Larry A. Smail's Blog

Deer hunting for me this year didn’t happen the first week of the 2019 Pennsylvania buck season. My step-father spent three days in the hospital and I felt I should be there for moral support to him and my mother. I attended two funerals of dear people to me. Five friends and acquaintances passed away in less than two weeks ago. This just “ain’t” right. Also, the family has been going through some difficult issues as of late, as well. regardless, I just either couldn’t hunt or simply I lacked the hunting mode mentality.

Today, I had a day to hunt and this was the only day to hunt this week. I could have hunted Monday, but the all-day rains kept me from the woods. I have commitments for the rest of the week.

I had planned to carry my flintlock “Old Jacob” this morning, but rain was seemingly going to hold on for a time. I wasn’t confident with the forecast.  I carried my Remington Gamemaster in a 30:06 caliber.

I set some ground rules for this day’s hunt. One was that I wasn’t going to shoot any buck unless the rack was big enough to meet my brain’s criteria.  A second plan was to just shoot a doe. I didn’t rule out taking a smaller deer because, as stated above, this would be the only day to hunt.

I spotted a bedded deer and soon realized the deer had a rack. The “horns” weren’t very big and I didn’t try to count the points to see if it was legal. I soon spotted a second deer . It was a doe, but I didn’t like the shot. It ended up five or six deer were bedded around the brush. I would see other deer off and on, but none offered any shots and many just couldn’t be positively identified. I still-hunted the entire morning. The light rains quit around ten, but the winds had been roaring at times. The temperatures dropped fast as well and by mid-morning I was feeling the chill.

Eventually I was approaching a hill’s flat top area and I decided to continue still hunting over the other side and whenever I reached the road and jeep I would call the hunt and stop and see how Mom and Bob are doing.

About forty yards out I saw a deer’s ear moving. This deer was feeding and moving from right to left. The deer worked into a slightly more open area and I prepared to shoot. Once I realized the deer wasn’t a big doe I hesitated. Thoughts began flowing across my brain waves. Should I shoot? I remembered thinking of the recent summons for the federal court in Pittsburgh for the first two weeks of the flintlock season. The decision was true at this point. I placed the crosshairs on the deer and BOOOOOM. The deer dropped immediately. A short prayer of thanks was offered for the clean and humane kill.

The deer will add some meat for the following year t help nourish our bodies.