Larry A. Smail's Blog

I began my travel across  the creek and up the hill after seven o’clock. I wasn’t in any hurry. I was going to still hunt as I moved towards the area I planned to stay most of the day.

Cherry Run

A dreamy gloom encompassed the woodlands as I slowly eased through the pines. The warm and rainy weather certainly didn’t have my thoughts in a hunting mode. I am just following my family traditions and heritage at this time. I had made a decision to not take any legal buck thinking of hunting with flintlocks once the antlerless season came in. A style of hunting I much prefer! However, I have been at this place before and sometimes the hunter instincts takeover as I thought of last year during the early flintlock season. I passed up shots trying to get a deer close to my step-father Bob when suddenly that instinct came over and I harvested a deer.

I love old logs…is that weird?

Very quickly after I sat down a deer materialized. It was a buck. The deer continued toward me. He ended up being a four pointer. I saw him twice during the morning. My camera was in my shoulder bag due to dark and damp conditions so taking photos was always a choice once eyes are gazing upon you.                                                      Squirrels didn’t appear until after nine. They must have slept in as well. I heard and saw a flock of geese too. I heard a few turkey yelps behind me. By ten the temperatures were, obviously, falling. Rain picked up again and turning to sleet. The next stage was the big snowflakes. Bob saw sixteen deer including a nice buck. He couldn’t count the points. I saw fourteen deer all day. Some were does and others I couldn’t identify. I don’t see well in darkened conditions.

I apologize for the poor photo.

A highlight of the day was when I turned to see something white. It was a pie-bald deer with most of the body being white. I hustled to retrieve my camera. The deer allowed only one quick shot and I was greatly disappointed when the photo was blurred, but I expected that since the darkened woods and me hurrying and hand holding the camera was almost certain to be blurred. The deer allowed one chance and off it went.