Hunter's Journal: Entry #1

Just a quick note. So I've desided to do a post segmeant called Hunter's Journal. The posts will be located in my main feed and on the Hunting Stories page. Feel free to leave comments and ask questions. I hope you enjoy.

Hunter's Journal

Entry #1                                                      The Marsh Ghost

   

10-20-17

It’s 4:50 p.m.  I’ve been in the woods for about two hours and I’m honestly starting to get bored. So far all I’ve saw to day is a couple dozen squirrels; one of which I’m watching right now. He clings to the side of a tree facing a trail I expect a Sika Deer to walk down. Nonetheless nothing shows up and the squirrel goes on about his business.

The sun is finally lowering in the sky, slowly moving from the spot it seemed to have been hung up on.

There goes that squirrel again up the tree with two others, barking at who knows what. Certainly nothing I can see.

As you may have noticed I am a tad bored. My attention span feeling rather short after a morning of only seeing…. Squirrels.

At this point writing this is a mere way to pass time as I wait rather impatiently for something, anything other than a squirrel to show up.

I’ve been hunting Sika Deer for about four years now and I’ve yet to successfully see one while hunting much less harvest one. I always see them after I’m done hunting, usually behind wherever we happen to be staying. I’ve heard them saw their tracks, never seem to be able to lay eyes on while hunting.

I usually hunt for sika deer hunt on assateague, but this weekend I’m in Toddville. When on assateague the mosquitos usually aren’t badbecuase of thesea breeze but here though. They are bad. I do t think I could standsiting here with out my thermo cell.  When I first got in the blind this afternoon there was a whole swarm. Took about five minutes for the thermo cell to clear them out.   Now just a one or two longer through every few minutes.

Almost every year my uncle glen comes down from Massachusetts to hunt sika deer early muzzleloader with me and my dad. For the first time I am hunting with a gun I can call my own. It is Weirton late 18^th birthday present to my self. CVAAcurra v2 ss nitrate barrel

A gun shot just went off close by. I wonder if somebody got one?

5:25pm. 1 1/2hours of shooting light left tops

I can hear voices shouting the distance, but it’s far off.

Whether this just becomes a page in a hunting journal I have decided to start while sitting here. Or get to finish this as the storyof how I killedmy first sika. I am glad I was given the time to do this.

I hope to write more entries in the future. About my hunting adventures, I believe it should be a good pass time.

5:35. All five squirrels just took off and I can now hear this weird whistling sound.

It’s just a bird.

The squirrels are coming back, and I’ve decide to do some calling.

5:45.      At this point I’m starting to get curious about what a squirrel would look like after shot by a muzzeloader

Well I got my wish a rabbit just came onto the scene

10-21-17

6:50 a.m.  I call

6:54 turkey gobbles break the still morning air.

6:55 stag bugles and I call back.

7:00 sounds of duck hunters echo in the distance and turkeys gobble.

Just checked the hunting regulations. Waterfowl isn’t even in. SMH.

8:25 8 toms cross the ditch.

.

8:57 a shot was fired near by

5:00 p.m. I can hear a bugle off in the distance.

I sit overlooking a giant marsh. The view is breath taking and I sit patiently as I wait for something to come out.

I watch a bald eagle through my binoculars off in the distance. And a falcon swoops through the air 30 yards in front of me.

A few hours later…

                I had four different stags talking to me this evening. I’d been listening to this one coming straight out in front of me. I started calling and he was bugling three and four times back. He was coming faster and faster. He was getting so close.

                I glass out over the marsh looking to see if I could spot him, when I hear something to me right. Three Heinze (female) sika stand in the opening of the marsh grass about 80 yards out. I finally have seen some but the thought of that stag coming had made my decision. I let the 3 sika walk.

                He’s so close now I can hear the him walking in the grass but still can’t see him. Adrenaline pumping through me the entire time. He bugles, and I call back. 200 yards out, tops, but I’m losing light. He keeps coming, I can hear him, but I’m out of time. Too dark to shoot and legal shooting time over I get down the stand. As I walk out of the marsh I can still hear him coming.

                This evening made the whole weekend worth it. I may not have harvested anything, but the hunt was successful nonetheless, and I will be back.

Its the way I was raised

     lots of people ask "how could you take the life of such a cute, sweet, and innocent animal?" and there are lots of smart ass remarks for questions people ask like: 'What do you feel when you shoot a deer.'  'Recoil.' And a good majority of us have gladly given that answer, its a remark that we've all made as hunters and it's mainly because it gets tiring to hear all the crap that we get.

     I'll put it plain and simple, it's a way of life for us, and that's more then most people can even comprehend. They just don't understand there's a connection that so runs deep, it becomes intertwined with not just your blood but your soul, and is more cleansing then anything you will ever experience, in your entire life. It's not just going out and killing stuff for the heck of it, it's going out into mother nature, becoming one with the wild, and harvesting one of God's amazing creatures to take home to your family, and making sure that they have meet in the freezer.

      It's a feeling that lives inside of you, "it's the spirit of the wild." But really though there is nothing more thrilling being in the woods when it wakes up. Imagine becoming invisible and traveling into another world and being able to witness it all, everything, the way the creatures that live in it go about their day, without even being noticed.

      The people who don't hunt, and they don't even have to hunt. It's the people who don't appreciate nature and all that dwells in it. And it's because they don;t know what they're missing, they don't understand what it is to have that type of connection with the world. Cause if they did... things would be a whole lot different.

     There will always be people who don't like what someone else is doing, and everyone has a right to there own opinion, but some people don't know where to draw the line. There are huge anti-hunting groups and organizations whose drive and goal in life consist on trying to take our rights away. which is honestly really ridiculous in my opinion. like seriously though, imagine how much good they could actually do if they put their time and effort into something other than trying to destroy us. I understand that everyone will never agree on the same things or views. but if they just tried to understand. I don't know.

       So yeah I was raised this way, into this way of life. It makes me who I am and I wouldn't have it any other way. Just remember: Yeah it may be Cute and fuzzy but that doesn't mean it's sweet and innocent.

      Let know what you think in the comments \/