Larry A. Smail's Blog

  I have been negligent with my posts as of late. I believe I need to catch up some. The first day of Pennsylvania’s Primitive deer season began the day after Christmas. I forced myself to hunt as usual despite bouts of pain in my upper, inner thigh area.

A camera shot instead of a flintlock shot!

This first day I saw nine deer. Some deer were close enough, but brush caused a pause hoping for that perfect shot. Those waits often cause failure to get any shots. I did see a Least Weasel this day. That little weasel is rare and I felt privileged to see one. I quit a little after noon due to pain. I didn’t hunt the next day.

  I saw plenty of deer the next several times I hunted. (I took pain-relieving pills to make the hunt as tolerable as possible.) On Tuesday, the 30th, my cousins, Donnie and Bobby, as well as, my step father, Bob engaged in some hunting. Bobby and I dogged all morning. I had the hammer back of several potential shots, but I didn’t shoot. Two of these potential shots were near horizon lines. Another shot had two deer standing side by side. The closest deer was back  some, but I thought the deer may step just as I shoot potentially harvesting two deer. I hoped they would separate. Donnie and Bob missed  during this drive.

A small deer.

I elected to head off after the others went their separate ways.  I missed a shot at a deer for I misjudged the distance. I did see a coyote this day.

Today, January 2nd, my friend, Terry Williams and I went hunting with our flintlocks. Terry has limited time to hunt so I did some dogging hoping he might connect. He did get a nice buck in archery season and a doe earlier during this flintlock season. I saw a lot of deer with  two times having the hammer back hoping for that perfect shot. In fact, I had 22 deer sightings. Terry didn’t see any. Fate is like that!

I was circling Terry when I saw a deer in goldenrods and briars. I instinctively raised  Old Jacob and shot. The deer dropped. The shot was seventeen yards via Terry’s range finder. Tomorrow will be butchering day.