Some of the best hunts I've ever had are not what most hunters would call a success. I had a prime example of that on the first day of the early ML deer season. I have been tinkering with primitive wadding, and have set myself the goal of taking all the usual species I hunt using shredded cedar bark wadding. I have collected 2 squirrels, so deer were next on my list. I was sitting on my butt at the base of a big osage orange tree well before legal shooting time, my flintlock smoothbore loaded with 90 gr. FFFg Goex, cedar bark OP wad, bare .600" ball, cedar bark OS wad. It was great to be hunting deer again after a year, and I recharged my battery sitting there watching the woods come alive as the beautiful yellow early morning light built. I wasn't very confident of seeing deer, because some big changes had been made in the farming operation on the farm which seemed to have interrupted the usual patterns of deer movement I have become so familiar with. I was right, the deer were a no-show. Not so for the little critters, though. I occasionally take my camera along, and this morning I was glad I did. First this big fox squirrel showed up about 20 feet away. He knew I was there, but not what I was, and ran back and forth on his limb frantically waving his big beautiful tail.
A few minutes later another one put on an impressive ariel display, climbing all over a nearby treetop, feeding on something I could never identify and spending as much time upside down as right side up.
I saw a total of nine squirrels during the morning, busily doing their squirrely thing, as though I wasn't there. About a dozen chipmunks joined in, dashing and chipping away. After about 4 hours of watching I decided to move, and on the way I sneaked up on a small pond which occasionally has wood ducks, and was in luck. Not a good picture, hand-held at long range, but I was happy with it because I finally got a picture of a woodie after trying for a long time.
With my camera up to my eye and concentrating on the ducks, I saw them flush, heard their alarm peeps and thought I had spooked them. Not so, because 2 seconds later this little doe came galloping by just beyond them in a panic over something, moving too fast for my camera to stop.
When it comes right down to it, what I enjoy hunting most is memories, and simple little hunts like this, in spite of there being not a shot fired and no meat collected for the table, are counted as a complete success, in my book. Just being out in it is what it's really all about, for me, and the older I get the more true that is.
Spence
A few minutes later another one put on an impressive ariel display, climbing all over a nearby treetop, feeding on something I could never identify and spending as much time upside down as right side up.
I saw a total of nine squirrels during the morning, busily doing their squirrely thing, as though I wasn't there. About a dozen chipmunks joined in, dashing and chipping away. After about 4 hours of watching I decided to move, and on the way I sneaked up on a small pond which occasionally has wood ducks, and was in luck. Not a good picture, hand-held at long range, but I was happy with it because I finally got a picture of a woodie after trying for a long time.
With my camera up to my eye and concentrating on the ducks, I saw them flush, heard their alarm peeps and thought I had spooked them. Not so, because 2 seconds later this little doe came galloping by just beyond them in a panic over something, moving too fast for my camera to stop.
When it comes right down to it, what I enjoy hunting most is memories, and simple little hunts like this, in spite of there being not a shot fired and no meat collected for the table, are counted as a complete success, in my book. Just being out in it is what it's really all about, for me, and the older I get the more true that is.
Spence
