It was a damp, drizzly, cold day. My hunting buddy arrived at the public hunting area, and returned my old Capote, that I'd lent him a couple weeks before at a living history event. We loaded up and walked toward the area where the woods opened up into a clearing. My buddy is considered fully disabled, with a constant pain situation from slipping and falling on the floor in a professional kitchen. He has his good days and bad days, and this day as we walked he stepped on top of a tiny, frozen puddle. His bad leg slipped, moving in an odd direction and he was done for the day. Not only was there more pain, but it looked like he pulled a hamstring OUCH. So I helped him hobble back to the cars. So the day wouldn't be a total bust..., I showed him a farm near by where they raised chukkar and other birds for upland hunting preserves, and he bought several chukkar to take home as he was going to cook for his ailing father. My buddy then begged me to go back and at least try an afternoon hunt ; he was feeling guilty that things had gotten screwed up, even though I approached the whole thing as "manure happens ; no biggie".
So he drove home and I went back to the public area. One of the things that I've learned is that public hunting areas are best Tuesdays through Thursdays, in the afternoons, during a normal week (not a week that starts with a Monday holiday for example). You see, folks can take Monday off, or Friday off, and are off weekends, BUT..., Tuesday through Thursday, most people can't take the whole day. They take half-days, AND those are morning, half-days because they know that if they try to take the afternoon off, some silliness will happen and work and they won't be able to leave, so.... IF they hunt Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, it's a morning half-day.
Now deer, in the public areas, (in my observation and opinion) hear all these guys arrive before dawn, and tramp into the woods, stomp stomp stomp stomp. The guys also kick up a lot of earth-scent. The deer know to move toward the edges or boundaries of the public areas, and to hunker down. The hunters often don't go really close to the public area property line in case a deer might stray onto private land or no-hunt state land (like where the power company transfer station sits). The deer then simply hole-up and listen for folks to leave.
Which is why I hunt "all day", without a midday break. As such, even though these days I'm mostly on private land that is adjacent to the public areas, I've gotten more deer between noon and 4 p.m. than I have within two hours of dawn or sundown. I found on the public land, the deer can't count.
So a dozen guys tromp into the area before dawn, including me. Then because the other eleven guys only got a half-day off from work, they leave at 11 a.m. and the dear..., hear them leave.... but I am still quiet and in my spot. They don't think "Hey I heard 12 guys come in but only 11 left." NOPE.
The human scent dies down because there is only one human left. The scent from all the disturbed soil dies down. It gets really quiet..., and by around 2 p.m. the deer are getting hungry (btw the colder or wetter the weather the more the deer need to eat
) SO the deer that sooo many guys have told me are "nocturnal" start moving around 2-3 p.m. That's what I was hoping when I went back to the hunting area that morning. I'd get in and wait.
So I arrived at about 1 pm. and it had been drizzling off and on all morning, which I like as it really scrubs the air of scent. The damp ground means no leaves crunching as I step as well. I actually saw some other hunters walking out, which was also very good. I was right on time.
I got out of my car and decided to don that old Capote that my buddy had returned to me. I said when I lent it to him not to clean it, as I had a special procedure for that. It was from a wool blanket after all. So out to the hunting spot I trod. I found my favorite walnut tree, and scraped a spot on the ground to stand so that no twigs or anything else would make noise.
It started to drizzle, and I realized that I had forgotten my cow's knee to cover my flintlock lock. No matter, I tucked the lock area up under my arm and thus beneath the Capote, and unless a tropical storm hit, the lock would stay dry. THEN IT HIT ME.
The massively cloying scent of "Afternoon Spring" assaulted my senses, and it was coming from the Capote that I had said "don't clean this". My buddy's wife had tossed the Capote into the washing machine with a scoop of Cheer "Afternoon Spring" scented detergent. The Capote still fit, so she had hung it up to dry instead of tossing it into the drier, BUT it REEKED of unnatural perfume, and of course she cleaned it as it had smelled of
hardwood smoke. (Well gee we can't have that smoky scent, can we?
) So..., if I could SMELL the artificial scent with my human nose, then DEER WOULD with their noses.
Sure enough..., behind me to the south as I faced north into the clearing, was a thicket. A good place for deer to hide to be sure, but way too thick for me to see for any sort of a shot, and when the wind shifted from East to West..., to coming into my face, blowing past me taking scent South into the thicket, I heard (but never saw) several doe...,
blow. You know..., blow..., that quick WHEEEW snort that they do when they suddenly pick up a distasteful scent. They were so loud they had to be within fifty FEET of me, and then thundered off away from me. I heard them go and muttered, "I don't blame you, ladies ; this thing reeks to high heaven."
But I stayed. The drizzle was constant now but very light and..., I couldn't see through the brush to the South, and that's the direction my scent was going with the wind so no real loss. Around 3:30 I saw movement to the northeast. A doe was creeping through the area. If she continued she'd step out of the trees into the clearing. I placed the palm of my off hand flat against the walnut tree with my left thumb out, acting as a "hook" to support my rifle as I brought her up to sight at the area where the deer would appear unobstructed by saplings. When the doe got to the edge of the clearing I cocked my .54 caliber longrifle. I could see her fine, but the sweet spot behind the shoulder where the lungs lay was covered by a tree trunk growing between us. The doe heard the "click" of the lock being pulled to full cock, and paused (DANG!). Then slowly she stepped forward into my sight picture. The rifle was tight against my shoulder and my pounding heart (first time deer ever folks) was making the front sight post move a bit. I touched off the rifle.
BOOM she went, but the drizzly weather caused that great cloud of smoke to hang there for a long long time. I didn't see the deer run off, but I reloaded, and waited a few minutes to get my heart rate back down and to be able to hear again something other than my own pulse in my ears. I walked over to find where the deer had been standing to start my tracking, and discovered that I had not seen nor heard the deer run off, because it dropped in place. I paced off the shot and it was about 30 yards. 70 grains of 3Fg launched a patched .530 round ball through the doe.
THAT was my first deer ever. OH I had been out deer hunting in the past, but always had managed to share in somebody else's deer, never having had a successful first shot before.
I've never hunted dear since with anything other than a flintlock.
LD
