Eastern Shore public hunt Dec. 28-29th ML

This was a fun trip! The small public area we hunted had the highest deer density of any public land I have ever encountered. All 5 of us that stayed both days saw at least 1 deer. Poor Tom had to work and could only hunt Wed. evening. The group consisted of our gracious host Dave Dinsmore, my brother and I, his cousin-in-law Tom, and two other friends of Dave named Ron and Wayne.

The area reminded me of an Eastern Shore version of Monocacy WMA, both in size and position. There were 2 small parking areas and the tract was surrounded by farms and hunt clubs. The woods itself was formerly hunt club land as well, and the rotting hulks of old stands were seen throughout. It seems the property was an old paper pulp operation and many of the white pines were in rows of mature trees. There were old overgrown clearcuts after a group of rows and the deer found these attractive travel corridors through the immature pines and multiflora that choked them. The area was nearest a small town of Snow Hill. The 3 hour drive was definitely the worst thing about the trip so we were fortunate to be able to stay at Dave’s 26th street OC condo and get a nice sleep and fresh showers. After a lunch and meeting at Appleby’s to go over the maps and plans, we headed to the larger parking lot to put on an evening drive. Wayne, the oldest of the group and shooting the longest range weapon (smokeless powder scoped inline with shooting stick) would cover the powerline, while Chris, Dave, and I would drive the thicket on the one side. Posted below on a creek bed were the standers Tom and Ron. We still hunted slowly through the thickets and I kicked out a rabbit at about 2 yards (wish I had my bow on that one) and found this skeleton of a small doe:

Dave kicked out a deer but did not see it due to the very dense thicket. He was only about 60 yards from me and I did not even hear it! We made our way to the standers but no deer were spotted by them. We decided to sit on the other side of the powerline until dark. Dave set us up in a “skirmish line” to intercept any deer coming into the adjacent hunt club field through the woods. Chris was still battling a illness and was constantly coughing, so he decided to move and walk around the powerline area so as not to bother the rest of our hunt. At dark, Dave was desperately attempting to call Chris to move forward near a creek as he just spotted a nice racked buck and a couple does heading that way. Unbeknownst to Dave, Chris was very far away. So far, I never heard the shots! Chris crested a small hill and surprised a doe at about 60 yards. He knocked it down with his caplock Hawken but hit it in the neck. As he moved forward, he saw the deer still thrashing to hastily reloaded another round. By mistake, he filled his 35mm film canister with FFFG instead of his usual FFG pyrodex powder. His second mistake was not measuring the load. He simply, dumped in a bunch of powder, slapped on a cap and aimed for the back of the does head. BOOOOM! He hit the doe alright, but he reported the BANG was much louder than usual and his ears were ringing severely. He noticed the nipple on the rifle had completely blown out moving the hammer back out of the way in the process! He was very lucky not to be injured. The doe turned out to be a very small yearling. Probably weighed 60 pounds. I was surprised when he crested the hill and I noticed a tail flapping on his back as he was carrying it on one arm. It looked to me like he picked up a skin and was wearing it. The next morning we hunted the other side of the property. Dave got us in there early (I got up at 3:30am to shower), and placed us in strategic areas. We all had our treestands this time except for Wayne who hunted from a ground tent. Chris had his recurve now as we did not bring any extra nipples for his Hawken. Dave placed him coughing and hacking far from the rest of us (we knew he would get up and walk again). Ron and I were on opposite sides of a dense pine grove and thicket. I had climbed very high in a pine to get a view of the thick runway of immature pines. The rest of the group were in a line along the main access trail. I was the farthest in and near the back of the property. The runway lane from my tree:

At around 8am Ron radiod he had a nice buck run full-bore by him in my general direction. He suspects he may have been pushed by Chris in the thick stuff. I was on guard and spotted a white flick of a tail about 100 yards down the runway. I eased up the binos and after a few minutes caught sight of a nice doe heading in my direction up the runway. As it neared I cocked back the hammer, adjusted the set trigger, and prepared for the shot. She went broadside at about 50-60 yards and I eased the blade down on her shoulder…BOOM! No hangfire and the deer jumped. Then my heart sank as I realized she was still standing there trying to figure out what just happened. Immediately the radio crackled and the guys started communications, the deer was hearing something but not sure what (I was very high). I managed to kill the radio and start the reloading process. (I managed to break my ramrod the previous nigh running a patch down and it was held together with 20 pound test trilene and duct tape so I had to be careful). I got the rifle re-loaded just as I saw her feet walk into the thick stuff. I blew it again… Then I heard Ron again report that seven does just went by him too obscured to shoot. I knew I had missed so I held tight. After about 25 minutes I hear a conga line of deer in the thicket to my left making their way past me. The were very cautious. Taking a step or two and licking and tasting the air as they moved. I assumed the one I just shot at joined the group, and put them all on edge. I could tell they were all does and small deer but the density did not let me have a good shot despite only being about 50 -60 yards away again. I focused on a small opening, and one of the last 2 deer stopped in the open. I really took my time, squeezed the trigger and was startled by the shot. It felt good. The two deer busted out back toward Ron and the others continued on by. I thought I saw a stumble but the deer were off into the thick stuff. I began to radio the guys and try to regain my heartbeat. A little while later I hear another shot from Ron’s direction. He reported he thinks he hit one…tail down and off, but not sure. About 15 or 20 minutes later I see more deer moving up the lane about 100 yards away. There were taking the same path as the original doe so I was hopeful for another opportunity, not knowing the fate and knocking that second doe down in its tracks…. There were at least 2 or 3 but they took a detour at about 75 yards and went off to my right. No shot. I got down, and there was no blood, no hair at the site of the second doe shot. Crap! Missed again…not sure how???? I checked for about an hour and went to help Ron locate his deer….no sign of a hit. I chased several more deer out of their beds as I made my way toward where the guys were looking for Ron’s deer. One got up and ran off looking healthy all the way out of sight with tail up…but I had no shot. Immediately I heard my brother cough to my right about 50 yards away. We thought, it might have been the wounded one but there was no sign of blood. Ron’s shot left a large pile of white hair and looked low. Eventually, there was some blood but very little. We all searched for about 2 hours and came up with the conclusion it was not a fatal hit. Dave was all set to criticize my choice of primitive flintlock as not non-effective but Ron’s miss was with a modern scoped inline. So at least I have that consolation. I fired the rifle again to unload it in the lot and hit my target exactly at about 15 yards. It had to have been my shooting somehow….I need to sight it in a little farther also in the future?????? Feeling a little down on myself. At least none of the deer were in bow range, so I have that at least. Chris and I left after lunch and the others stayed to hunt the afternoon. I wonder how they did? It was a super cool area to hunt this time of year, and Dave said we all have a new post-Christmas tradition. we saw lots of woodcock, rabbits, a bald eagle, and lots and lots of deer! lots of good sign in that area I was in and I would love to go back there. Here is a picture of a super deer trail with an old scrape in an adjacent runway: