Dam* Does

Crazy.kayaker

Crazy.kayaker

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Edmonton, Alberta
So I went hunting again and spent 2 1/2 hours following a bucks tracks in the snow before I decided to let the buck go as I traveled the same hillside three times. I found me this nice little dry spot on the ground in a shrub and sat overlooking about 200 x 1000 yard section of grassland. About 45 or so minutes later the shrub I was hiding in starts to shake. Almost had a heart attack as I thought I was about to become a bears last meal instead I see about 2 feet away a doe nibbling on the tips of the shrubs branches. After both of our initial shock the doe goes back to its branch munching. Spent a good 10-15 minutes eating beside me. As I leave my camera in my hunting bags mesh pouch I started to go for it slowly but every time I started to reach for it the does head would pop up along with its ears and it would look strait at me so after 3 attempts I gave up trying for the camera so no pictures sorry. Almost the entire time all I could think of if only it was a buck and not some doe. This is the 4th time this season I could have reached out and touched a doe.
 
You may curse them does...but I think your story will always be remembered. And it is an accumulation of hunting stories that will outlive most other memories. To ME that is a fantastic day in the woods. :D
 
As time goes on I think you will relish that encounter more and more.
One of my great deer moments always remembered, was when in a clearing ahead on an old road I could see three deer, a doe and two spring fawns. A half hour later no buck showed up, so I decided to see how close I could get. When the heads were down feeding on the good grass, I would inch ahead, staying out of sight by the pile of debris from making the old road.
One fawn, I'll bet it was a male, got suspicious. Heads down, I inched ahead with a log sticking out between us. I peered under the log and there was the little guy staring straight at me! He let out a big snort, for the size of him, and started for the bush. Mother deer didn't see anything and wondered why she should be alarmed. The little guy looked at her, from his position half way to the bush, just like he was trying to tell her, "come on, I saw him."
I couldn't resist the temptation to let the little guy prove he was right, so I jumped right up in plain view. He again snorted and they all took off.
And guess what? From inside the bush line they were headed for, came a loud, deep snort!
 
That is what hunting is really about.

Of all my hunting memories, the one that stands out, and makes me smile like an idiot every time I think of it, was a close encounter I had with a Stone yew in Northern BC.

In 2004 I was bowhunting for Stone rams and had climbed to the highest point in the range we were hunting (on a buggered knee, no less) and was taking a break and eating my lunch in a little wide spot on a knife edged ridge. I heard a rock tumble just down the ridge so I made a lunge forward onto my belly to reach for my bow just as a yearling yew came into site. Here I am face down ON THE TRAIL she is speed walking up. The bugs were horrible that year and she was blowing and snorting trying to get them out of her nose. I quickly became concerned that she was going to step on me!

At about 5 feet (no fooling, I could have poked her with the end of my recurve) she figured something was wrong and she stopped. After about a minute of staring, blowing, snorting and shaking, she turns in a circle and drops to the ground right there. She is facing me, and between short bouts of staring at the lumpy thing on the trail (I was pretty chubby that year), she is rubbing her nose and face in the moss and grass trying to rid herself of those bloody bugs. She was so close that I could see little gold flecks in her eyes, it was unbelievable. After about a minute she stands up, blows a couple more times and then skips off the ridge, down through the rocks.

Made all the pain associated with a blown knee seem trivial. I'm still smiling.

Ian
 
I too, have seen those gold flecks in a stone sheep's eyes. Under some what similar curcumstances a half curl ram stared at us from fifteen feet, with the sun shining in his eyes.
 
dumbdawg said:
at least you got to go out hunting
Click to expand...
A days hunting beets the hell out of a day doing just about anything else. Game or no game, regardless of weather.
I was out today, -10C Wind howling enough to blow the tent/blind over. (I put it away, it was flapping too much anyway)
Had a hell of a good time, and all I saw was snow flakes.
 
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