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The regular gun season for whitetail deer, bucks only, is now in full swing for the entire month of December.
Which is as it should be, since December is the normal time for the deer’s mating season here, when bucks are active and visible, the so-called rut.
Later rut in Alabama, but that’s another story. I went there once but weather did not co-operate. However, around a campfire with new friends heard good stories, proven with photos, from a building contractor who did all the houses for the Alabama country singing boys.
Deer were not plentiful here like now, but could be hunted where they had been stocked at Fires Creek in Clay County, for a modest daily fee. Our folks as well as out-of-towners parked in a long line each morning to be checked in.
Years later one of the locals said he was hunting alone, high on the rocky rim above the creek on the left side, some call it Rockhouse.
Said he hadn’t seen a thing all morning. But just as he left his stand in the sky he felt like doing something physical. There was a huge stone there and he put his shoulder to it, rolling it off the edge into a big hollow below him.
Could hear it crashing below as it picked up speed, he said, for a long time. Others heard it, too.
Stopped to speak to a roadside hunter on the way out, maybe from Charlotte.
“We’re leaving right now,” the nervous man told him. “Getting the hell out of here. We heard something big coming down the mountain, breaking down small trees, heck of a racket. Don’t know what it was but we’re gone …”
Lady luck be good to me
Have had several hunters mention to me that luck plays a large part in hunting. But of course you need to be enough of an outdoorsman to put yourself in a good place, so skill counts, too. And good enough rifleman to hit your animal in the right place.
Murphy friend who was an eye doctor had recently killed a nice buck at Fires Creek and he had a good sense of humor, too. So I asked him, how much skill and how much luck is involved.
“Oh, I’d say skill is necessary,” he said with a grin. “Sometimes skill runs as high as two percent … and the rest is pure luck.”
Down in the middle part of our state, I heard a tale of a new deer hunter who bought everything he needed to try deer hunting with a muzzle-loader rifle, which uses the old-time black powder. Even had a fancy fringed leather shoulder-strap for his gun.
When the moment came he shot down a big buck with big antlers. Hung his new gun by the strap in the horns and reached for camera to make the victory photo.
Suddenly the “dead” deer leaped to its feet and dashed away, taking the gun securely strapped to its bragging-sized rack. The hunter ran in hot pursuit but got lucky when his gun fell to the ground. Never saw the animal again.
Camo costume change
Some years ago, we bought a small farm with Martins Creek running through the middle of it.
No deer at all on it then. I joined a hunting club with leased land in Georgia and also hunted some on public lands in nearby Fannin and Union counties.
But lots of time deer are killed by opportunity, the hunter not actively hunting but taking advantage of a suddenly appearing animal.
My best one was like that.
It was during the legal gun season but it was an abnormally warm day, probably 70 degrees or better in early December. So I was wearing knit shorts and a tank top. Keep that in mind.
Does had been seen several times that morning in my fields and crossing the road. I was talking on the phone in the kitchen, watching a large-bodied deer across the creek and suddenly realized it had horns.
Grabbed a little single-shot rifle in .44 Magnum and just two shells for it and ran toward the creek. The buck was running away on the opposite side of the stream. I shot and missed. He kept running and I followed, last shell in the gun.
In a deep bend of the creek I looked up and saw it, high atop the bluff and running. I made the deer-grunt noise with my mouth, the buck stopped, and I shot it. It fell backward down the face of the bluff, end over end, until its 6-point rack lodged in brush.
Back home for the required photo, I covered the tank top with the customary camo shirt and also put on a camo baseball cap.
We hunters have a dress code, you know, and certain standards to uphold in behavior and appearance.
Wally Avett first wrote for the Cherokee Scout as editor in 1969. His books are available as signed copies at the Scout office in Murphy. Call him at 828-837-5531 or email wallyavett@gmail.com.