I finally got a chance to hunt private land, it's a gentleman who work with in the archery department.
I went to his house the morning at the designated time 4:40 am, we were in our stands about 40 minutes later. He had 17 stands set up on his land. The entire property is devoted to deer, including a sanctuary that's off-limits even if you shoot one and it goes in there, you have to wait until an hour after sunset to retrieve it. He has his rules, and for good reason. I got up in the tree stand that he had already had set up, it was about 16 ft.-high in a four trunk oak, the wind was supposed to die down but it hadn't, this was the first time ever, I have hunted out of a treestand. It was pretty neat. I didn't have to do all the work of hanging and put the steps in, it was about an 1 1/2 hr. before sunrise.
And you know how the forest and the dark figures start to look like they're moving. But they never do. The sun started to come up, and all the birds started chirping and looking for breakfast, squirrel started scurrying, and then I saw movement. Well, not before I realized I didn't even put out my scent bombs, so about a half-hour before all this started happening, I just hunt thim in the tree at 16 ft. high didn't want climb down and give myself away, I didn't really think that they would work that high up, all of them were doe in heat, when I saw the movement it came from behind me, and that's the direction the wind was blowing, that's the direction the scent bombs were sending out what the buck was looking for, he came from the left, and worked his way around behind me to my right, his beautiful rich deep brown, and his antlers were almost as if someone had stained them, they were also a deep rich brown, they weren't the light-colored kind. He look like he was for sure on an 80 lbs. maybe 200, which you know how that goes. That's why I counted his antlers of many times. He was awful stocky and his neck was swollen. At this point I had my bow in my hand, my fingers on the string, I drew back, and went back and forth, from the spot I picked out on his broadside 25 yd. shot, to his antlers, I keep counting, one, two, three, one, two, three, by this time he looked at me, I stared at him, holding my draw, we were eyeing each other it seemed like for 10 minutes, but it was only for maybe 15 seconds, and I counted again one, two, three, by this time he dropped his head and started feeding again, he was still broadside, and it would be very easy shot at 25 yd., the reason I was counting one, two, three, is my friend, that owned the land has a rule,
" if you take the buck, it has to have 8 points or more, so I just enjoyed looking at him until he circled all the way around me, and came into one shooting lane that was only 20 yd. away or less, still counting one, two, three, he still hadn't grown any more antlers, he was only a six points, so I watched him walk into a thicket, 40 yd. in front of me, and lay down,
Boy I wanted to release my arrow, at 20 yds, but rules are rules, and he'll be a good buck next year, maybe I will hunt him specifically, because of the rich brown color in both his coat, and antlers. But it was enjoyable, because he started to walk away when he was at 25 yd., and I didn't have my call it was in my pack, I was afraid to reach for it because it would scare him away, so I called him in with my mouth making, grunt calls, and bleeping, that was the coolest thing calling him and seeing him come back within 20 yd.
The hardest thing was not shooting, because as this was my first time in the tree stand, and I never shot a buck before.
Carl
Topic: Had my chance at a Big One ! (Read 431 times)
