June 12, 2008………As I have said before, I’ve got a great job. I get to talk “Whitetails” with Hunters from all over North America. I love to hear their stories whether they are successful, have close encounters, or suffer from pure frustration.
The stories I really find intriguing are the “get away” tales. How Odocoileus Virgianus…or as I call him, Mr. Nocturnal Disapperous, can flat out vanish.
Like the story about the one who only travels in drainage ditches to stay below the line of sight, or the one who swims out into a beaver pond and submerges so just his nose is above water (his antlers gave him away).
How about the buck who belly crawled through knee high CRP and slips past eight hunters who have the field “surrounded”. I can almost picture them (the hunters) yelling “Come out with your hooves up”……….not this time chumps!
Have you ever had one walk behind a tree and never come out the other side? I have…maybe a hollow tree? How about one standing by your truck or atv as you exit the woods with an “I’ve got you patterned” look on his face.
Once while flying a small plane in 1983 I was on final approach to a small country airport in Mississippi. I glanced down and spotted 7 mature bucks bedded in a soybean field. By the time I did a quick 180 degree turn….the biggest of those bucks had already “crawled” underneath the soybeans to hide. By the time I made the second circle around them, they were almost impossible to see.
There is the old buck who camps out (beds) inside an abandoned barn, or the ones who swim a swift moving river or a mile wide lake. How about the one that spent all gun season perched on top of a muskrat house in the middle of a cattail swamp in the upper Midwest?
Resembling great magicians…they are masters of illusion, poof……they are gone! Makes me think that maybe Houdini was part Whitetail! You gotta love it !
Good Hunting.
Mark
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