November 13, 2009 – Opening Day of Delaware Shotgun Season
I hunted all day on the opening day of Delaware deer shotgun season — in a miserable nor’easter storm that brought steady 45+ mph winds and rain. Rather than using a bow, a brought the shotgun out to the woods for the first time this year.
I saw a 4-pointer around 6:30 AM, but I saw nothing else ALL DAY. I heard few shots. It seems that the weather had the deer hunkered down.
November 14, 2009 – Delaware Public Land Deer Hunt – Augustine Stand 1-L
I was chosen in the Delaware preseason hunting lottery for stand 1-L at Augustine Wildlife area. The stand, which is right along the Delaware River on an island in the marsh, seemed promising. With the nor-easter still blowing and causing flooding up and down the Delaware coastline, I figured the higher than normal water would push the deer from the marshes onto the islands. In fact, I even discuss this hunting tactic in my book, Hunting The First State: A Guide to Delaware Hunting.
I had to check in for my stand around 4:30 AM, so I walked to my stand around 4:45 — at low tide. (More about that later.)
Around 6:30, I saw too deer across the road and in a field about 500 yards away. I watched through my binoculars as a doe and huge 10-pointer meander through the field — right in front of a hunter! Now I don’t know if he was asleep or what, but I couldn’t believe that he didn’t shoot! After the deer got about 40 yards from him (after an hour), I saw him move to grab his gun, and the deer ran away. He never got a shot off.
Around 8:00, I realized that the tide was coming up quick. Because of the strong winds and rain from the storm, the tide was way higher than normal. In fact, by 9:00, I had fish swimming under my deer stand. No joke! I was stuck in that stand until the tide receded around 1:00 PM! With the flood, the deer did what I thought. They came to the island. However, I couldn’t see them! I heard them sloshing around no more than 20 yards from me, but I couldn’t see them through the thick bushes and phragmites. I did see three does about 200 yards behind me, but that was it.
November 14, 2009 – Afternoon Bowhunt
I should just stick with my bow! After my morning flood hunt with a shotgun, I opted to use my bow on private property in the afternoon. I made the right choice.
I set up on the ground instead of a tree stand. I grunted and bleated for about 30 minutes, when I noticed a giant 8-pointer coming toward me. It was just like a TV show. Everything worked out perfectly — until the time for the shot. He came at me nose to the ground. He refreshed a scrape and rubbed a tree. He actually came to me at 10 yards! However, right at the moment of truth, he stopped behind a tree in front of me. He was looking for the deer that were grunting and bleating. I had my Hoyt 38 Pro at full draw. His head and neck were passed the tree, but nothing else was! I thought about driving an arrow through his neck, but I decided not to take the low-probability shot. After 2 minutes, I had to come out of the draw.
He walked away, so I rustled some leaves and grutned again. He came back to me, but then I only had a shot with him coming toward me at 35 yards. Again, I chose not to take that shot. Becuase of my good King Of The Mountain camouflage, he never saw me. But he never saw the other “deer” either, so he lost interest. He circled away and dropped into a shallow gully. He finally was broadside at about 40 yards, but all I could see was his ears, antlers, and top of his back.
Damn! It was a perfect situation that just didn’t work out.