??
Yesterday, there were two oddities.
First, I get up into my stand in the morning, and about 1.5 hours later I hear this squawking kinda like a cat howling; sounds real close. Then I realize it's coming from up, not down. I look up, and right in front of me and up a little ways, about 10-12 feet, is a large raccoon at the end of a limb structure where it is rather thin branches and barely able to hold him up - he's looking right at me making this noise. He cannot escape because he'd have to come straight down the branch at me and go by me to get down, which he won't do. Apparently, he had been caught up there early on when I got into the stand, but decided to lay low and not make noise for an hour or so to see if I would leave. When I didn't, he decided to make noise. So now I'm thinking this is gonna scare the deer off, so what to do..... I have two apples in my fanny pack. I throw one at him and miss. Second one hits him but doesn't knock him out - doh. Thought about shooting him with a .22 revolver I had with me or an arrow, but couldn't remember whether fur-bearer season had started, so I didn't. Well, he decided to shut up after I threw the apples, so we came to a peace. He just sat and stared at me while I continued to hunt for a couple more hours until lunch break.
Later that afternoon, same tree/stand, I hear this low growling/grumbling type noise directly behind me. I look left and right; don't see anything. Then I realize, it's coming from inside the tree's trunk, about chest level to where I'm sitting. It's intermittent, on and off, and after listening to it awhile, I came to the unmistakable conclusion that this is a critter of some sort, snoozing away, and snoring loudly inside that tree. Dunno if it was a squirrel, the same racoon from above, or what, but it was clearly a breathing/snoring sound, and sounded pretty much just like a human or dog sleeping, with occasional fits and starts from apparent dreaming or something - sounded like a large squirrel with sleep apnia. This went on for hours and hours - it was cracking me up when it did it's fits and starts.
Oh year, had a perfect broadside shot at a tiny little doe, but didn't take it because it was a tad further than I was comfortable with, even though it was only about 26-27 yards, as I later ranged it. At the time, it looked like 30 or more to me, so I'm glad I didn't take it, as I would have hit high, having mis-estimated the range. She kept coming back to my calls, 4 times over a period of 3 hours or so, but never gave me a better shot - she stayed more or less behind me. Poor young dumb thing didn't know what deet bug spray smells like...
Yesterday, there were two oddities.
First, I get up into my stand in the morning, and about 1.5 hours later I hear this squawking kinda like a cat howling; sounds real close. Then I realize it's coming from up, not down. I look up, and right in front of me and up a little ways, about 10-12 feet, is a large raccoon at the end of a limb structure where it is rather thin branches and barely able to hold him up - he's looking right at me making this noise. He cannot escape because he'd have to come straight down the branch at me and go by me to get down, which he won't do. Apparently, he had been caught up there early on when I got into the stand, but decided to lay low and not make noise for an hour or so to see if I would leave. When I didn't, he decided to make noise. So now I'm thinking this is gonna scare the deer off, so what to do..... I have two apples in my fanny pack. I throw one at him and miss. Second one hits him but doesn't knock him out - doh. Thought about shooting him with a .22 revolver I had with me or an arrow, but couldn't remember whether fur-bearer season had started, so I didn't. Well, he decided to shut up after I threw the apples, so we came to a peace. He just sat and stared at me while I continued to hunt for a couple more hours until lunch break.
Later that afternoon, same tree/stand, I hear this low growling/grumbling type noise directly behind me. I look left and right; don't see anything. Then I realize, it's coming from inside the tree's trunk, about chest level to where I'm sitting. It's intermittent, on and off, and after listening to it awhile, I came to the unmistakable conclusion that this is a critter of some sort, snoozing away, and snoring loudly inside that tree. Dunno if it was a squirrel, the same racoon from above, or what, but it was clearly a breathing/snoring sound, and sounded pretty much just like a human or dog sleeping, with occasional fits and starts from apparent dreaming or something - sounded like a large squirrel with sleep apnia. This went on for hours and hours - it was cracking me up when it did it's fits and starts.
Oh year, had a perfect broadside shot at a tiny little doe, but didn't take it because it was a tad further than I was comfortable with, even though it was only about 26-27 yards, as I later ranged it. At the time, it looked like 30 or more to me, so I'm glad I didn't take it, as I would have hit high, having mis-estimated the range. She kept coming back to my calls, 4 times over a period of 3 hours or so, but never gave me a better shot - she stayed more or less behind me. Poor young dumb thing didn't know what deet bug spray smells like...