Hunting in Virginia

Saturday early archery hunting season began. My brother and I woke up at 5am and headed out into the Virginia woods about an hour south of Washington D.C.. Sometime after 7:30am I saw a small deer approaching. I was sitting on the ground with my feet in a dugout pit. It was as if I were sitting in a chair where my butt was level with the ground.

The deer was approaching from the side that had almost no cover. The hunting blind was set up for the deer to come the other direction. When I saw it, I slowly leaned over and laid my chest on the ground with my bow extended in shooting position. The deer continued in my general direction, but was starting to angle away.

Mentally, I called to her and told her there were acorns by me which there were. She turned and came closer towards me. At one point she was about 12 yards away. There was absolutely nothing between her and me and yet she hadn't seen me. I had a perfect broadside shot.

I let her walk on. Why didn't I shoot? It didn't feel right. I wasn't confident that I wouldn't just injure the deer. I was laying in a awkward position, with a shirt draped over one eye, using an arrow that shoots crooked about 3 yards outside the range I practice shooting from at a smaller than expected deer. This was also the first day of hunting. I thought I would surely have better opportunities.

As it turns out I went hunting four more times over the next 3 days and saw that same deer again, but no others. We think that the rest of the deer are hanging out closer to the river at this time of year.

It was exciting and having a deer so close with nothing between between her and me was a thrill. I learned a lot from each time in the woods. I saw a fox and heard him barking. I heard lots of different birds including two barred owls squawking at each other which is pretty funny to hear.

This is my first all natural arrow. The point is dacite stone. It was hafted in using pitch and sinew. The shaft is viburnum and the fletchings are sinew and turkey feathers.


Her you can see the shirt I wore on my head. I did this because the mosquitoes were pretty bad. Here I have the side tucked tightly to my head. The first day I didn't so they draped in front of my eye. To get this look I first dabbed on white ash to dull my skin. The black is charcoal and the lighter color is clay.


One day my brother showed me how to make a carrying case for my bow. This is made from braintanned deer skins. I cut long thin strips to sew it all together.


8 days till I start my journey out west.

Urban Scout Class: Sign me up!

Today I received a wonderous phone call! I was informed that I was enrolled in the Urban Scout Class in June. For those who don't know, last summer I went to the Scout class at the Tracker School. A link to the school web page is on my main page. Here is the class description:

This course recreates the Apache Scout experience and gives participants an opportunity to live as the Scout did, travelling away from his tribe, with few tools and equipment, gathering information from tracks and sign, and hiding from his enemies. This is a true high adventure experience that teaches participants to survive and observe as did the Apache Scout - the greatest survivalist of all.

Here is a picture of my group camoed up before a raid. I'm bottom right and my brother is bottom left. It was one of the greatest classes I've been to.

What makes the Urban Scout so special is that this summer is the first time they're doing the class. That means that I could be in a class with people that have been through the advanced and expert levels which are invite only. It's also likely that this class won't be held again for a few years and possibly never. Of course the topic also makes it special and hopefully more applicable to everyday life. Here's the class description:

The Urban Scout course is intended to cover the application of the traditional Scout skills, techniques, principles and teachings toward our modern day lifestyles. We will work (play) with in the variations of information gathering, teamwork and invisibility applied to the everyday modern world.

The bottom line is you don't get many chances in life to spend a week with a group of people going on raids and missions. I can't wait till June.