Finally I killed my first deer today :-)

Day 3:
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Today's weather  is beautiful, but much colder than yesterday.  I only eat a dozen leftover dumplings and drink a cup of coffee so that I can skip the junky McDonald's breakfast.  Get there 10 minutes early than yesterday.  On the way to the ambush spot,  I spook a pheasant or maybe a grouse which fly off just a few feet away. It really scares me in the dark woods since I don't expect this surprise.

It's so quiet in the woods since squirrels haven't woken up yet until dawn breaks around 7AM.  There is not even a slight of wind breeze and the woods is dark and very quiet. I can hear even the slightest sound of  falling leaves from oak trees. Occasionally a big loud sound is generated by a falling acorn or a tree twig.

I sit inside the deer blind which I built with falling tree twigs and choose to face uphill this time. 

After sunrise, squirrels are getting busy. They generate noise from my front and back direction, luckily their noise is like a quick scratchy sound which is quite different from slow, crunch sound of deers because deers are much heavier and walk slowly on the leaves.  Leaves cover all the ground in this woods, except big rocks and some mosses field on the ridge. This is like the motion detector around me.

There are two squirrels  chasing each other and generating  loud noise similar to  running deers! I tried to be as motionless as possible since deer's vision  is very keen on moving object, but not much on details and color. Occasionally I have to scratch my itchy places and change my sitting posture to relieve my numb legs :-(

I can hear some little birds chirping  and quail whistling. And a few crows are quacking so loudly, just like some human beings :-(

One hour later, wind blow is getting stronger. I felt so cold  on both my body and my feet  that my whole body is shivering uncontrollably.  I wish I had worn one more sweater this morning!

All of a sudden, I notice  that the gun's rear sight is loose since it sits too high at the base and almost falls off.  Not sure if it was bumped somewhere in the woods or during the transportation in the car trunk. I should have used the hard rifle case instead of the soft one in order to be on the safe side. This Williams Fire-Sight is made of colorful fiber optics, specially designed for dim light scenarios but it's not as reliable as the traditional  iron sight.  The tiny screw may be getting loose gradually.  Why does Thompson/Center apply some anti-seize lube such as Loctite  to prevent this?

Even though I managed to mount  it back by bare hands , I  can only stick it back on the very top of the base ramp ( need a tiny screw driver that fixes eye glasses ). This means  the bullet's point of impact will be higher beyond 25 yards. This could be a bad omen :-(

It already passed 9 AM. Still I see no actions. Could deers remember that they got shot two days ago near this spot? I doubt it.    My legs are numb and I fell an urge to peep.  So I took the gun with me ( all the time now :-) and walked downhill quietly along the mosses field to a big tree.  There is a big scrape sign next to this big tree. A big buck must have  urinated at this scrape in order to mark his territory. And I want to cause some confusion here for him :-(

There is a big wind gust blowing over and the whole forest sounds like  ocean waves! While taking my leak on the tree trunk to reduce the noise of impact, I spot a female deer  chewing acorns on the ground at about 50 yard away!  I pull back the hammer on the muzzleloader and aim at her instantly. She must have heard the hammer click sound and looks around, deciding which way to run. But I pull the trigger right before  she could make any move. A big boom sound and smoke cloud!  There she  drops !

I run over there without even zipping my fly :-(  The bullet broke her spine  and she is paralyzed on the ground. But she is still alive and struggling to kick. I should have brought the 357 Magnum Ruger revolver with me so that I can put her out of misery instantly.  And it'd take too long for me to get back to the deer blind and  reload the muzzleloader.  So reluctantly I crouch down,  grab her head,  strangle her neck tightly. She opens her mouth widely and stick her tongue out in despair for air. I watch the pupil in her big eyes fully dilated and losing the life sign slowly....and close her eyelids gracefully.  God bless my soul.  I checked the time on my cellphone, TOD was 9:11AM.

Every deer hunter has this moment with mixed feeling of pleasure and guilty. Plus a little humility that I have to resort to the unconventional  measure.  Like many other men , I just love the hunting in a way that I can't explain it in words.  Now I can move into the major league of  hunting!  If I can take a buck, a black bear and a turkey within the same year, it's like Grand Slam title in Tennis world.

It's a pretty big doe because it looks like over 100 pounds. I had to field dress her (aka open the chest and through out  all the gut !) in order to preserve the meat from getting rotten fast. And  it's also lighter for me to drag her carcass out of the woods all by myself.

I skinned her at the backyard  after getting home. And will donate the hide to the Veteran's services center since  the veterans still know how to make a beautiful leather from deer skin nowadays.

Took some pics and video. Too much bloody details here to describe  ...... I guess Youtube would refuse my posting :-(

Here is the nicest one.

the little valley view

Again I almosted filled my doe tag this morning !

Day2:

Thursday morning, weather is very windy and cloudy. I got into the ambush spot around 6:40AM. On the way there, I saw lots of high-school students and their parent's cars waiting for school buses. Poor kids, hope they enjoy the high school life if they have to wait up so early every day like hunters :-( 


There was only one other hunter on the same road since I saw his pickup parking at the bottom of the mountain.   Yesterday I almost walked into his war-like bunker that he built with dead tree trunks. He is a retired firefighter and he claims that he got a 7 pointer buck with bow and also shot a doe with a rifle at this same spot.   For seniors, they have the privilege to use a modern center-fire gun since most of them can't load these inline muzzle-loader rifle properly due to their arthritis.  I guess that PGC gives some slack to senior and youth hunters for "fair chase" game principals :-(  Why not setup a feeding area for seniors and youth hunters with comfortable lodge (like those commercial hunting  camps ) so that they can shoot whitetails just like on a target range.


I walked gingerly into the deer blind that I built yesterday. I sit facing the litle valley since the deers were coming from that direction. and my back is a gentle uphill with some brush trees and a forest of evergreen pine trees further away. 


Wind gust blows through the forest and generates very strong background noise that I can hardly hear any sound of footstep. Even squirrels are very quiet this morning. White-tail deers have much better physical sense on vision, hearing, running and smell comparing to human beings.  To beat them in the woods, I have to stay low and still in order to let them getting close to me within 50 yards or even less.  If you need to get even closer to white tails within 20 yards, you will also need to eliminate the human scents since deers'  sense of smell is as good as bloodhound dogs!


One hour has passed and still nothing happened. The weather is getting brighter.  All of sudden, I barely hear some noise coming from my back, hardly to tell if it was squirrel or something bigger. I glimpse back and see a  big mother deer standing right there, maybe 20 yards away from me. I am startled as much as she is !  Because I don't have my rifle at hand :-( It's one arm away, leaning on the tree trunk.  Should I stretch my arm to grab the gun ASAP? or wait since she might not see me in camouflage cloth because deers are color-blind ?   It's a very intensive 10 seconds that we are staring at each other without any movement.  If I had my gun at hand, I could have made an uphill shot within a second (cock, aim and pull the trigger) before she could even react. Finally she makes the first move and jumps away.  Then I grab the gun , cock it and aim at her since she stops at about 75 yards away.  I guess she is no sure if I am an eminent  threat to her or not. But a 75-yard shot is a challenge for muzzleloader rifle without a scope. If I pull the trigger and hit her , but miss the killing zone (about 8 inch circle ), she could be wounded and succumb dead in a few days.  It's not an ethical shot for ethical hunters.  So I let her pass without regret.


This time my heart is not poundering  crazy like yesterday.  But I miss another opportunity since I was  not holding my gun ready for shooting! And I should have been  more mentally prepared since opportunity could comes from all directions.


The weather is starting to rain around 8:40AM. So I had to leave my ambush spot since I didn't wear water-proof hunting clothes. 


Tomorrow's weather will be colder. And it's good for deer hunting since deers don't have sweat glands and hence they are more active during cold weather.  Hope  third time is the charm !

I almosted filled my doe tag this morning !

In the past  weekend, I hunted the whitetail deers with my friend in State Game Land 205 in Lehigh county and Lake Nockamixon State Park in Bucks county. No luck. So I decided to try my luck at my "home court" alone since my friend had to head back for work. Lucky me :-)

My favorite spot is the deer's passage between their food source and water source. It's at the edge of Delaware Water Gap national recreational area with some houses on the other side of a small road. And it's about 20 minutes drive from my place.

I arrived at the small dirt  parking lot near the top of Michaels Rd,  East Stroudsburg right before 7 AM.  This is the most promising spot since I encountered 3 deers yesterday morning around 7:30AM and they ran away before I could even get into the ambush spot. So I decided to get there 40 minutes before sunrise today.  It's a full moon night and bucks must be actively chasing does during the whole night.


While walking to the ambush spot and loading the 209 primer into my Thompson/Center's Omega muzzle-loader rifle, I heard the foot-step sound like people walking about 50 yards away.  The sound was quite different from the noise that squirrels generated on leaves.  I couldn't see clearly beyond 50 yards since it's a little foggy in the morning and I thought I was the only hunter in this area since my car was  the only one in the parking lot!   I hide behind a big tree and waited them coming toward my direction. A moment later, I saw a big deer coming uphill to my hiding spot.  I cocked the rifle and aimed at it.... It just passed the tree marked with "no hunting" sign .... Right before I was about to pull the trigger at about 20 yards, I could now see clearly  that it's a buck with 6 point antlers! Since this is muzzleloader season for female deers only, I had to let him pass :-(  Then the buck saw me too ( a men in orange jacket pointing a gun at him :-( and ran away quickly to the other direction.  I noticed there was another deer also running away with him.

What a shame!  I haven't been this close to a legal buck in the past 3 years of deer hunting.

I had to carefully uncock the muzzleloader since it's a bit tricky than a modern rifle.    I waited there for a few more minutes, then heard noise again from the road side.  This time it looks like a doe !  I guess the buck didn't have a chance to tell his girlfriend about the hunter :-(   I aim the rifle at her while she is walking closer and closer toward my position. My heart is pounding so hard that I can hardly hold my rifle still.  As soon as she turn the broad side to me at about 25 yards, I pull the trigger and big boom sound!  I barely see her running away among the big gun smoke !   How could I miss the doe at 25 yards distance!   I can't believe my eyes!

Maybe I didn't load the muzzleloader properly this morning since I was in a hurry. I can fell that there was  one inch air gap between the gunpowder pellet and sabot bullet.   They says the air-gap could destroy the bullet's accuracy completely, and may even cause potentially hazardous "short-start" condition ( barrel blow-up ?).

so I re-loaded the muzzleload with  two 100 grain Winchester Triple-Se7en pellets and a 250-grain shockwave sabot projectile from Thompson Center, still can't close the one-inch  air gap even after I cleaned up the barrel with the ramrod and a dry cloth. I sit at the ambush spot until 10 AM, only saw lots of busy squirrels around and a few birds.  So disappointed I decided to head back home.   Before I left, I built a better deer blind next to a big tree using some falling tree twigs with leaves.   I hope I will have a better luck tomorrow morning at the same spot since the deer is the animal of habit , just like human beings!
I need to do a complete rifle clean-up and test the accuracy again  at the shooting range.  This is the basics for deer hunting.

Just when I was close to the road-side parking lot, I saw a black bear walking noiselessly towards my car.  Why?  maybe it's the food in my car?  or the blood from the wounded doe?  Apparently it saw me too so it walked away slowly. I don't want to provoke a black bear  all by myself since I only have one shot in the muzzleloader.  I just wish I took the picture of the black bear before it disappears. 

At the parking lot , I decided to discharge the muzzleloader.  So I aimed at a big tree trunk at 50 yards away without arm support and back support.  It hit in the middle of the tree trunk but two feet below my aiming point. no wonder I missed the doe this morning:-(

One the way home, I collected a handful of wild onion at Hidden lake shore which will be  a perfect seasoning to venison steak tomorrow. Also I saw some wild mushrooms but not sure if they are poisonous :-( Wild mushroom are nature's treats that you can't find them in US supermakets :-(   Need to get a mushroom field guide in order to identify them with photos if they are one of a dozen edible and tasty types such as Oyster, Puffball, Morels, Chanterelle, King Bolete, Hedgehog, Shaggy Mane, Blewit, Chick of the woods, or Hen of the woods(aka Maitake), etc.  These species are easy to identify since they don't look like any poisonous mushroom such as destroying angles, death cap.  But for  bolete and amanita species , even experts( Mycologist) can hardly tell the difference based on the look :-(    I recently read an article on New York Times about people makes a living on collecting wild mushroom for fancy restaurants in NYC!
And Masutake has a very good price in Japan, like sharkfin or truffle.

PS:
I went to the shooting range before sunset which is similar to Dawn's dim-light condition. I managed to shoot 4 times before 6:40PM.  At 25 yards, the first two shot are hit almost the same hole, but 2 inch on the right side and one inch below. I guess this is the issue with gun sight.  So I made a mental correction for the third shot at 30 yards, and it hit one inch higher and one inch on the right.  All these shots are done without arm and back support.


For the fourth shot, I backed to 40 yards and use the parking sign as arm support.  I make the same mental correction and hit the bulleye !



So I guess the morning issue was because I shoot downhill. With the one inch  air-gap between pellet and projectile, one of the pellet may have a delayed ignition and cause the projectile to go higher due to the muzzle jump.  I will have to find a lower spot tomorrow to avoid this situation.

Disclaimers

The stories are based on my hunting experience in PA only. Please don't generalize it since the hunting regulations ( legit firearms, special weapons like archery and muzzle-loaders, safety clothes,  season dates, bag limit, youth mentoring , camouflage, no electronic calls restriction, no bait and no decoy rules, etc ) are very different from state to state, plus they changes every year. The authoritative information is at http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/. I feel that they want to match up to the complexity of those tax codes since I still don't quite understand them after reading so many times :-(


However, the safety principles for firearms are universal.  so I quoted "The Ten Commandments of Firearms Safety" from Remington Arms if you can really understand what they are trying to say between the lines :-(  If you need help, search for CNBC documentary film: "Remington Under fire"

1. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
2. Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use.
3. Don't rely on your gun's safety.
4. Be sure of your target and what's beyond it.
5. Use proper ammunition.
6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care.
7. Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting.
8. Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting.
9. Don't alter or modify your gun and have it serviced regularly.
10. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using.

 For Turkey hunting, the most important safety principle is "to positively identify the target is a legal turkey and it's safe beyond the bullet range" since hunter's camouflage is as perfect as deadly, especially during Spring season since it's not required to wear orange cloth  during ambush.

And in PA, even center-fire rifle is allow for Fall turkey season (In contrast, no rifle is even allowed for deer hunting near Philly metro area). There is no need to call the turkeys walking close to you since you can easily soot them with a scoped rifle beyond 100 yards!   PGC should explain the reasons more clearly.

Another quirky rule is that turkey blind has to be 360 around and with a top cover. Does PGC really care if Turkeys can see through your blind?

And why there is an upper limit (< 0.23) for rifle caliber for small games (like pheasant and rabbit ), but no lowest caliber limit for big games( 0.22 cal rifle to shoot Turkey, Deer, Bear ) ? So a manual rifle in 5.56mm NATO caliber or .223 REM  is good for both small and big games !