Pennsylvania Game News - March 2015 - 19

I

DON'T KNOW how many times
people have wished me "good luck"
when I'm going deer hunting.
While I'll admit luck comes into
play, I'm more inclined to believe my
cousin and longtime hunting partner
Joe when he says, more often than not,
you make your own luck.
Joe has had to hang up his hunting
boots due to deteriorating health, but we
enjoyed many successful hunts together
over the years in Wayne County.
Two of them were nearly identical
and happened just a week apart.
Joe and I had hunted together for
about 15 years at the time, and we knew
our hunting area well.
We knew how the deer reacted when
moved from their bedding areas, and
we knew that, when pressured, deer
would hole-up in a large horseshoeshaped swamp.
We often would try to take advantage
of this knowldege.
One of us would enter the
swamp at a predetermined location
while the other would watch the
usual escape route.
It didn't work all the time, but if we
kept at it, we usually would get some
action.
Making these drives through the
thick, wet swamp was hard work.
I remember losing my watch on one
drive. The thick cover literally ripped
it off my wrist.
But as we saw it, the work was worth
it.
We weren't just making drives: We
were making our own luck.
The driver would rarely see deer
on these drives. The first indication
of success was hearing your hunting
partner's shot.
One season in particular, back when
MARCH 2015

only bucks could be hunted during the
two-week firearms season, I got my
buck on the first day.
This was both a blessing and a curse.
I had my deer, but now I got to be
the full-time driver for Joe.
On the first Saturday of the season,
Joe set up in the usual spot for the drive
I was going to make.
I entered the swamp about 400 yards
from Joe and began zig-zagging through
it. I was about halfway to Joe, when I
heard something crashing through the
rhododendron thicket ahead of me.
I moved in that direction, and just
when I found where the deer had been
bedded, I heard a shot.
It was Joe. We had made our own
luck again.
I exited the swamp fairly close to
where Joe had posted, but he wasn't
there.
As I proceeded toward his stand, I
could see him farther back, examining
the ground.
Joe had seen a rack buck, and he
said it went down when he hit it, but
got up and ran straight away from him,
preventing a follow-up shot.
There was no blood or hair where
the deer fell, and there was no snow
on the ground, so tracking was difficult.
We spread out and searched the area
for an hour, but we found no sign and
the tracks we believed were made by
the buck became intermingled with
other tracks in another section of the
swamp.
Joe was disappointed, but that's
hunting. We could only hope the deer
could survive its wound.
The following Saturday - the last
day of the season - found us back at it,
trying to make our own luck.
After the first drive was uneventful,
19
Pennsylvania Game News - March 2015

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