A strange deer hunt

[zzyzzogeton]

Fall in Texas means deer season. Unlike many other states, Texas allows baiting via feeders throwing corn out, except in National Forests..

One of the reasons for allowing this is that much of Texas deer country is so covered with dense brush, mesquite trees, cactus, etc, no one would ever see a deer to shoot it. In my case, the longest shot I have is about 100 yards and that is along a gas line sendero running along one of our fence lines. Otherwise, the other 6 stands I have are 50 to 80 yards from the target area. I have tried still hunting but the brush is so thick and dry during deer season, one can move like a snail and make enough noise to sound like a herd of elephants wandering about.

For decades, the county I live in did not allow doe hunting, period. About 10 years ago, we were allowed to take up to 2 does for the 4 days of the Thanksgiving weekend - Thursday to Sunday. Guess what??? It rained like pouring water out of a boot for all 4 days. We needed the rain, but really???

The next year, we were allowed a 2 week season for 2 does. I have been getting 2 does per year ever since. Plus a buck or two. i.e. a "good" bunk and a "junk" buck. This year, the doe season has been expanded to 4 weeks.

After all that background, we come to the story and why I consider it to be strange.

Normally, when you have more than 1 doe present and you shoot, whether you hit your target deer or not, all the rest of them scatter like a flushed covey of quail.

This year, due to a variety of excuses, I came to the last day of the 4 week doe season and I had not even taken a shot at a deer, much less gotten a doe. Getting skunked this year was a real possibility. Failure to take out my share of does this year simply meant more lost crops. We have way too many deer running around to not take them out.

So on that last Sunday morning of doe season, I crawled into my deer stand at zero-dark thirty (2 hours before sunrise) and waited.

Shortly after legal hunting time arrived ( 1/2 hour before navigational sunrise), in crept 3 does. I patiently waited for them to all get sorted out, picked out the largest/oldest, lined up to take a shot and POOF they scattered. While scratching my head trying to figure out what had happened, a coyote comes sauntering out of the brush, cuts across the gap and disappears back into the brush.

I then went back to reading a book (had enough light in the stand to read by now) and waited. 2 hours later 5 more does show up. As I'm about to acquire some venison, POOF, they vanish again. This time THREE coyotes decide to pass through. Crap. Back to reading and waiting.

Seven hours later, 6 more coyotes and a feral hog later, an hour before the end of doe season, 5 does show up again. This time, I successfully get a shot off and the deer drops in its tracks.

However, instead of scattering, the other 4 does just stand there and then go back to grazing on corn. I watched a minute and said, "Well, I got 2 tags." and shot a second doe. It dropped less than 15 feet from the first one. The other 3 does just stand there like nothing happened. I crawled out of my stand, and started walking towards the dead deer. At this point, the other 3 finally scampered off.

So, after sitting in the stand for 12 hours, I had 2 deer to field dress in the dark by flashlight and truck headlights. There's a reason I dislike hunting in the afternoon and tracking/field dressing deer in the dark is the reason.

Tracking a wounded deer through heavy brush in full daylight really, really draws a heavy vacuum, and at night is damn near impossible, which is why I go for head shots. If you hit them in the head, there is no tracking required and if you miss, you don't have a wounded a deer to track down off into the brush.

The only way I could think of that this hunt could have been stranger is if I had gotten 2 does with one bullet.

[treefarmer]

Great account of a "long sit"!
Congratulations zz, you got it done.

Similar conditions exist here in the Florida Panhandle, no mesquite, but thick gall berries, swamp myrtle, ty ty bushes, fire thorn, etc, make it difficult to see very far unless you can be hunting around a farm field. Food plots and feeders are also allowed on private land. Long yardage shots only come on power lines and big agricultural fields. At our place 150 yards will be very long shot across a food plot and back into planted pines, iffy and not very responsible at my age.
The FWC still reveres Florida does way too much. They are legal during archery season and a few days desisignated during gun season in our zone, limit 2 does. . The zone just above, north side of I-10, a doe can be taken any day of the season but limited to 3 does. Season Limit is 5 bucks total or the combination of based on your personal doe harvest. A few years ago the limit was 2 deer per day, limit of 4 in your possession. (Possession means unprocessed, not in the freezer) Theoretically you could hunt beginning 1st of August in the 'Glades all the way up the state and end up in western Panhandle ending the last of February and be able to kill 2 per day. Now we have antler restrictions that vary from the Everglades to the Panhandle, just have to pay attention to the rules.
Treefarmer

[Nev52]

Great outdoor stories.
We have issues here in Pennsylvania. The last 2 seasons we have been overcome with Chronic Wasting Disease. My son and I have not seen a shooter buck. After Hunting season, I was back in my woods at my shooting range and heard thrashing in the leaves and found this buck. He was so weak he could not get back on his feet. I only had a 22 rimfire on me so I walked back up to the house and got something bigger to end his suffering. I left him back in the woods. That been 6 weeks ago. Not one scavenger has touched his carcass. That's why I did not use my doe tag this year. If animals don't eat the meat humans should not either. Here is a picture of the buck. The other picture is my back field with some does.