By Sherman T. Shifflett
Opening day of deer season in Virginia is always an exciting event for me. So is the final day of hunting season. I’m glad to see it come in and I’m glad to see it end.
By all accounts, Fox Run Hunt Club had a successful season. About 25 club members harvested 52 deer. The tally was 56 last year and 66 the year before. We figured the count would be down because of the coyotes taking so many fawns, but we still saw and pursued lots of deer. Plus, the club president encouraged members to pass on deer if they already had enough venison in the freezer.
The weather was fairly mild during the past season. On the last day, Saturday, January 2, the temperature at 5:30 AM was 25 degrees (good hunting weather) and was one of the few times all season I had to scrape ice off the windshield. We did have a lot of rain during the season.
Before regular bow season started in early October, I had already taken a doe in Albemarle County where I had a special kill permit. Took her at 45 yards, my longest kill ever with a bow. Most of my bow kills are between 25-35 yards. During the regular bow season, I saw plenty of deer, but all were out of range. Early in bow season, a small buck sneaked through the bushes (we still had lots of foliage) undetected. I heard what sounded like a dead limb falling, looked around and saw the buck stumbling over a fallen tree, just 20 yards away. He darted off and I had no shot.
Luck was on my side during muzzle-loader season. The first doe I shot was confiscated by a bear (another story), so I took a smaller doe, but subsequently passed on several other does and large fawns. I saw a monster buck, but he was nearly 300 yards away and I don’t feel comfortable at that distance, even with a TC “Encore”. A few days later, during a rainstorm, a large-bodied buck with small rack sashayed across the cornfield near dusk, like he was on a mission. He passed by at 30-35 yards and I grunted to stop him or at least slow him down. He ignored me.
My hand-eye co-ordination is not as good as it used to me with moving targets, but I put the crosshairs on brown in the boiler room area and squeezed the trigger. He never broke stride nor flinched. Normally, after a shot, if they run off, I wait 30 minutes before tracking blood. This time, it was raining, so looked for blood immediately. Nary a drop, so I figured it was a clean miss. I walked to my Honda Rancher 4-wheeler and started back to my truck/trailer. Just 15 yards from my 4-wheeler, the buck was lying beside the path. It was a big buck with small rack, an older deer. He needed to be removed from the gene pool.
The bear ticked me off. I had the crosshairs on him the same day he took my deer, at 60 yards, standing still, but it was two days before bear season opened. I went back several times looking for him. Saw him twice more, once he walked 15-20 yards behind my tree stand, but I did not see him until it was too late. He was one lucky bruin. I saw him again in the cornfield, but he was out of range, feeding on spilled corn just yards from the cutover and I did not want to chance it. After feeding he returned to the cutover and a monster bear emerged and started feeding. He was so large he was waddling. He actually lay down in the cornfield to feed. That bad boy had to tip the scales at 450-500 lbs. Subsequently, we saw some bear scat as large as a cow pie. Also, saw fresh bear tracks much larger than a man’s hand.
We saw plenty of wild turkeys, but we aren’t as excited about shooting turkeys as we used to be. Several years ago I took a turkey with smoke pole.
Coyotes have changed the habits of deer. Some places there are no deer, and in other places the deer have herded up. One landowner in the county had crop damage, so he asked us to thin the deer out. The first time the group went in, I was on a stand in a cutover and a doe ran up a path on an opposite ridge; I fired at her with my 12-gauge Remington 1100 and she went down.
Only then did I realize that the distance was about 100 yards and now there would be some back strap in the freezer.
Several days later on another hunt, a friend has a bird dog that will chase deer 400-500 yds. She hunts like crazy; will sweep the cutover and flush game. She jumped a herd of deer and it sounded like a small war going on. One deer ran through the broom sage and came straight for me. At 20 yards I put the skids under her.
Some interesting things happened this season. Greg Barlow shot a small buck with slug gun at 150 yds. I was impressed. A club member shot a buck that had been shot previously and was badly infected. The buck would have died from the injuries. The carcass had to be disposed. I don’t think we took a single turkey this season, but we saw plenty. We did take out three coyotes. I have yet to kill one. After rabbit season, a club member will start trapping them.
Overall, it was a good season for me. I made the longest bow shot ever, I made the longest shotgun kill ever, and have venison in the freezer and some good memories.
Hopefully, I can do it again next year.
