It's been one of those weeks... The week started out hunting Maryland's eastern shore. Last year the trip was pretty successful for the friend I took with me and I had high hopes for this year as well. Went down Monday and hunted Monday afternoon and it was warm out and breezy. I saw a big doe and fawn but could not get a shot. The weather seemed to be bad for hunting and rut seemed to be real slow down there and in fact very little sign and just not much movement. Talked to others down there and they said the same thing. That was just the start to a interesting but mostly bad week of hunting. Monday evening while loading the truck my bow got damaged but I wasn't aware of it.
That brings us to Tuesday morning, when I got in my tree I found out my bow was broken and unusable. That led to a day of lots of driving, and during the course of the morning we found out we needed to come home. So, hunting was very limited on the eastern shore this year, maybe I will go back in January. Got home late Tuesday and got up Wednesday morning and repaired my bow and re-sighted it in.
Got back out in the woods Wednesday evening in Loch Raven. I went to a section I hadn't been this year and thought maybe it would be good. Walking in I found normal amounts of sign, and saw some monster rubs, trees as big around as telephone polls. Again, high hopes for the evening. Well the day started out really good, or really bad depending on how you look at it. I had just gotten up in my tree was getting my gear out and was just about to pull my bow up and I heard deer coming. A doe and either fawn or yearling walked in on me, they didn't spook but they also knew something wasn't right. They hung around looking around trying to figure out what was wrong for 20 or so minutes before finally the mature doe snorted one time and ran off. She never really figured out what was wrong she wasn't near me nor looking at me. I think she just snorted to see if she could figure out what was off. Anyway, they ran off back the way they had come in and I got my bow up and settled in and waited.. Well, I waited a while and hadn't seen anything else, I was getting concerned I wouldn't see anything at all. Finally, around 4:30 PM I saw another deer coming from the same place the does had earlier in the day and it was headed in my direction. He got closer, and I quickly saw it was just a young spike buck and I let him walk on by, he fed around me for 20 minutes before finally walking down and over the big hill behind me. That was the end of the night....
Thursday morning I couldn't hunt but came to an awful discovery by 8 AM. The big 8 point buck that we got pictures of back a few weeks ago was dead along our private land. He had been bit by a car and died something between 7 and 7:30 this morning. Since I found him quickly after he was hit and died, I contacted DNR was able to get a non-hunting tag for the deer and took it to a butcher to see if any of the meat was still good. Waiting to hear about that buts let's hope. I hate to see such a nice deer go to waste and I'll take what I can get if even some of it is still good. That being said I wish I was writing to tell you all I had shot this deer. Instead the front of someone's car likely did the killing for me but I was just lucky enough he died on our private land. I still plan to get out as much as possible the next week or so, but at least if any of the meat is good it will be meat in the freezer! Below is the deer.
Anyone else been out this week? Anyone seen big deer up and moving or better yet harvested one? We would love to see some pictures of your deer!
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