12/18/10 ONE LAST TALE OF THE HUNT

GOOSE DOWN SNOW

Saturday, 9:00 AM.  16 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is overcast and the barometer predicts more snow.  It has snowed lightly most of yesterday and last night, and we have four inches of new snow, weightless fluff, like goose down.  It was actually fun to shovel.
    While in the Ace Hardware Store in town yesterday I found out what happened to the buck that I waited so patiently for on the opening day of dear season, and also why I neither saw nor heard any coyotes, or saw any tracks where other years there had been all sorts of coyote sign.  The new owner of the large tract of land to the north of my stand came in and as we exchanged pleasantries he told me this story: his friends who hunted his land shot two bucks on opening day (I heard the shots, one earlier and one just at the end of the day).  One was probably the buck that created the rub I had been watching. And, when dragging out the last deer shot, in the dark, the hunter was stalked by two wolves.  First one wolf would move in close, and when the flashlight was shined in its eyes it would back off, but then the other would move in.  This game of hunters and the hunted continued until the deer was dragged to the truck.  I had thought perhaps there were no coyotes in the area because wolves had driven them out, and this tale confirms my suspicions.  I guess it would be prudent to reload after shooting a deer; I had never thought about that, as it has been pointed out by the DNR over and over, there are few verified instances of wolf attacks on humans in North America.    Anyway, the wolves didn't get his deer.  I don't know what I would have done.