It was a great morning to be in the woods -- too bad I didn't kill anything!
No bloody arrows and no hero pics -- but I had a great time. Archery Deer and Turkey seasons are still open in Arkansas. A cold front is moving through today and bringing nasty winter weather with it so I decided to give it a whirl this morning -- beating the weather which started about an hour ago.
As I said, it was a great morning as pretty as you could ever ask for in January. I heard a pack of coyotes terrorizing our deer herd. I saw two deer, but never had a shot opportunity, and finally I had a close encounter with two hens and one REAL nice gobbler that resulted in a tense few moments. At one point I had my bow at full draw but ended up passing at a long shot on the old Tom that was sporting an 8-10" beard. I just didn't feel comfortable with the combination of the range and the swiftness with which the bird was moving thru my only shot window. I just counted coup and thanked the good Lord for the opportunity!
To wrap it all up, when I got back to the truck which was parked in the gravel pit on the edge of the timber -- there were 7 does out in the open about 300 yards away. I swear I could hear laughter on the breeze that was blowing from them to me!
All said and done, it was a great morning to be in the woods, there's no place I would rather have been!