Sitting waiting for daylight, the morning air was heavy and unbelievably still. The very bright moon made it almost light enough to shoot. Almost ... but not. I did watch a very large deer walk across the road, closer to me than the corn. I never could see it well enough to know if it had antlers, but it was too dark (and too early) anyway. I did hope that was a good omen.
Daylight came and I got a better lay of the land. The corn was farther than I thought.
A little after sunrise, I caught movement as two does and a small spike came out. They didn't stay long before they were replaced with another small group of deer. It was hard to tell which ones were out, but for a little over an hour, deer were in and out.
By 9:30 things had quieted down. I packed up my stuff to meet back up with Rick. Aaron had passed up a decent deer and seen a whopper that he couldn't get a shot off. It was his last hunt so I was a bit surprised he passed the one up.
After a quick breakfast, Rick and I fed stands. Forecasts for the afternoon were all over the place for both wind and rain; deciding what to do wasn't easy.
For me this also made deciding what to wear challenging. I didn't want to wear my rain suit in the stifling heat, but I also didn't want to get soaking wet.
It poured rain at the lodge for a little while. This was followed by thick, heavy air. It was painfully muggy. There was no way I could see wearing my rainsuit. I ended up going out in shorts; if I got wet, long pants would be far worse than shorts. I was able to fit a lightweight rain coat in my pack. Ultimately, I think the shorts were the right decision, even if a bit unconventional for hunting.
Doug had come into camp and he was hunting as well. Rick took both of us out.
There was a doe on the corn when I got to my stand. She stayed for a bit and I just watched. Once she left, it took a bit to get comfortably situated.
Deer were running into and out of the area for quite a while. None of them were too impressive, but there was lots of activity.
It was actually somewhat stressful for a while. I knew Rick could see what I saw on the cellular trail camera. It felt a little like the sword of Damacles hanging over my head by thin thread as it robbed me of my human capacity for denial.
The deer activity abruptly stopped around 5:30.
I did see a few more deer much later. Right at sunset an 8-point came out. I field-judged as best I could and just didn't think it would make the cut. I let it walk. It got dark. It started to rain again.
Back in the truck, Rick agreed that the last deer was not big enough.
Back in camp, Brandon, Denzil and Brad had gotten in. We ate pork chops with a healthy dosing of banter. I was tired and turned in early.
No comments:
Post a Comment