I was scouting the bottom edges of a huge clear cut in the Howard County Management Area. The clear cut was about a year old and looked like a bomb had destroyed everything. It hadn't been replanted in pine yet and I was wading thru the mess of limbs and other debris left after the timber had been cut.
I found where the deer had traveled a lot thru the dirt sections near the end of the clear cut. As I checked out the trail, I spotted a huge brushpile that had been bulldozed up in a spot near the trail. So I hurried over to it and checked it out to see if I could take advantage of the cover somehow. Sure enough, I could see how I could make a cavity in the end of it. Heck, I even had a thick brush roof high enough to still shoot my bow.
I made my way back to the truck and got my stool to set inside the blind. After setting the stool inside and sitting down, I gathered a few bigger pieces of wood to place in front across the bottom of the opening. I used my saw to clear out some elbow room and it was soon very doable. The ground actually dropped down in the spot about six inches which helped get me lower. I had plenty of cover in front of me to shoot over and it was like the perfect blind.
It would be two days before I would be back to actually hunt, so I folded my stool and lay it down to hide it. As I got out, I quickly scanned the trail to see how close pf a shot I might have, it was about 5 yards to the trail.
Two days later, I am sitting in the blind in the dark as I wait. In the two days, the fire ants had made a giant of a hill right in front of my blind. So I had to step around it to keep from making them mad. I had recently bought a Walker's Game Ear and had it in. I also had it cranked on high so that I might be able to hear something coming from the left side before it got past me. Now I was about to get pretty impressed for a little bit as I began to hear something tiny somewhere behind me in the pile. Then I realized that it was either the young of a mouse or a rat as the mother returned to them. They would get all excited for a moment or so then get quiet again. This was pretty cool to be able to hear like this.
But then the Bluejay landed above me and just about blew my ear out with it's calling. So I turned the game ear back down a little bit. To be honest, as much as I used the thing, I don't think that it really helped much. Pigs in very dry leaves was like overwhelming loud crunching sounds.
Finally about 10:00, I could see some movement coming out onto the trail. Unfortunately, it was a four point, forked buck, Arkansas had just gone to a 3 point rule for bucks, 3 points on one side to be legal. So I sat there with bow in hand, arrow nocked.
The little buck was taking his time as he picked his way towards me, I just saw it as another time to study deer.
But then, it suddenly stopped and stared right at me. I just stayed still and watched. He did the head bob thing for a minute and then started walking straight to me. I don't know what he was seeing but he was coming to check me out. He stopped twice for a moment but then came right on in. Then I watched as it stepped one front foot right into the middle of the fire ant hill.
Thru my mask, I can see his lower leg getting covered up with angry ants and I was expecting him to suddenly take off like crazy but he didn't. Instead, he stretched out to sniff at my broadhead right in front of it. I thought that he stood there forever but finally he backed up and slowly picked his way back onto the trail. I was amazed that it never acknowledged the ants, made me wonder if he had any feelings in his lower leg.
So I sat there and watched it finally go out of sight. Nothing else happened so I loaded up everything and headed for the truck. The next week I was back except the brushpile was gone, just a pile of ashes where the timber company had come back and burned it. I had high hopes for that blind, it was one the best natural blinds that I ever had.
Topic: The Clear Cut Brushpile Blind (Read 657 times)
