Last Tuesday I decided to hunt our property. To say that there was an October lull this year would be an understatement. For almost three weeks we had maybe two or three deer pics on our four cameras on our property. Last week end I decided to give the cameras another look. All the cameras had deer on them and new hope emerged. On Tuesday the stand where I wanted to hunt was iffy due to the wind. The best stand was one that I set up for my wife. It was off of a path we had along the river and about 20 yards from her go to stand. We set it up because on numerous occasions she would see big bucks approach near that part of our path just out of her comfortable shooting range. I asked her permission to hunt there and got the thumbs up. Her hunting has been encroached upon by family and work demands. I had already killed an 8 pointer a few weeks earlier at my preferred stand and we wanted one more deer for the freezer. The story is not dramatic or complicated. I checked my go to stand and the camera showed at least 37 pics. One of the deer was a large body, over the hill buck. I was tempted to sit that stand but the wind just was too finicky and if Tank, it's what I named the buck, came in from where the camera indicated, he might pick me off. So after about ten minutes of weighing my options I went back to the stand Laura had "allowed" me to sit.
I had been there perhaps an hour and a half. A spike showed up about 50 yards away coming in from an adjacent property. He kind of walked my way and proceeded to walk right to my stand and fed facing directly at me. No shot was available. I needed him to turn. Every once in a while he would look up at me and at only 10 yards my Predator camo totally fooled him. He never once indicated alarm. This went on for about 15 minutes. At one point he kept looking back across our property line at a group of oak trees. I figured other deer were feeding there. Once he even looked behind me giving me concern that an unheard deer was nearby that I could not see. For some reason he became alert and looked towards the oaks. I don't know why but he turned and started to walk towards them. Fortunately he stopped before proceeding and before he resumed his mission an Axis arrow tipped with 275 grains of Razorcap broadhead was in his ribs. He ran straight away from me about 60 yards, made an abrupt right turn toward my property line, did a 180 and dropped under another tree stand I had hung earlier in the season for the rut. That stand is on the edge of a marshy/swampy area that I have seen bucks emerge from when I had a Double Bull blind set up some 50 yards from there. This year I decided to set a stand in that area and he died right under it.
He turned out to be perfect size for our freezer. Now I had a decision to make. I had an extra doe tag that was good for the whole season and the firearms season opened exactly a week from the day I shot the spike. I didn't want to go back to our best stands to kill a doe. That could wait, as I wanted Laura to be hunting undisturbed deer and I did not want to spook Tank from the area by intruding without being able to shoot him since both my regular archery tags were used. So, I decided it is time for a Fall turkey. We have a flock of about 40 females and another bachelor group that has two very large toms around our 5 acre home, one of which is at the top of my list to kill this Fall. So until Tuesday I will take a time out from deer hunting and focus on mu turkeys. I'll keep you informed.
Here I am with my spike beside our pond which has been empty all summer.
Here is Tank. In this pic he is about 2 yards from where I shot my 8 pointer in Sept. I love this stand.
Topic: Turkey time out! (Read 348 times)
