WARNING: CONTAINS NO GUN VIOLENCE

  Well, as you can surmise from my absence on HWS, things have not been going too well. It's the day before the last day of the season and here's the tally- one doe with the bow, one doe with the gun, one buck wounded with the bow, one buck missed with the gun and a mercy killing with the pistol. I've got meat in the freezer, but the buck misses still haunt me. Long hours in the stand don't help when it comes to replaying missed opportunities in your head. But as the old man taught me- the world hates a quitter. Nothing left to do but keep at it.
    The weather has sucked. Cold dry days turn to wet warm ones. One pitiful snow storm all season and deer movement seems to be at an all time low. There were no apples, nor acorns this year, so hunting food sources has been limited to trying to catch them coming and going to the hay fields. This late in the season you'd be very lucky to see anything in the field. So what strategies are left? Well, there's always the drive.
   Old Bob, Savage and I have put on a few drives over at Paradise Pond and around here, but haven't kicked out much. Bob got a shot and missed. It happens. For the uninitiated a deer drive is when you set up some hunters as standers and other hunters "drive" the woods, hoping to either sneak up on a deer or more likely put one in front of the standers. It sounds dangerous, but with people you know and trust it's completely safe. We haven't lost anyone all season. Plus it's a chance to socialize and bust balls with life long friends.
  Yesterday was our traditional last weekend of muzzleloader day of drives with Mupp added to the mix. We started out behind the shack. I'd just gotten permission to hunt this and thought it would produce. I was wrong. No one saw a deer. Then we went down to push GNJohn's mountain. Mupp and OB stood, while Savage and I drove. We decided to switch it up a bit, and push from the high side of the mountain first. As I climbed the ridge towards a small stand of hemlocks I thought to myself that I hadn't been in there all year, maybe something was......the words were barely forming in my pea brain when deer exploded from those pines like wildebeests escaping a crocodile infested river. There must've been 20 or 30 of them. No wonder I wasn't seeing deer. Every deer in the county was in those hemlocks. I tried to get on one, but the chaos and a foggy scope was too much. They were climbing all over each other to get away. I never had a prayer.
   By the end of the day I'd seem more deer than I had all season. Savage even put a buck in front of me at 20 yards at the Pond. I had the hammer back, but he was only a four pointer- illegal in this county, plus I was shooting towards a house. No shot. Next year he may not be so lucky. At sunset we came back to the shack for cocktails and bullshit. No one had fired their gun. Four experienced hunters, 58 or older had hunted all day, seeing dozens of deer and no one had blood on their hands. But what a helluva lot of fun.
   In the wake of the Newtown massacre, and all the renewed interest in gun control, it should be noted that a gun is a tool. Yes, it's purpose can be to kill....hopefully with one shot. I'm all for outlawing large capacity magazines, assault weapons and any other nasty "people killing" tool. As an artist who uses hunting as source material for my work, my guns are as necessary as a paint brush to a painter. We should not shy from the debate. But lets engage in a logical, practical discussion on how to avoid such tragedies without all the ill informed, reactionary hyperbole. I'll be the first to admit that I have no answers. Short of a S.W.A.T. team in every school, how do you protect your kids from this kind of mania? There's a day and a half left in the season. I also have no idea if, where or when, I may get my shot. I pray if I do get a chance at another deer I will drop him (or her) in her tracks- the LGM willing. That's hunting. I can't wait for turkey season.