MD DEERHUNTER

I hunt on Public Hunting Ground on a 2200 acre park here in Southern Maryland. For the last couple weeks I haven't been seeing any deer movement. I think with the added pressure of shotgun season the deer were moving at night. Saturday morning, I was sitting in my stand I thought I was hearing a buck grunting at me. 10-minutes later I heard 3-more grunt calls and the sounds kept coming from the same spot about 200-yards behind me. So, I knew there was another hunter behind me blowing on his grunt call. I was sitting there thinking "SHUT THE HELL UP!" I should have messed with him and grunted back to him. HA!HA!HA!
So, about 10:30 I look off to my left and I see 3-does walking in a straight line coming out of the thick brush. All 3-of them coming walking right to me. 2-of the does walk by the hollow tree to the right (see pic). The 3rd doe is walking really slowly behind the large oak tree. Soon as she past the large oak tree I took the shot with my Thompson Center Muzzleoader .50 cal. She took off running limping with the other 2-does following behind. They ran back into the thick brush (left of the picture) right where they had come from. I waited about 1/2-hour till I got out of my stand. I went over to where I shot her and I didn't see any hair or blood. I was like, "YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" But, I saw where they ran and soon as I got into the thick brush she was laying 5-yards in the brush. She probably ran 20-yards from where I shot her. Not a big deer but I finally got meat for the freezer and I can now stop second guessing myself. I still got 3-weeks left in this years hunting season. Today I'm hurting! Dragging deer over 1/2 mile out of public hunting grounds is a tough job. Now I no longer have to hear "When are you going to get a deer?"

Buckyou

nice deer !
Yeah dragging stinks.
I still do it.
Ironically I have a Kawwasaki Mule, a Suzuki Quad, a Jeep, and a Dodge Ram, but where I hunt NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES ALLOWED .
They want you to have a heart attack i guess.
My brother uses one of those fold up carts ? Works great. deer feel like a bag of cement on a handtruck. ONE HAND !

MD DEERHUNTER

Yes, I also use a deer cart. The only draw back is it makes too much noise on my way to the stand. I need to fiqure a way to mount an electric motor to the cart.

elmoughler

Good job! Nice looking doe

marshall9779

Congrats to a fellow public land MD hunter. I know how you feel. Sometimes I'm almost glad I haven't shot a big buck on public land. Hoping to get a cart for Christmas though.