Wow, I didn't even know this thread was on here. I was searching my name and found it. Better late than never right? Anyway the story goes...
A good friend invited me to hunt his property with him one weekend in Medford Oklahoma. I knew there were some pretty good sized bucks in there based on all the shoulder mounts he has on his wall at home. I was excited to say the least.
The first morning, perched in a tree stand in a huge cottonwood tree, I saw a decent buck pass by in the moon light about 25 yards out. Way too dark for a shot I thought, but very promising sign. Then about 30 minutes after first light I saw 3 does working down a fence line about 150 yards away. I don't know why but I did a couple of fawn bleats trying to get them to come my way. They stopped to look, then continued on their way. I have drawn does in this way before and was hoping it would work again. Well it did work, just not for those does. I started to hear leaves rustling below my stand, but could not for the life of me find the source. The noise got real close and I looked straight down. Low and behold their was the biggest bobcat I had ever seen. It walked right up the the tree I was in and smelled the lowest tree step. About that time we made eye contact. The cat jumped off into the brush about 10 yards away and stopped, turned around to give me another look and I let one loose. Dang it! Right over its back. Well my heart was pounding and I had to sit down to rest a minute. Other than glassing another buck and 2 does in the field across the road I didn't see anything else that morning. Back to camp for lunch.
That evening we headed off to another place my friend had a couple of miles away. I had no plan for this area and didn't know where to set up. My friend directed me to a tree stand he had put up several years ago, but never hunted from it. Didn't sound very promising if he never had the desire to hunt from it, but I was just glad to be there. When I found the stand it was a hot spot! Five yards from the stand was a huge scrape. It was very thick and there weren't any shooting lanes to speak of. After trimming a few branches I climbed up this 8" diameter tree just using the branches of the tree. I wondered how big this tree was when he put the stand up. This stand was a mere 12 yards off the ground, if that. Heck the whole tree was probably only 50 feet tall. I was concerned about the coverage so I slipped on my leafy jacket and settled in for the hunt.
I could see my friend sitting in a tripod stand about 300 yards away. I watched a little spike walk by him headed straight for me. My friend has a rule for quality assurance. If you shoot a buck it has to go on the wall, so you better shoot a good one. This little guy hit the scrape and milled around below my stand for all of 10 minutes. This will give you a good idea of how low this stand was. I took this picture standing up.
No worries about getting winded. The tree stand was on a fence line and the wind was in my face. The property behind me was not ours to hunt, so I didn't even trim shooting lanes on that side of me. I would glance behind me every now and then just to look around. I saw a buck cutting across the field and was watching him through my binoculars when I heard leaves crunching again. I slowly slipped them away and turned around expecting to see a deer or two in front of me. Nothing. Wait, there goes the leaves crunching again. Looking around I saw 2 rooster pheasants pecking around on the ground. Geezz! I thought. Every little noise sounded like a deer. Its funny how little things like tree rats and birds can sound like big animals when your in the woods and on alert. I chuckled and turned around to watch the buck again. He was half way through the field and stopped directly down wind of me about 200 yards out. I just knew he was going to bolt when he turned and made a beeline straight for me. Stupid me I thought. I should have taken the time and trimmed behind me. There was no way this guy was going to make it to the fence before he winded me. He would stop every now and then and look around and then start coming my way again. He cut the distance to about 50 yards and I had hope he may make come in closer. The wind was gusting 20 to 30 mph, so maybe my scent was going right over him. Or maybe he didn't like the smell the little guy left in his scrape. What ever the reason he kept coming in. I got my bow in hand and waited.
The buck made it to the tree I was in and started to trash the branches. I could not believe this was happening! His rack wasn't the best spread I hoped to see here, but he was the biggest bodied deer I have ever been this close to. He jumped the fence and walked right under me. I let him get about 5 yards out and took a shot. Thwack! The buck jumped about as high as I was in the tree and took off. He only made it 25 yards further and took a nose dive. One last grunt and he was motionless. I didn't want to mess the last minutes of hunting light up for my friend. I waited till dark before I climbed down. About 30 minutes. When I got to the buck I found that the arrow had entered high on his right side and exited low on the left slicing part of his heart. Job well done I thought. While I was in the zone I didn't even notice my partner had tagged a doe from his tripod about the same time I shot the buck. He mentioned he saw me shoot and was hoping I didn't shoot the spike. He said he could not see the deer from where he was sitting. This guy weighted in at 168lbs. field dressed. My biggest by weight so far.
I know this is about a year and a half late, but it was fun recounting the event. Thanks for reading and good hunting.
Archenemy
Topic: Paul DeHues(buck up top) (Read 588 times)
