After hearing Brad Smith’s story about hunting in the rain, my mind went back to a similar situation I encountered.
I had made up my mind to deer hunt on a rainy November morning several years ago but decided to sit it out by the fire at home, hoping the rain would end. Along about mid-morning, the rain stopped, the sky brightened and I headed for my deer stand a mile from my home.
The cessation of rain followed by clearing skies pushed an 8-point buck I had been after into moving. He did and I got him.
Smith, 36, who works for the glass plant in Simsboro, decided to wait out the rain in his deer stand, Oct. 29, opening day of rifle season. Smith hunts on a 240 acre tract of private land owned by a friend, land on which he has permission to hunt.
“I got in my box stand where it was nice and dry and rode it out, hoping that the rain would soon end,” Smith said.
Hunting from an enclosed box stand sitting on a pipeline in western Lincoln Parish, Smith was in a favorable spot because Bayou D’Arbonne coursed through the woods 150 yards away. The pipeline is flanked by a mixed stand of mature pines and acorn bearing oaks.
“I had driven from my home in Vienna before daylight, parked my truck and walked through the rain to my stand, getting on the stand and settled in around 6:30,” he said. “I had a long wait without seeing anything for several hours but I knew once the rain stopped, something should begin moving.”
After the rain
Four hours after climbing into his stand, the rain slowed to a drizzle and then stopped. Smith felt the odds of him seeing something should improve. He had his eye out for a particular buck that had shown up on his trail camera earlier this fall with a single daylight image of the buck.
“The rain stopped at about 10:30,” Smith said. “Fifteen minutes later I saw movement in the woods next to the pipeline and immediately recognized that I was looking at the buck I hoped would show up.”
The buck headed across the pipeline at a fast trot and Smith was unable to get him in the scope. He was hopeful that after entering a strip of woods across the pipeline he would step into Smith’s shooting lane where he had scattered corn.
“When he came out of the woods and entered the shooting lane, he stopped long enough to nibble on some corn,” Smith said. “I got him in my scope, hit the trigger on my Remington 30.06 and he dropped right there on the spot. I sat in the stand a full 15 minutes settling my nerves before I walked down to where he had fallen.”
The tale of the tape
The buck sported an 11-point rack with 15 2/8 inches of inside spread, had bases around 4 inches each and main beams approximately 22 inches each. The buck weighed 175 pounds and was determined to be 4 ½ years old. Taking the buck to be scored by Buckmaster scorer Greg Hicks, the tape came to 144 2/8 inches.
Next time you decide to sit in the rain on a deer hunt, just sit tight and think of the nursery rhyme…”rain, rain go away…” Should that happen, you might experience a touch of good luck similar to what happened to Brad Smith.