Finally, after somewhat overcoming my bad case of cedar fever, on the 11th, I gutted up and hunted both in the morning and afternoon. There’s a cool snap coming this weekend and the high winds, 20-25, are playing hob with the deer movement. The only “shot” I got was of a real, dark deer walking under my tree stand, maybe my melanistic?
Thursday morning there was a lot of doe movement and I only saw one spike that I’m trying to save for the grandsons. Thursday afternoon I moved to another spot and one six pointer walked right under my tripod. This is next year’s deer and not wanting to spook it, I refrained from taking a “shot”.
More on cedar fever, a seasonal allergy that occurs usually in late October and early November and effects most folks in central Texas! It is caused by our copius amount of cedar trees that bloom or pollinate during this time. It starts with a scratchy throat, soon followed by a post-nasal drip, then eyes, ears and nose start running. If home remedies such as Echinacea, honey and cinnamon, saline spray and saline gargle don’t work, you’re a candidate for antihistamines. The last resort, that generally cures it, is a steroid shot.
However, ignoring my cedar fever, bright and early Friday morning I was in the tripod stand that Layla and I built, see my October11, 2010 post “[A New Tower Blind]” for more details. The wind was howling, my attempts at quietness being broken by sniffles and hacks, I was sure I wouldn’t see a deer, so I gave myself 10 more minutes, then I’d go on in. Two minutes into my time limit, out walked my melanistic, yearling, only 6 or 7 months old. Picking up the camera to get a “shot” of her, out walked a buck, a nice one and certainly a shooter.
As they “introduced” themselves, not 20 feet from my tripod, it ran through my mind that these would make some great pictures, but this was quickly overridden by my predatory instincts and shouldering my .270, quietly taking it off Safe and centering it just below the shoulder, I let fly, boom!
Down went the deer for keeps, so I gathered up my rifle, camera and binocs, climbed out of the tripod and headed in to get Layla and Spike the wonder daschund. Spike likes to “find” the deer for me and with his great nose there’ll be one time he’ll really be needed. This time it was just for his practice. He was so possessive of this buck that I had to take him back to the jeep and didn’t get any pics of him and the deer.