More starin, more steps towards me. Once she figured that the stone object she was lookin at was either dyin from muscle cramps or was harmless....she decided to play. Up and down the jumped. All of this took over half an hour. I thought I was gonna ball up and die...lol

She finally ambled off in the the thicket on my right. So this mornin when hubby said he was headin fer the creek, I thought of that deer. She's not real small, maybe weighin 100 lbs...I wish I woulda told him not to shoot that deer. I'm sure if she makes through next week (not by our hands) she'll come back in the summer to terroize my garden again.
I had more fun that day than I've had huntin in a long time. My turn this afternoon...maybe i'll see her out and about.

Next week I got 3 days off to hunt...maybe I'll down another deer for the freezer.