It was cold, quiet, and dark as I sat behind a large oak tree waiting for shooting light on Saturday morning.

Bow season had been open for two weeks and this was my first opportunity to go hunting. That working stuff really cuts into one's leisure time.

Most of the week had been cold and it rained or sprinkled every day. All the moisture in the ground made walking perfectly silent. I could move into the timber totally undetected. A light breeze blew in my face as I made my way in the darkness to my favorite tree next to the creek.

It takes a few minutes of sitting perfectly still to adjust to the quiet and the dark. Eventually, the little bit of light from the moon that makes its way to the forest floor is enough to begin to make out a few details.

Frost glistens on the fallen leaves and water in the creek at the bottom of the ditch sparkles in the moonlight. Sounds of the night birds are heard around the timber. It is not the harsh and loud sounds of the whip-poor-will a person hears in the spring during turkey season but the more subdued call of nighthawks and far off owls. The high-pitched call of bats can be heard as they swoop down to the creek getting a drink before retiring for the day.

It was almost light enough to see when I heard a coyote howl. I could not tell how close she was as her call echoed around the timber. It sounded as though she was just over the next hill a hundred yards away but she could just as easily been 500 yards away in the open pasture on the other side of the timber.

This year, I have developed a new strategy. I am going to get a nice fat doe first and then hunt the big buck. In past years, I hunt hard and long for the big one, passing up dozens of easy shots at does. With two or three days left in the season, still without the big buck, I also do not have any meat in the freezer.

I do not have to pass up any shots waiting for the right deer. I will get meat first and spend the rest of the time leisurely trophy hunting with no pressure.

When daylight finally arrived, I was beginning to feel the effects of sitting perfectly still on the cold, damp ground. I could do little but wait since the deer would be moving into bed after a night's feeding. I did not want to move around if I did not have to. Deer would be coming by at any minute.

Behind me to my left, a couple of squirrels started their day by running up and down trees and scampering through the frost- covered leaves. The noise they make running the trees is very distinctive but when they are on the ground, they sound like a deer walking. A person is obligated to turn and look each time, just in case it really is a deer and not the frolicking squirrels.

After 10 or 20 times of turning to look only to see the goofy squirrels in their endless game of tag, I was to the point of ignoring sounds from that direction. I watched intently on the opposite side of the creek bank where I knew the deer would be walking. They were not where I anticipated.

Eventually, I could no longer resist checking the rustling sound. I turned to see a startled young buck that had been walking up behind me. As he quickly departed, he made enough noise that every animal in the area had to have been alerted to danger in the area.

By this time, cold had managed to soak out of the ground all the way into my bones. I could go home, get warm, and call it a successful hunt.

Being face to face with the game one hunts is great even if the freezer is still empty.

Walter Scott of Bloomfield, Iowa, is an outdoors writer whose columns appear in newspapers throughout the Midwest.

There are 0 comments - Display All Comments