It took me a bit to come up with a title for this one and Delaware Dud kept coming to the top of my mind. Why fight it? I think it aptly describes the few days I spent hunting down there from Saturday evening to Tuesday morning. I might be making it out to be worse than it actually was. On three of my six setups I had deer within shooting range. On two of those occasions I simply passed the shot. On the third I got spotted by a doe that was right underneath me. Yes, it is possible to have a deer at five yards without getting a shot.
I think the larger challenge on this trip was the weather, and deer movement seemed to be mostly at night. One of the days the high temperature reached 76 degrees. Obviously deer still move when it’s that warm but it was uncomfortable for me. In fact, it was one of two hunts that didn’t at least result in a sighting. The other was Sunday morning when I was hunting the “Pocket” and two punks decided they’d spend their morning mud bogging on Hudson Road. It’s a favorite pastime of the local rednecks. I have to laugh when Ron refers to them as “Bubba’s” that drive “Bubba trucks.” As luck would have it, we ended up catching them in the act and that resulted in a tense verbal exchange. When the dust settled they said they were sorry. Good enough I suppose.
I didn’t see any mature bucks on this trip, but that’s not uncommon for the mid-October visit. Ron did see a good one on Sunday evening but it was bounding away and it wasn’t like it just walked into range. I tried to set up on the buck on Monday evening but he never showed. The only buck I saw was a spike. I did see seven long beards though, and that was the hunt that ended with the adult doe right underneath my stand. All in all, it was a good hunt.
The last hunt was just off Hudson Road in an area where we saw a ton of sign when scouting a couple days before. As it turned out, I didn’t see my first deer until 8:30 when a doe and her fawn were sneaking through. I did have a shot at the doe if I wanted it, but it was sketchy and I wasn’t going to attempt a challenging shot unnecessarily. Despite not filling any tags, it’s always an enjoyable trip and I’m already looking forward to getting back in early November. Until then, I’ll be focused on trying to fill more tags at home.