What You Can Expect During Deer Hunting

Going hunting doesn't always mean that you can always have steak on the dining table at the end of the trip. Sometimes, hunter can also miss the target.

Another time I was hunting down state, with my trusty .38/55. This is one of the most dependable guns I ever owned. It has never failed me, except one time when I broke the loading gate, and another time when I tried some reloaded fodder-loaded with home-made black powder. It is best not to fool with such stuff unless you know what you're doing. Black powder fouls up everything.

I had hunted all morning without a bit of success and, since I was near home when noon came, I went to the house for lunch. I had some "little ones" around at that time, and I jacked the cartridge out of the barrel when I took the gun inside. However, I left the cartridges in the magazine. After eating, I went in another direction, thinking deer might be in that locality.

I hadn't gone far, following a game trail up over a ridge, when I detected motion in the trail ahead. I stopped and awaited developments. A big doe and fawn came down trail towards me. Now in a case like this, I like to wait and see what the deer will do. In this instance, I knew well enough that the doe would keep coming until she saw me, then would swing broadside and stop for a short time until she had positively identified me. While I waited, I considered how lucky I was to find my deer so near the road and with a downhill haul all the way. The doe came to a point within a hundred feet of me before she saw me. When she did, things happened as I expected, and I swung the gun so that the sights were lined on her shoulder. I squeezed the trigger, and nothing happened except the click of the hammer on the firing pin. I had forgotten to jack a cartridge into the barrel when leaving the house.

At the click of the gun, the doe took off through the brush. She made a half circle around me at a distance that never exceeded two hundred feet, always in sight through the trees. I fired six shots at her without ruffling a hair on her hide. Such slight things will upset the nervous system of most of us and I had a serious case of buck fever at that time. Oh well! There is always another deer. Speaking of unsuccessful morning hunting, three of us had such a morning some years ago in the woods of our Somerset County.

There had been a heavy, damp snow during the night. It stuck to the trees so the woods were very quiet-you know that such stuff on trees will absorb any sound a hunter might make. These conditions make ideal hunting, if a man doesn't mind a little snow down his neck; but the deer seldom move about on their own. A hunter must stalk their beds or kick them out in order to have a track to follow-if he expects to do much. We hunted all morning without finding a track. By noon, we were soaked to the skin and ready to call it a day. Leaving the woods we went to a farmer's house, where we'd left the car. The farmer invited us in to dry out and eat our lunch. We were thirty miles from home and hated to leave without a deer.

There is always another day to come back for hunting if the first attempt doesn't come successfully.

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