Larry A. Smail's Blog

My step father, Bob Miller, and I situated ourselves about forty yards apart this morning. The field we were watching has a lot of terrain contours so our separation allowed us to see the entire field. I have another antlerless tag, but I wasn’t carrying a firearm this day. I am waiting for flintlock season.

  The ground surface was white with frost. I was literally prone on the ground enjoying a beautiful sunrise and listening to a little turkey chatter from across the hollow, when I saw a doe walking into the field. She was followed by two others. I whistled to Bob, and motioned him to walk backwards into the woods and come to me from behind. Unfortunately, the deer were not in the mood to stay for long. Bob managed to see the three deer briefly before they entered the woods.

We edged along the field, but the deer had moved down, and over the side of the hill.                                            

I told Bob where to go, and I would walk along the hill’s side to try to push any deer towards him. I circled the field’s edge, and two deer came over the skyline. Bob saw them, but couldn’t get a shot.

I finally walked the pre-discussed drive, and in moments I heard his shot. I hurried to his position, and found Bob standing over a nice doe. Bob said ten to twelve deer came through from all directions. One stopped! While we were there with the deer I noticed another deer  walking. It was a small spike.                                                           

Later on, I spotted a nice eight-pointer with does in the distance. The buck was interested in breeding. The does were not!