Hunting with a new partner...

[VaRedneck]

The doe I got early yesterday morning dressed out at 140#...no complaints on the deer...but the hunt was a bit unusual.

Windy...real windy...10+mph with sustained gusts to 20-25mph. It was windy enough that I could feel the 30" dia beech I got my ladder stand leaning on, moving.

With the deer doing different things than the past few years...I had moved my stand father down hill into the northern tree line...overlooking the joining of two creek beds and one hill side covered in mt laural.

I was in the stand by 0600, dawn showed at around 7....my BlackDog showed around 0730. @#$%^&* he comes running down the pasture edge...cuts into the woods about 10yds from the stand...takes a leak...sniffs around for a few more min and heads back to the house...or so I figured. About 0800 he's back...this time he's back tracked my trail...directly to the stand...looks around for a sec...then looks right up at me. @#$%^&* as sternly as I could and in a low voice I said...lay down...at least twice. Nah...not gonna do that...off he goes sniffin and looking around the tree line...then back into the woods. Finally he heads back towards the house.

I don't like the new head gear I bought a coupla weeks back...the brim is too wide and forms blinders in my perifrial vision. After losing patience with the dog and finally the hat, I took all the head gear off...stashed the offending hat and replaced my neck gator and orange stocking cap...wind still pushing everything around. I look back up the hill and scan the far tree line I used to sit in...nuthin moving but tree branches...

#$%^&* something just made a hell of a racket...right side of my stand and close by...I turn quick and see 30yds away a deer breaking for the east...and outa the corner of my eye see BlackDog right behind. He musta just sat down right behind my tree. I couldn't see him...but he quit moving around near me. Any deer watching him move in the tree line musta lost site of him too. They came outa the creek bottom side of the laurel...the leader got too close for him to ignore any longer...prolly wondered what the hell I was waiting for...heh.

Two trailing deer headed back toward the laurel...but didn't get back all the way inside the cover. 85yds broadside...and not paying me the least bit attention...BOOM!

Never saw the dog again till I got back to the house. Oh sure he was all about coming then....heh. Yeah the doe made it all the way to the bottom of the creek..and do you think that dog would stick around and help my old, fat, slow, sorry azz drag that deer back up the hill through all that mt laurel...nope.

Gotta work on that.