I could smell the heavy, thick air of the creek bottom where I stood in the darkness. As I stood there in the dark, I realized why it was that I had gotten up at 3:30 and turned off the alarm clock before it actually went off. The air had an unmistakeable crispness and was full of those early morning sounds that start about a half hour before daylight. It seems that the sounds of nature beginning to wake up are the same, whether you are hunting in the piney woods of East Texas, Southern Arkansas, or Western Alabama. Unless you have experienced this first hand, you owe it to yourself to get out in the woods and blend in with your surroundings. If you are not a hunter, you can still experience the same feelings as the hunter.

I reached into my coat pocket and felt around until I found the two ten-round clips for my Ruger 10/22. I had loaded them while I was setting in the Scout and drinking my coffee and now inserted one into the Ruger. I guess I am partial to the Ruger 10/22, but for over twenty years I have hunted with a Ruger and in that twenty plus years of hunting and shooting, I have only had one round fail to fire. I think that one malfunction was the result of the round I had fired previously that sounded like it didn't have enough powder to throw the bolt back far enough.

I looked through the 2 to 7 Leupold Scope and tried to see if I could see anything moving in the trees. It was still too dark to really see yet.

Gradually I made my way further into the woods, trying very hard not to make any noise as I walked. The light rain we had the day before helped tremendously to muffle my footsteps. Two days earlier, the ground had been extremely dry and the dry leaves crackled with every step, making it almost impossible to move without making a lot of noise.

Within a few minutes, I had made my way to the edge of the creek that meandered through the woods. The underbrush was not very thick here, because the tree tops were all intertwined and did not let the sunlight penetrate to the ground sufficiently to encourage the growth of the underbrush as it does in areas that the treetops are not so thick. Periodically, there were bare patches of sand that I could place my feet and avoid making noise as I walked.

I sat down by a tree and leaned back to wait for daylight. As I sat there, I could almost feel nature coming to life. Birds were twittering and beginning to stir from their roosts. I could hear some type of animal, probably a raccoon or an armadillo rustling in the leaves a few yards behind me. I turned my head slowly to see if I could see anything, but I could see no movement in the darkness. As light began to make its way into the creek bottom, I heard a soft swish in the tree above me. I looked up and searched the tree tops. Almost directly over me was a cat (grey) squirrel limbing his way through the trees toward the giant White Oak I was facing. I eased my rifle up and found him momentarily in the scope. It was still too dark to see the cross hairs with the back drop of tree limbs. Then almost as suddenly as he appeared, he was gone. I sat there for several minutes searching the spot I saw him last, but to no avail.

As daylight began to appear, I could see a movement in a tree about 75 yards to my right. It was a fox squirrel trying to get an acorn loose from its limb. He got the acorn and retreated to the trunk of the tree. In a few moments, he returned to the limb and got another acorn and again returned to the trunk of the tree.

I thought to my self, this is going to be easy. I eased up and carefully began stalking towards the tree where I saw the fox squirrel. As I got to the tree, the squirrel was nowhere to be seen. I knew he was still in the tree, because he could not have left without me seeing him. I walked round and round the tree, searching the tree tops trying to get a glimpse of the squirrel. Nothing. No movement, no sound. The squirrel had completely disappeared.

I could see almost every part of the tree and I was sure the squirrel had not been able to leave without me seeing him. I eased back a few steps and sat down against another tree and waited. Almost thirty minutes went by and still nothing.

I was watching the tree intensely and suddenly, there was a bump on one of the limbs that I was certain wasn't there a few minutes ago. I watched intently, and suddenly, the bump was gone. I eased the rifle into position and found the spot on the limb. Gradually, a ear and then the squirrel's head eased slowly into view. The squirrel knew about where I was, but his curiosity made him want to be sure I was there. I gradually turned the scope up to the 7 power and found the squirrels head. The 22 Long Rifle Hollow Point found its mark, and the squirrel fell almost like a brick down the tree and crashed through limbs and brush to the ground.

I put the squirrel in my game bag after making sure the squirrel was dead by holding my thumb against his throat and squeezing long enough I was sure there was no breath left in him. Several years earlier I had seen first hand what can happen if you put an unconscious but not dead squirrel in your bag and he comes to later.

A friend I was hunting with had done exactly that and was putting another squirrel in his bag when the first squirrel clamped down on his thumb and bit clear through the thumbnail and hung on. I still remember the damage that the squirrel did. You can benefit from the experience of others without having to suffer the pain.

I eased on through the creek bottom for about another 100 yards and sat down again against a tree and started watching the tree tops as well as the ground around me. Surprisingly, squirrels spend a lot of time on the ground and make almost no noise when moving on the ground. Squirrels are usually easier to see in the trees because they move the limbs as they are moving from tree to tree.

Suddenly....... there was a deer standing looking straight at me. The doe had moved close to me without me even seeing it. I remained completely motionless, not even moving my eyes. How a deer can move so quietly is still a mystery. All of a sudden, the deer had seen enough and snorted and took off through the trees, with her white tail raised. Almost immediately, three other deer broke and ran. I had not even seen the other deer since I had been concentrating on the one doe. All of the deer were does, but it would not have made any difference. In Texas at that time it was (and still is) illegal to hunt deer with a rimfire cartridge and besides, the deer season was not yet open.

I remained leaned back against the tree and let the woods settle down from the stampede. The woods were completely still. There was absolutely no breeze and the stillness was overwhelming. As I listened, I could begin to hear the natural sounds of the woods. I could hear crows calling in the distance and a woodpecker pecking on a tree nearby. The smell of the woods was fantastic. This is really a tremendous feeling to experience nature in its natural surroundings. If you have not experienced this unique experience, you need to find time and a place to do it. You don't have to hunt in order to experience the great outdoors with all its splendor. It is better therapy for stress from the hurried day to day activity of life than anything I know.

If you are too busy to go hunting or fishing, well........... you are just too busy.

Wayne Hartt