Larry A. Smail's Blog

The first day of the 2022 Pennsylvania deer season found me heading home empty-handed. Yes, I saw some deer and even saw an illegal buck, but no shot materialized. I knew I had to be extra careful with my shots for I saw a small spike buck during the early muzzleloading season. I even had the hammer cocked and firearm aimed. Luckily my patience saw the four- or five-inch, pencil diameter spikes. I was watching for a racked buck but by the afternoon I would have taken a doe if the shot was a good one.

Today the third day of the season found me in my haunts willingly ready to shoot a doe. I would see twenty-three deer by the end of the hunt. One adult doe came extremely close to becoming hamburger. I spotted her while still hunting at about forty yards. She squatted to urinate as I anxiously tried to determine first if the deer was a big enough one for harvest and not the spike.

Unfortunately, she was on the other side of some downed limbs. I clicked the safe off of the rifle and slowly drifted to my right to open up the vital areas. As I raised the rifle she suddenly turned and saw me and jumped away.

Fox Squirrel, one of four I saw in two days.

Later I spotted a deer feeding ahead. I stalked the deer and spotted the deer at about forty-five yards. I could not tell with certainty of any head ornaments. The deer fed slowly away, and I circled around hoping to get ahead for a clear look. I walked to about twenty-eight yards and in those seconds, I still wasn’t sure enough to shoot. Hard to believe!

I was heading to watch a feeding area and saw three deer feeding. patience would be the answer in this hunt. One was a half-racked buck and a big deer. I lost sight of them due to terrain contours. A flock of swans flew over.

I waited behind some pine tree trunks watching the feeding area. Suddenly, a deer came into view just ahead. I prepared to shoot. The deer was about fifteen yards and must have winded me. The deer bolted in reverse and turned in front of me in open area. the deer stopped. the forty-three-yard shot was good. The deer collapsed about twenty-five yards.

The deer was actually a buck. The antlers were about one inch along and exposed. The weight was around 110 to 120 pounds.

Fortunately, the landowner told me I could drive across the field to get as close as I can to any harvested deer. That is great. This old pooper has some fears with long deer driving. I backed down a gas line and got to within thirty yards of the downed deer.

Bear claw marks on a Beech Tree.