Larry A. Smail's Blog

Woodland Snow Scene.

   Bob (my step-father) and I went to the woods today to see if he could harvest a deer. Bob remained stationary to watch as  I walked about armed heavily with a camera. I had 22 deer sightings by 10:00 A.M.! I saw one decent-sized buck. Few of these moved deer went towards Bob. Two doe did come up a hollow. One deer stopped behind a tree and while Bob leveled the scope on it waiting to see the front shoulders a lifeflight helicopter flew over low. (We later learned of an accident near Elderton, Pennsylvania.)

Later on in the morning we crept along a right-of-way peering for another doe we had seen going in that direction. Suddenly, I tapped Bob pointing over the embankment. I could see feeding deer, in fact, there were five deer feeding along.

Bob, excitedly, prepared for a possible shot. Finally, one deer exposed it’s body from among the brush and Bob fired. From my position, slightly behind, I thought I noticed a flinch. I could only see the back of the deer.  Of course, chaos erupted with deer movement all about! Two deer came up to our right and Bob fired again. I hurried along the right-of-way to see a single deer cross. I surmised the other deer was down.

We surveyed the lower woods and saw nothing. I went over the embankment and shortly saw blood.  I came back up over and looked down and within feet of us lay the doe along the ditch-line.

Bob and his doe.

  Bob tagged and field-dressed the deer. I took photos. He stated that he wasn’t entirely sure if this deer was the same one he initially shot at. A “red-flag” immediately blew in the wind. I said I better walk back and check around.  I found sign of a hit and later saw the deer about 100 yards downslope watching me.

I went back and told Bob what was transpiring. I knew I had  to use my unused antlerless tag. I wasn’t hunting with a firearm. (I was waiting for flintlock season to use the tag.) I grabbed his 30:06 and placed one shell in the chamber and crept back to where I saw the deer. I placed the rifle against a tree and took careful aim and shot the wounded deer.

One needs to always do what is right when hunting. The hunt was unfortunate, but in those minutes after the initial shot much confusion happened. Bob, was troubled with the experience and I worked to comfort him. It all worked out. I will be canning more deer and stocking up for the bad times ahead.