There was a time in my hunting career when I spent all spring and summer, reloading, working up loads and busting varmints in preparation for hunting each Fall.  Last night about 9pm, my Father in Law calls me and asks if I wanted to make a morning deer hunt today.  I said - why not!  I rummaged through the safe for a gun.  The M94 Winchester 30-30 was in the front so I grabbed it and hunted for a hand full of shells.  The last time I shot it, I was pretty confident to 200 yards so I felt well armed.

I wouldn't have minded a fishing trip.  The BWO's are hatching and the South Fork is low and clear.  But one needs to go hunting now and then to remind us we are a predator.  Besides, I was getting kinda hungry for Whitetail chops.  I hunted the open country first that was adjacent to the river bottoms.  I hunted slow but saw no deer.  Next we pushed the river bottoms.  I forgot how thick it can be down there.  At first, I was silent and careful as I could be, carefully lifting limbs out of the way, watching where I stepped, taking a few steps then looking around and pausing and looking behind me to see if the deer might 'fish hook' and double back behind me.  I believed I was doing everything correctly.  After half a mile, I was crahsing through the shrubs, foliage and snags with all the stealth of a D8 CAT. I saw no deer. 

I did have a great day but I think I will go fishing tomorrow. 

I find that being out of the hunting game for a few years just how clumsy one can become in the woods...It is a skill that constantly has to be worked on or you lose it...walking quietly in the woods used to be second nature for me...Now I am like a bull in a china shop....and what I do not step on I step in