It has been a while since I posted personal hunting updates, but rest assured — I have been hunting steadily.
I hunted deer with a shotgun in Sussex County during the first two days of Delaware’s shotgun season. On the opening Friday I heard about 30 shots. I was holding out for a nice buck, so I gave about 8 deer free passes, including several does, button bucks, and 2 bucks with small racks. Realizing that I would not be able to hunt for the rest of the week, I decided I would take a doe on Day 2 if the opportunity presented itself. However, as it worked out, I only saw one deer on that Saturday, but it was about 400 yards away. In contrast to the previous day, I only heard about 6 shots all day.
I also hunted woodcocks in the first part of New Jersey’s woodcock season. On the first day I hunted, a light rain fell. My vizsla Gus pointed a few birds, but I couldn’t get to them in time for shots. On the second day I went, I harvested a limit of woodcocks in less than an hour. Several days later I went to the same spot and found no birds.
I woodcock hunted in Delaware yesterday morning with my daughter. Gus locked up on point after 20 minutes of hunting. As we moved towards him, we could see one woodcock walking away from him. I took another step and another woodcock flushed from under Gus’ nose. I dropped him with one shot. The other woodcock flushed the opposite direction and provided no shot. After Gus retrieved the downed bird, we walked another 10 yards and nearly stepped on another woodcock. He flushed and flew away unharmed. We marked him, Gus found him again, but he again presented no shot when he flushed.
Our woodcock hunt ended rather early, so I decided to bowhunt for deer in the afternoon in one of my suburban locations. The hunt was rather uneventful, until I saw a few kids driving a golf cart through the woods about 150 yards away. As I had hoped, they jumped a deer that ran toward me. The deer held up in a thicket for about 20 minutes not more than 40 yards from me. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it moving. After another 10 minutes, it left the thicket and came right through my shooting lane. A perfectly placed arrow caught lung and heart. The deer dropped within 20 yards.