Quote: I hunted deer for 10 years on public ground; got one shot, and missed it. A friend of mine, and fellow deer hunter, came by the house one day, & the conversation inevitably turned to deer hunting. He told me that I was crazy for driving halfway across the state, into the mountains of western MD; sleeping in a cold truck and buying all my meals, when I had more & better deer right here at home. What he said made sense to me, and I've always hunted out my own place since.
In those days MD's firearms deer season ran for a week, starting the Saturday after Thanksgiving & ending the following Saturday, with no Sunday hunting allowed. In '81, I'd hunted hard all week (I took that week off work every year) & hadn't seen the slightest hint of a deer. Finally, on Thursday, about 10 o'clock, I spotted two deer walking into the woods two or three hills away, so I started my way toward them. As I was walking through a small patch of woods along the way, smoking like a locomotive & making a racket in the dry leaves, I paused to check my back trail. As I did, I spotted a nice buck about 45 yards away, facing me. He'd evidently been bedded in a laurel thicket & heard/smelled me coming. He was panning the landscape, trying to pick me up. I only had one target; straight-on. I slowly got to one knee, settled the scope dead center of the brisket, and fired. He's the one I've posted the picture of here a few times, the only decent buck I've ever taken.
