Here is Sunday's adventure;
Tenn deer season has closed and I have public land in Alabama to hunt but my reports say the places are covered up with hunters.
Last Sunday was a perfect day, clear, cold and wind out of the N/W.
30 years ago I hunted an unlikely place on Freedom Hills mgt area, right off the main road, the kind of place most folk drive by to get to the deep woods. Freedom Hills is 50+ miles from my house, this has kept me away because I am spoiled by my 19 mile trip to the land I hunt in Tenn.
Cabin fever got the best of me and off I went for an afternoon hunt. I called a friend to tell him where I would be, he had been hunting Freedom Hills and told me he had never seen anyone pulled off where I planned to hunt, perfect.
When I got to the management area and "my" spot there was a jeep parked right where I planned to hunt, dang.
I decided to freelance in unknown territory so I backtracked about 1/4 mile and walked into the woods right on the area boundary. As soon as I got into the woods I started seeing tracks and rubs, lots of them, people had driven by this spot as well, there was no sign of humans, none. the place I found was no more than 150 yards of the main road.
I set up my tree seat on a rub line, raked the leaves back from the base of the tree and got ready. I didn't expect to see anything but the sun going down.
The wind really got up, swirling this way and that. In the mist of the tree bending gust I heard a crash, then a grunt. The wind died temporally and I could hear chasing coming my way. Grunting, chasing but I couldn't see the deer about 50 yards away in the thicket.
Then a doe went by at 40 yards like her butt was on fire, the buck was behind her but he was little more in the thick and I couldn't see him.
Round and round they went, just out of sight for over a half hour.
When it got quiet I use my doe bleat can trying to lure the buck into range, then I heard a deer coming from the other direction, it had to be a buck.
When I could see the new deer it looked like a doe coming straight at me, it had to be a buck, and it was. I have never seen such a big deer with only 1" spikes, a legal buck on the mgt area has to have 3 on a side. He was so lust crazed he walked within 15 yards of me, gave me a stare down, decided I wasn't a threat and continued on his way looking for that estrous doe he heard.
I heard the chasing off and on but the deer eventually moved on. I packed up at dark and headed home, exhilarated by finding a new spot and seeing some action.
When I got ready to leave the woods I pulled the trigger on my gun ( I sit cocked with a frizzen stall in place) and couldn’t get the sear to work and release the hammer. I cocked it back and it worked just fine the next dozen times I tried it. Something is binding, I ran into the same thing when I tested the lock just after I put the new mainspring in it a few days ago. I never polished the hook of the spring where it rests on the tumbler and suspect this is the problem.
When I got home last night I realized I hadn’t put the toothpick back in my touch hole. I always keep my toothpick in my right hand pocket so I fished it out and noticed the tip was broken off. I looked at my gun and sure enough the tip was stuck in the touchhole. If that buck had gone by me my gun wouldn’t have gone off.
I know, another long boring story, but it was a fun evening and exactly why I go to the woods.
Just a followup; I took my lock off, pulled the mainspring and found a casting flaw on the hook. It had a tit like projection right where it contacts the tumbler. The inside of the spring was really rough as well on the lock plate side.
An hour of sanding with 320 first followed by, crocus cloth and then buffed to a mirror finish with a dremel and buffing compound on a polishing wheel has my lock faster than ever.
I dipped my toothpick in super glue which soaks into the wood and makes it like steel, this should end the broke tip problem. Ironically; when I tipped my gun lock down the piece of toothpick fell out.
Headed back to the same place this afternoon.
