If you don' t shoot.... you' ll never kill ' em.[:-] The bucks went down a slight hill and up the other side and dropped within sight of the stand. The doe laid down within sight, got up and staggered off. He knew she was dead or soon would be. And she was. The only reason she made it as far as she did is it was all down a tremedously steep hill. Too steep to drag her back up. Her last 20 yards was off a cliff. It' s really hard to sharp shoot the results, but I guess there' s always someone playing watch dog. Everyone should be as proficient as Len. I can' t remember all the times he' s shot a double in the past 4 years. Tracking is something Len does exceedingly well. He had all the tracking done when I got there. All I had to do was a little dragging. Somehow I forgot and left my knife in the car.[:-]
As far as killing deer with EASE. Who said it was easy. Len hunts hard. Far more than I do. There are lots of days we see nothing, move, scout etc etc etc. Len has probably hunted, ON AVERAGE, 3 or 4 days a week since JULY. Or at least a couple hours before opening his shop. For the past 2 weeks, nearly some time 4 or 5 days a week. So lets see, do the math, was it really easy? That' s about 21 weeks with let' s say 4 days. So he' s been in the woods parts of 80 days. It isn' t easy. He gets in his tree an hour before light, he goes to work, he plays dad and husband, he takes his kid a couple times a week and puts him up. He' s 11 and has shot 3 or 4 with the bow this year and one with the muzzleloader. I know people hunting the same woods that can' t buy a shot. It' s work and you have to work at it. I didn' t mention all the scouting and stand hunting and hanging of Buckshot brackets etc etc etc. Become the arrow Grasshopper.
Yes we have a good deer population. You read the sites and you' ll see plenty of people just begging for a shot in Maryland. You' ll see whoes of no shots and no opportunities. It isn' t luck, the woods or the luck of the draw... it' s the skill, time and dedication. He has literally let dozens and dozens of deer walk.
NOPE........ TWACK never gets old or routine. We rejoice in every deer with each other and for each other. I think we' d both rather see the other guy shoot the next one, or one of our guests. We have a pretty decent record with putting a guest in the right spot too. We usually save a couple spots just for such occasions. We currently have 6 properties we hunt. They' re in size from 5 acres to 265 acres. We can tell you what and when the deer in each piece of property do it. You don' t want to shoot... you don' t have to. I don' t shoot much. I let lots walk and take one when the mood hits me. I also draw LOTS of blanks.