Jerms
07-22-2006, 12:55 PM
Waking this morning to a beautifully cool 68 degree 5-10mph northerly breeze made it impossible to resist the call of the woods. Packed up the jeep, loaded the marlin 1895g and drove out to a nearby wildlife preserve, a fantastic little habitat the State of Oklahoma maintains. Nobody seems to know about this place, there's never anybody there, as was the case this morning, no other cars, no other people out there.
I hiked in about a 1/2 mile before i spotted a fawn kneel underneath a bush, decided i was gonna sneak up on him and see how close i can get. About 20 yards from the little guy he spooks and jumps into the brush disappearing from sight. Hopefully i'll be seeing him again in 3-4 years.
a few hundred yards further, i spooked a HOG! A medium sized wild sow, only 15 feet from me. I had no idea it was there! Spooking the hog is probably the wrong term... Damn hog almost scared the **** out of me! My rifle was still on my pack, I was not expecting to see anything and this hog jumps up out of some tall grasses and runs off into the brush! It took a few minutes for my heart rate to calm back down and for me to gather myself to push on. I'm nervous, i'm jumpy, i don't recognize anything from this winter now that the vegetation has come in and the leaves cover the trees. I would've been totally lost if i hadn't spent the time late winter mapping the entire place on my GPS. At this point i decide to check the waller i noted back in march, as it should be just a few hundred yards away.
The game trails i followed just a few months ago have all grown over, and are barely visible. As I wound my way around trees and thru the brush to the waller and the creek, i passed another dense patch of shrubbery about chest high.. as i walked past it, i hear another explosion of activity behind me, whirling with my rifle in my hands i see a huge white tail jump across the trail i had just crossed, barely 10-15 feet in front of me and so close it seemed i could've reached out and slapped it on the hindquarters. My heartrate was sky-high again as my chest pounded with the excitement as I held the rifle across my chest gripping it with the disappointment that deer was not in season.
Contemplating that I had just been jumped by two animals instead of the other way around, i decided to go ahead and check the waller and then think about caling it a day.
At the waller i noted with disappointment it had been abandoned and was now overgrown with vegetation. I turned away, climbing back up the hill to take one last look around, when an impossibly huge boar bolted out of the trees and into the brush. Shouldering my rifle, i brought the sights around to bear on a disappearing spot in the weeds, no chance, not even a shot.
At this point i realize i have no idea what i'm doing out in the woods in July, and decide to call it a day, go home, and smoke some brisket from the supermarket.
Busted again.. but i will be back!
I hiked in about a 1/2 mile before i spotted a fawn kneel underneath a bush, decided i was gonna sneak up on him and see how close i can get. About 20 yards from the little guy he spooks and jumps into the brush disappearing from sight. Hopefully i'll be seeing him again in 3-4 years.
a few hundred yards further, i spooked a HOG! A medium sized wild sow, only 15 feet from me. I had no idea it was there! Spooking the hog is probably the wrong term... Damn hog almost scared the **** out of me! My rifle was still on my pack, I was not expecting to see anything and this hog jumps up out of some tall grasses and runs off into the brush! It took a few minutes for my heart rate to calm back down and for me to gather myself to push on. I'm nervous, i'm jumpy, i don't recognize anything from this winter now that the vegetation has come in and the leaves cover the trees. I would've been totally lost if i hadn't spent the time late winter mapping the entire place on my GPS. At this point i decide to check the waller i noted back in march, as it should be just a few hundred yards away.
The game trails i followed just a few months ago have all grown over, and are barely visible. As I wound my way around trees and thru the brush to the waller and the creek, i passed another dense patch of shrubbery about chest high.. as i walked past it, i hear another explosion of activity behind me, whirling with my rifle in my hands i see a huge white tail jump across the trail i had just crossed, barely 10-15 feet in front of me and so close it seemed i could've reached out and slapped it on the hindquarters. My heartrate was sky-high again as my chest pounded with the excitement as I held the rifle across my chest gripping it with the disappointment that deer was not in season.
Contemplating that I had just been jumped by two animals instead of the other way around, i decided to go ahead and check the waller and then think about caling it a day.
At the waller i noted with disappointment it had been abandoned and was now overgrown with vegetation. I turned away, climbing back up the hill to take one last look around, when an impossibly huge boar bolted out of the trees and into the brush. Shouldering my rifle, i brought the sights around to bear on a disappearing spot in the weeds, no chance, not even a shot.
At this point i realize i have no idea what i'm doing out in the woods in July, and decide to call it a day, go home, and smoke some brisket from the supermarket.
Busted again.. but i will be back!
