Possible frustration, yes, but the hunt beckons
To suggest that an element of chance exists in deer hunting doesn’t stretch the truth, despite the great pains some hunters take to ensure otherwise with scouting and other preparations.
Regardless, the unaccounted for is an established, though often overlooked, fact of life.
For example, memory serves up a gray December morning in Washington County decades ago when a hunter, standing below a ridge top, was startled by rustling footsteps on a leafy path and then astonished by the appearance of a trophy buck.
The suddenly shaken hunter noiselessly dropped to a knee and in a continuous motion raised his shotgun to aim at the kill spot while the buck obligingly, almost miraculously, stopped and sniffed the air. Only about 25 feet and a steady aim separated the two creatures.
“This is almost too easy,” the hunter remembers thinking as adrenaline pushed his heart into a thumping overdrive. The hunter squeezed the trigger of the Smith & Wesson 12-gauge loaded with the can’t-miss conceit of a young man.
The blast woke up the hillside, including the aroused buck, which turned and ran off in the direction from which it had come before the flustered hunter could even think to get off another shot.
The young fella, still on one knee, looked and looked and at last spotted what he had failed to notice in the unexpected rush of a moment — a 1½-inch-thick sapling that reached for the sky about halfway between the gun’s muzzle and the deer’s demise.
The slim trunk of the tree-to-be had taken the shot dead center.
The man with a gun, knowing he’d likely not get another such chance this trip, walked nearer the wounded sapling to confirm dumb luck, the buck’s being good. He didn’t say much the next day when a member of his hunting party dragged into camp a familiar-looking buck whose gloriously antlered head even to this day watches over doings in the hunter’s house.
Though good fortune can touch anyone — even those who don’t reach for it — an earnest try often helps.
Deer hunters willing to risk a little time and cash have numerous opportunities each year to help deplete the surplus whitetail population on public land. To date, lotteries for hunting permits have been scheduled at state parks, nature preserves and a few federal sites, though in many cases the dates of the drawing or deadlines for application have passed.
Archery hunters get one more lottery opportunity in central Ohio before the end of the month, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced. The sites, located along Big and Little Darby Creek in Union and Madison counties, include Terra Nova, Milford Center, Andre Agnes and Little Darby Forrest preserves.
Drawings are scheduled Aug. 24 at the Plain City Youth Building in Pastime Park, 344 N. Chillicothe St.. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m., with the drawings to follow at 10. Up for grabs are twoweek hunting blocs for the lottery winner and a hunting partner.
Details about deerhunting opportunities can be obtained by phoning 800-WILDLIFE or by visiting wildohio.gov.
outdoors@dispatch.com