Southpaw By Bud Cole I ’VE never professed to be an expert deer hunter. It’s been 16 years since I last had a shot at a legal buck in Penn’s Woods. I hunted the vast Delaware State Forest in Pike County for 40 years and never placed my annual hunting license tag on a Pike County buck. Many antlerless deer were taken to fill the family larder during that period, but no buck with legal antlers. Cold feet usually motivated me to begin walking early, often sending deer to other hunters with warm feet and more patience. I taught elementary school in Northampton County, a suburban area of the Keystone State, and because I had to take one of my two personal 10 days for hunting, I usually chose the first day of antlerless deer season over the first day of buck season. The other day was saved for skiing. The days spent deer hunting out of our family-owned cabin located on state-leased property in the Delaware State Forest began to wane after my grandfather passed away. My dad could no longer walk nor put up with the cold weather, and my hunting buddies began retiring and moving away to far off places such as Colorado and Florida. Plus, my younger nephews were too busy with families and careers to spend time away from home deer hunting at the cabin. GAME NEWS