Larry A. Smail's Blog

To say my buck/ doe season was short would be an understatement. The first day I elected to watch for a trophy buck. I saw one, but I failed to get an accurate “Horn” count. (Pennsylvania law in my area demands three points on the main beam to be considered legal. I saw fifteen deer this day. However, in the afternoon I began noticing an occasional cough. No big deal since I have asthma so coughs can happen at anytime.

I quit before the legal ending time for a daily hunt to head for home. I knew, but this time, something might be happening. (I saw a legal buck after I began the drive home. He was feeding over an embankment.)

The second day I decided to not hunt for the temperatures were to get into the upper sixties. I process most of my deer and I don’t like to hunt if the weather gets to warm. However, I had a raspy throat when I woke up. By evening I had a full-fledged sore throat along with shivering. From this point it was down bill!

Later, I would feel as if I was getting well, but by evening the dreaded symptoms returned with a vengeance. I had to finally call a doc!

This morning, December 8, I had breakfast with family and was hiking the woods by 10:00. I soon noticed the one issue that was still happening within my lungs…a cough! I seemed to have a one-syllable cough about every 12-15 minutes. Oh well, I thought I was out and enjoying being in the woods. ALl total in the four hours I spent carrying my flintlock I saw eleven deer.

I spotted a deer’s back at one point in a heavy brush area. I stopped and moved to a tree to hide behind. Two deer showed up. One deer began to walk towards me. Something gave my presence away to the deer. She would stare and walk towards me. Soon she was well within range and offering a great shot. Big problem was my flinter was not in position to shoot.

I thought she will look away at some point allowing for the rifle to get aligned. Problem comes to reality! I felt a cough. I suppressed it. Cough number two come to be and I suppressed it, too. Cough number three irritated my inner being to the point suppressing wouldn’t work. All of sudden a lung cough exploded from deep within my lungs as I watched two white flags bounce away. More coughs followed. I guess I was being told to not mess with those coughs. I was a little upset because most everything was going well. I thought I knew this could happen and continued to look for deer.

I saw about fifteen turkeys at various times. I was tired by the time I returned home.