Throughout my 50 years of deer hunting, I’ve primarily been a still hunter with some excursions into drives, tandem hunting and tracking.
Now that my health is on the decline and my fitness level is abysmal I’ve found I’ve had to begin stump sitting. The biggest problem for my stump sitting is that I’ve never developed the skills for it. I don’t like tree stands, so I’ve settled on blinds. I fidget a lot, so the blind is doubly of value.
Last year I shot a big bodied yearling buck from a blind so I was encouraged. This year I decided to set up in a different spot - just to break the monotony.
I set my blind up in a small thicket of pine and scrub oak on a low ridge. The pattern on my blind let it blend in well.
On opening morning, one of the guys said he would swing by me on his way back to camp at lunch time. I waited ‘till past 11:30 and he hadn’t shown up, so I assumed he took a different route back to camp. I started to pack up, getting the strap back on my gun and my day pack zipped up, when I looked out my main window (north facing), and saw a small 8 point buck calmly walking across the ridge 22 yd from me.
I took a breath, stuck the barrel of my carbine out the window, put the dot on his chest and squeezed off. He kick/jumped and took off down the ridge. I tried to jack in another round but my gun jammed (I wouldn’t have had a shot anyway). It turns out the .32 acp. cartridges I was carrying in my pocket for grouse (I use a cartridge converter) had gotten into the mag. and jammed up the works.
I gave the deer some time then walked over to where he was standing when I shot. There was a blood trail in the snow all the way down the ridge, weaving radically. There was so much blood that I knew he had to be dead. I followed the trail down the ridge, and saw him just inside the bush line. He weighed 100 lb and scored an amazing 65.
We had at least one wolf pack in the area for the second year in a row, and deer sightings were down. We got 3 deer on opening day, and nothing for the rest of that week or until Thursday of week 2 when the wolves seemed to move on.
On Thursday morning of week 2 (Remembrance Day) I was set up in the same blind. By this time I had a set routine in the blind. I used only a small window facing north, had the large windows on the east and west sides zipped down about 4 inches and the door that faced a pine tree was open enough for mee to step out without using the zippers each time. The north window was my primary and I usually sat looking north/east out of it. At irregular intervals I’d shift to look north, then lean back to look west and north/west out of the west window, then lean back and check the east and south windows.
Once as I was going through this pattern, I looked out the east window, and there was a doe looking right at me and getting nervous. My hands were out of its sight, so I was able to get the safety off, but any other movement just seemed to excite the deer. When she started to turn, I brought up the gun, but had no shot. I watched her to the bottom of the hill and part way into the bush but still had nothing ethical to try.
By her body language, the doe didn’t seem to be overly spooked, and I guessed she was standing somewhere in the thick stuff waiting to see if I came after her. I decided to take the chance that if she really wanted to get over that ridge she might try again, so I stayed where I was, not showing anything to any watching deer.
After a half hour or so, I saw a deer making its way through the thick stuff about 75 yd away and moving north. The deer turned to cross the ridge, but I found I had trouble using the small window. When the deer disappeared behind a height of land I unzipped part of the big window. All this time the deer stayed in the brush as it did when it reappeared. Finally it moved to a spot where I could see a clear patch of hie on the chest. I shot, and it kick/jumped and wheeled away from me going north and behind a pine tree.
When I got over there, I couldn’t see any hair or blood. I began a sweep search, and turned up the deer about 40 yd north of where I shot. The only blood I found was spit up at the spot where she died.
The next day two of the guys got deer. A yearling buck and a fawn. On Saturday a guy got a 3X5 buck that weighed 187 pounds but only scored 107 as a 6 point typical and 116 as a non typical. In spite of an abnormal point, he was a very pretty deer which I might have been tempted to mount if he’d been mine.
