Howdy y'all. Well, time to catch up. Opening weekend for rifle season was Nov. 22-23. I was in the woods early Sat. morning and set up and ready to go. The sun started to come up over my shoulder and it was getting light enough to see I looked around and stood up to stretch. When I did, I heard a noise behind me towards a trail I was watching. I slowly picked up my rifle, clicked the safety off and turned around to look. I finally got turned around enough to see and saw something moving. It was behind some scrub so I couldn't see it well so I positioned myself for a shot and waited for the revelation.
That's when I saw it and my heart started hammering. It was a damned flashlight and another hunter with no freaking orange on. He was walking right down the scent trail I laid out and right to my stand. I turned my headlight on and flashed it but he apparently didn't see it and walked right under my tree. hollered at him and he almost jumped out of his skin. He looked up and said morning and I commenced to giving him the riot act about not having his orange on and the possibility of him being shot if it had of been someone other than me out there. Then he just shrugged, said "Sorry" and walked on behind my stand in to the woods aways. Then he started walking around in circles like a dog checking a rabbit trail and went to my left and climbed up in a ladder stand four trees over. My two year old would have made less noise in the woods than this guy.
Before anyone comments, yes I was on a WMA and the only thing I said anything to him about was not having his orange on. I have no problems with other hunters when I am on public land. This is par for the course, but he didn't have orange on and didn't seem to care he was sharing a spot with another hunter. The stand had not been there the day before when I went to check the spot out. If it had of been, I would have set up somewhere else. I understand this was not an option for him as he had a ladderstand and that was fine. I could have moved because I had a climbing stand but I had worked this spot since Muzzleloader season, scouting, patterning, and such just for opening weekend of rifle season.
I hunted here last year some and found that when other hunters were out the deer seemed to migrate to this area. It is deep in the woods and about a mile walk from where I have to park my truck. Well, I thought about moving or leaving but I was with my father-in-law and he was set up between me and the truck. I didn't want to ruin his hunt or have him cut it short because of some inconsiderate person and, believe it or not, I didn't want to ruin the other guys' chances either. I guess everyone isn't as respectful and considerate as I am of other hunters. I decided to stay and wait until my father-in-law was ready to go and decided to go to my lease property.
After we left the woods, I went home and loaded up and went to my lease. I hunted Sat. afternoon and evening and Sun. until noon and didn't kill anything. I did see 6 on Sat. evening but couldn't get a shot because they were in some heavy brush. Anyways, I ended up having a good weekend with other guys from the hunting club and the weekend finished better than it started. Talk to y'all later.
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