Hey, guys and girls, feel like a quick ramble (in my mind and on the road) before hunting season really hits? OK? Let’s go.
I know, officially, there are some seasons already in. Here in my neck of the woods, squirrel season is underway, and dove season and some of the early dates for geese have already come and gone. The early squirrel deal is a quandary for me as I want to go still hunting (“slip hunting,” as my buddy Kevin Murphy in Kentucky calls it) because it is a lot of fun and can be productive, but my problem is I have a little mountain cur squirrel dog, Abby, sitting in the pen and wondering why we are hunting, like, right now. The truth is at this time of year, with all of the leaves still on the trees, Abby can tree you some squirrels, but finding them can be very difficult. So I make poor excuses to Abby and tell her we will go when some of the leaves come down.
Abby is giving us hard looks as we drive off in the truck to check out a few places around the county. I try not to notice and speed away.
(READ MORE: The squirrel got away from me, and so did the time)
One of the things on our list to check out is the area’s current mast crop, that is the acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts and other wild food that the game needs to survive on. From what I have seen so far in my neck of the woods, the acorn crop is very spotty. That means there are some in some places and almost none in others.
I hear from other hunters in other parts of the state who claim they are covered up with acorns, the nuts on the various kinds of oak trees. I am glad for them, but here in my part of the world, it doesn’t look overly generous in the acorn report.
Why do we hunters go on about this? Why do we spend so much time checking on the mast conditions?
One, we are concerned about the wildlife, because the bears, deer, squirrels, turkeys and others need a good acorn crop to get through the winter. There are other wild foods out there, of course, but for the most part, it is the oak mast that gets most of these animals through the winter. A mild, fairly warm winter may not be too bad, but a long, cold one with lots of snow (shudder) is hard on the wildlife if food is scarce. It’s just how nature does things.
(READ MORE: Bushytails and cottontails will keep you on the hunting trail)
Secondly, we just want to find the food as that is where the game is likely to be. If the woods are bare of any food, nothing will hang around.
Our first stop along the creek shows us a white oak with several acorns, which I take as a good sign. I go downstream a hundred yards to check a couple beech trees, and lo and behold, they have several nuts on the ground and still on the trees. We both agree this is a good thing, because if there is a turkey in the county, they will come to check out beech nuts. Two fox squirrels scramble out through the treetops, and I think “We need to bring Abby back here.”
We load up in the truck and go around one turn, and boom! The biggest buck deer I have seen since I don’t know when clears the road in one bound. (I am not making this up.) No kidding, folks, this buck is big and brown and muscular, and his horns (OK, antlers) seem incredibly shiny on this cloudy, dreary day.
Most of you know that I am not the world’s most ardent deer hunter, but this buck had the size in both antlers and body to excite anyone who has a pulse. I may just have to come back here during bow (or gun) season. I have been thinking more about archery season this year and breaking out the crossbow. I may just be talking big, but I would like to go a few days and hopefully put some venison in the freezer. Buck or doe, it wouldn’t matter for that — just need to get some venison.
(Man! That buck was a whopper!)
Today must be the day to see things, because we go about a mile down the creek road and there is a bobcat standing in the road like he owns the place. The bobcat turns its head to look at us as we come into view, and I see he is lashing his little short tail this way and that.
This is very unusual. Bobcats are very secretive — you can spend years in the woods and not see one — but this one stood there just looking at us when usually they will hightail it out of there. The bobcat gives us one more haughty look, takes one step and then one bound up the hill, and disappears. I sit there for a minute and think “Did I just see that?
Well, that was a pretty good round. We found a few acorns, some beech nuts and one moose-sized buck deer. I don’t expect to see the bobcat again.
I hope all of my wonderful readers have a safe, successful and enjoyable hunting season. Wear that blaze orange, and let me know how big that buck was that you saw.
“Guns & Cornbread” is written by Larry Case, who lives in Fayette County, W.Va. You can write to him at larryocase3@gmail.com.