Weather man called for lots of rain, cold and 20-30 mph winds. I thought to myself, "TW, what the heck are you doing this for?" Ain't no deer gonna be up and moving in this! Well, I was wrong. I was hunting on a friends 118 acre ranch not too far from where I live in Albany, Oregon, hoping to get my first deer ever. He had told me of these three does that he had been seeing on the lower pasture near the Santiam river, and gave me permission to have a go at it.
Ron had told me that he was seeing the deer during the afternoon and towards evening. So, my game plan was to sneak in around 10:00 am and set up. That said, I headed into his lower pasture on foot and found a place to set my stool. It was pouring down rain by this time and the cold quickly seeped into my clothes and started my body to shivering. Naturally this was against my demands to stop. :D After about 15 minutes of that teeth chattering, body shaking, snot nose running episode, I decided to do some stalking.
I hadn't been on the move more than 5 minutes when, my mind says, "Freeze!" But, my body said, "To late, this foots going down."
And bam, I'm busted by those very three does. Now the fun begins. These does are about 60 yards from me across a heavily wooded gully and on the opposite side. I spotted them only because I was moving very slowly. Granted, this didn't stop them from seeing me!
After about an hour stare down with one of the does, I'm shivering so bad, I just know she can feel the vibration through the ground, two of them bed down and she turns her head slightly to the right. This gives me time to duck down behind a briar patch. I give myself a couple of minutes to let things settle down, primarily my chattering teeth, and begin a slow crawl down into the wooded gully. This combat crawl consisted of pouring down rain, mud, moist cow patties, mud, snot pouring down my face and did I mention mud? :D
I make a calculated guess and figure I've closed the distance to 40 yards and lift my head up to see where the deer are. DUMB!
You guessed it! After too much cold seeping into my body, I slowly knocked my arrow, rose to a kneeling position, took aim..........but, there was nothing there.
With two days left of my 2008 hunting season, I am still seeking that ever elusive first but, will be just as happy if it ends with todays episode.
PS: These were the only deer I've seen this whole hunting season. Thanks for tuning in.
Topic: Wind, Rain, and Blacktails = Fun Galore! (Read 480 times)
