I headed out in the balmy 18 degree weather yesterday afternoon in hopes of harvesting a late season deer. A friend of mine took me somewhere I have never been so I wasn't sure of what to expect. I got into the stand and waited and shockingly enough I wasn't really cold until the last 5 - 10 minutes. Since it was so cold I took the crossbow rather than my compound. After getting in the stand I started waiting, watched the birds and squirrels with all the snow they seemed to be everywhere. It started to get late and I hadn't seen anything and I was literally freezing to the seat of the treestand because some snow got between me and the seat and it kept melting and re-freezing so I was stuck to the seat. It got to be 5:35 or later and I heard crunching coming down the hill behind me, sounded like they were running. I knew it was deer and they were coming fast. I got ready and waited and listened to them, they were slowly working up the hill about 75 yards off to my left. I was ready all they had to do was come up the hill and cut across in front of me. Well, the big doe in the lead started coming up the hill stamping her feet and I knew it was a bad sign. She got about 50 yards away stamping her feet but still walking toward me and all the sudden she snorted and kept snorting. I don't know if she smelled me or saw me or both, hard to tell this time of year because everything is so open and with the snow it makes any movement easy to pick out for both humans and deer.
My friend started snorting back at her and he was about 150 yards or so away, she didn't like that she kept snorting and running back and forth up and down the hill. At first I thought it might just work and she may run closer to me, but each time she ran down the hill when she would run back up she would get further way, all the time snorting. Well, as it got dark, I packed my stuff up and headed out. It wasn't until those last few minutes that my hands got cold, but otherwise I was warm! Amazing right, well with enough layers and hand and foot warmers you can hunt in any weather.
