After a short 3 hour hunt in 1B, I headed to 2G for a real hunting experience.
While I was there, I hunted a SF DMAP area exclusively. Since my hunt wasn't as short as Mikastorms, my story is a bit longer....
Since nearly all my hunting for the year is confined to smaller parcels of property, most of my hunting is stand hunting from before daylight until dark, often from the same stand. In the mountains, I love the freedom of walking. Often it is not the best method for killing deer, but I find it most rewarding.
Tuesday came and went with John's one shot kill on a nice doe. I was seeing deer, but mostly tails due to walking too fast to see what is over the next ridge or in the next creek bottom.
During the week, I saw one hunter in the woods. I was not close enough to see what he was hunting, but he seemed to be hunting like a muzzleloader hunter.
After most of the week getting up very early, I awoke Saturday morning and decided to return to the warm confines of bed. I tossed around the idea of grouse hunting instead of deer today since I had seen several all in the same area, but decided to hunt deer. I awoke at about 8 and headed to my hunting area 30 minutes away. There is only one DMAP area closer to camp and it is not nearly as productive. I arrived at about 9:30 and headed back the log road to my chosen hunting area.
As I was working my way into the area, I came across a pair of hunters (one ML and one crossbow) who had the nerve to hunt the area before I got there
They reported some sightings and even missed a couple, but they were now heading back to camp.
Not a 100 yards later, I run into a jr hunter and his Dad walking out. They saw a 3 point and were heading in. He said hunting used to be great, but there aren't many deer left.
about 200 yards down the road, I hear some twigs snap and stop in place. Eventually, I hear the commotion come near the road and see the orange of a Grouse hunter. He broke his classy double and said that he had seen some grouse and had harvested one. He let me know where he was going next and offered to give me a head start in case anything came out. I'm not opposed to driven deer, but I didn't want to get one that way here, so I politely declined. He too, was heading back to camp shortly.
I decided that the deer were probably well away from the log road and decided to head at least a half mile from it to start hunting. I saw several tails and made my way toward the creek. While there I saw two very large (for a stream about 8 feet across) wild browns spawning. After watching from a distance not to disturb them, I moved along. Although the cover was good, I saw no more deer near the creek. I did see several more fish though
Since the deer weren't in the bottoms, I headed up the mountain all the way to the top. Once on top, I was drenched with sweat, but happy that I wouldn't have to climb much more elevation to get back to the truck. After less than a hundred yards I kicked up two deer. I quickly moved back to the edge of the ridge and dropped over one bench. I waited for a few moments waiting for the deer to come around the mountain. Unfortunately, they had given me the slip. I glanced to my left and saw at some distance two deer tha looked relaxed. This was a different group. Since they were over two hundred yards, I decided to try to slip closer. Putting a tree between me and them, I worked my way about 30 yards closer, but there was still some brush between us. I watched for several minutes, watching one bed down, and the other nibble at browse.
After several moments, they moved to a more open area and a put the gun on the sticks. At the shot, both deer froze, and then spooked from the echo and ran toward me. I hid behind a down tree and reloaded. As I poured the powder down the barrel, I heard some of the powder hit the leaves, but most? of it went down the barrel. I fired again, but the gun made more of a pop than a bang. The deer still mingled. I loaded my last charge, carefully making sure that all of the powder went down the bore. I shoved the bullet home without the aid of a short starter and pushed until the ramrod hurt my hand. I carefully charged the gun with the last cap and carefully aimed. The gun roared and the doe took off on a death run,going about 25 yards before being still.
I gratefully walked to the deer and began to tag and field dress it. I decided that because I had come so far, that it would be easier to slide the deer to the bottom of the mountain (about 800 verticle feet over 1/4 mile) and walk back for the truck. I carried the deer across the creek as not to contaminate the meat, and hid it behind a large hemlock not far off the road.
My feet wet with sweat and creek water, I headed for the truck. After 2 hours of brisk walking, I returned to the truck. I clicked the tripometer to 0 and head back. The trip log said 4.5 miles when I arrived and slid the deer into the bed.
It was the most dificult and most rewarding hunt of any kind that I have ever experienced.
All in all I stand hunted for 2 hours and saw no deer. I walked/still hunted a total of 13.5 hours and killed the 33rd deer I saw. All on public land in the WMU with the lowest deer density in PA.
I arrived back at camp, shivering while getting out of my soaked clothes and had a well deserved beer. Beer had never tasted so good.w_w.