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 !
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 !
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