Yesterday, November 12, 2010, was the opening day of Delaware’s shotgun deer season, where hunters can harvest does or bucks. I met a friend at 5:00 AM to deer hunt with our shotguns. We arrived at our hunting spot with high hopes, but neither of us saw a deer. I heard one shot nearby around 6:20 AM, but not many more until around 8:30 AM, when I heard a few more. I left the woods around 9:15 AM.
Not wanting to waste a day off, I drove home to switch guns, gear, and clothing, and to grab my dog Gus. My dog and I headed to New Jersey to try for some woodcocks around noon. Traditionally I haven’t had any difficult finding woodcocks in the afternoon. Yesterday was a different story. I went to my favorite woodcock spot, and Gus pointed or flushed no woodcocks. The leaves and ground were extremely dry, so I think after the moist dew evaporated in the late morning, the woodcocks moved to wetter ground. However, there were a lot of rabbits moving about in the afternoon sun. Gus pointed and flushed one rabbit, which I bagged.
Remembering that New Jersey stocks pheasants in some closeby locales, I opted to change tactics and pursue pheasants. I drove to a public hunting spot where pheasants are stocked, but we found none. (Interestingly, Gus did get a bird up on the edge of the pheasant field. I couldn’t tell if it was a woodcock or snipe. I managed to get one shot off, but we came up empty.)
The 62-degree heat was a little much for Gus and I, so drove home. I again changed guns, gear, and clothing and grabbed my bow. I went to a private bowhunting spot, hoping the public land gun hunters would push some deer to my spot. As I walked in to my stand around 3:30 PM, I saw two deer jump up and run. I blew my grunt call, and they stopped. Rather than running, they then just gently walked away.
I climbed into my stand and saw no other deer until around 5:00 PM. A single doe was feeding about 70 yards from me, slowly making her way toward my stand. After about 10 minutes of watching her, she came into range. As she put her head down, I drew my bowstring, picked a spot, and let the arrow fly. The arrow hit a good spot. She jumped up, ran a few yards, and fell.
My plan was to hunt this morning, but I needed some extra sleep! I will butcher the doe now, then head to the woods later.