Epic day on the farm today. After an hour aboard ship (read: treestand in 20 mph gusts) with windchill at around 28 deg..,I decided it might be better to be firmly planted on the ground. Walking an old cart road (2 track, logging road) I pass a marsh that's too near the neighboring house for me to comfortably hunt. . And I see something that makes me say, "jeez that looks like a rack...,,wait it IS a rack". This guy was bedded so all I can see is neck up. The spot with the best view of him just happened to be a spot where the cart road has 3 foot tall embankments on either side. So I hunkered in and tried to call him to me. Either the distance, wind, or both had him so he wouldn't budge. I watched him from about 8am until 3pm. At one point midday the farmer started up one of his tractors and I see not one but two deer pop up and one is heading right towards me...got the black widow up and squared when I figure out its a smaller deer, actually a button buck... Who walked within 5 yards of me all the while mr big was still 60/70 yards away. So I gave him a pass and sadly watched mr big hunker back down in the marsh a little further than before. At 3 I decided to try to get a little closer. Closed the 80 yards to 40...but I'd need to half that again to shoot with the recurve, and I was about to run out of cover....When a car drives up the neighbors driveway spooks him and he disappears further into the gloom.
Never to be seen again..,except on the SD card of my camera that I was happy I decided to bring along too.
I haven't tried to stalk a deer on the ground in over a decade. it was thrilling to say the least....but between kneeling all day and trying to inch my way through briars and crunchy leaves my legs are toast. lol...