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   For various types of outdoors activities, different types of weather are considered perfect. When fishing on a summer day, ideal weather is considered warm and sunny a few hours before a thunderstorm moves in. One year while goose hunting, we woke up in the wee hours of the morning to pouring rain, crashing thunder and lightning with strong winds blowing. When Bart, our guide, showed up, he informed us that this was perfect goose hunting weather. Since I had no experience on the subject, I could not argue with him. I thought it might be crazy to try to hunt in a hurricane, but Bart was correct. We had a great day of goose hunting.

   Friday night, we got about two inches of snow. On Saturday morning, the brown leaves and grass that made perfect camouflage for deer was covered with a blanket of fresh snow causing the deer to be easily seen, even through the heavy timber. Opening day of gun season for deer had perfect weather. Shortly after daybreak, Damon, Zane, and Pat showed up at our house for a hearty breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits. I try not to get in too big of a hurry to start the morning. We could go stand in the cold when it is still dark out or wait until we have our stomachs full, and it is light enough to see. The deer live in the woods. They will be there if we start at six o’clock or nine. I prefer nine.

   We started with Zane and Damon walking the Paintball Timber while Pat watched at the top of the hill at the edge of the woods, and I was at the bottom. Though the deer were easy to see as they moved through the trees, they were not easy to drive out. Damon got a nice buck, and one doe came out to Pat who was able to drop it. No deer came out to me and they just ran around Zane. After tagging and field dressing those two deer, we moved to the South place. I had three people attempting to drive deer toward me. All three of the drivers got deer, but not one deer came out to me. This is not how it is supposed to work. The old guy on stand is supposed to get most of the shooting. Large numbers of deer were moving around the timber, they just did not want to move out into the open. Our last drive of the morning was through the Ten Acres. I was again the lone person on stand while the other three tried to push deer toward me. I was at my usual position by the big hedge tree by the willows. We have hunted this patch of timber the same way for close to thirty years. We know how the deer move and where they will exit. Other than a few deer that do not cooperate and run out of the sides, most of them will come directly toward the big hedge tree where I stand. Sometimes, even the best plans do not work out. I was waiting patiently at my assigned spot and nothing was happening. Having done this enough times, I know approximately how long it will be from when I get in position until a parade of deer descends on me. I heard a shot from the west side, then one from the east edge of the timber. I heard a shot from the middle and still no deer came out to me. Enough time had passed, I knew the drivers were not too far away from me, though they were still over the hill where I could not see them. We were rapidly running out of space for the deer to hide. Knowing if something did not show up soon, it would be another drive where the deer refused to exit the woods. Suddenly, appearing out of nowhere, a doe was running toward me. I raised my rifle and fired. She dropped instantly. Before I had time to think, I saw a buck running at full speed to my left. I swung around, fired, and he went down. When the rest of the crew arrived, we dressed my deer, went back, got their deer, and headed to the house for lunch. We decided, even if the deer were not all going to where they were supposed to, it was perfect deer hunting weather.

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