WOW! What a hunt! I have never done anything like this before, and I am kicking myself for not doing this in years past when it was offered to me.
This week, we went hunt "Sika deer", which are really not deer at all, but rather an Asian Elk - from everything I have read about them and been told about them. The hunt was at Assateague Island, VA. What an AWESOME place!
I was invited last year by my friend Curt Lytle, and for some reason that is un-recallable to me at this time, I did not go. I remember that we did not make the original list, and had been put on "standby". This year, we made the list, and decided to go.
Curt told me this would be "different", and he recommended that I leave the treestand and compound bow at home. We would be ground hunting, and the terrain was probably best suited to traditional equipment. I have taken my longbow into the woods several times to stump shoot, but as of this year, had not yet hunted with it. I was skeptical. I kept going back and forth on what I was going to take. On the Friday and Saturday prior to this hunt, I was after whitetails on Ft. A.P. Hill, also in Virginia - using a compound bow. I came home late Saturday night, and made my decision - leave the wheel bow at home, and take the longbow. I lightened up my load as best as possible, knowing we were traveling longer distances through terrain that wasn't like what I was used to. However, I couldn't help but throw the treestand in the back of the truck.
Sunday, we attended the mandatory meeting, got a cabin to sleep in, and started our scouting. Assateague is a beautiful place, but definitely not what I was expecting. Seeing what trees were available in the places we were scouting, I quickly made the decision to leave the treestand in the cabin. We were going around sandy hills, myrtle bushes, and lots of tall grass. Looking for water sources, we eventually came upon our mark - a few little water holes, MUCH smaller than what they have been in recent years from the looks of prior water marks, etc... There, we found tons of tracks. We studied quite a bit, as we tried to determine Sika from Whitetail tracks. We found wallows, which we assumed belonged to the Sika, but were never able to confirm. We were excited about the next days hunt.
Day 1 of the hunt - Monday morning. I had found a nice tree, the closest point to the water hole I was hunting around, and I roughed out a little area underneath it so I could sit / lay comfortable under it with a good view all around the water hole. I put up a little leafy blind material at the entrance to conceal my presence, and settled in waiting for the sun to come up. BTW... thanks VERY much to the inventor of the Thermocell. The sun came up, and I was able to see all around me. During the course of the morning, I watched a few Sika on the other end of my water hole. Not even close enough for a shot - but I got to see them, which made me excited. I also watched two come out on a point to my right, close to where I thought my friend was setting up. It turns out he had set up directly across the open field from that location. No shots were taken that morning.
Later that afternoon, after a retreat back to the cabin for lunch, we headed back out. I settled underneath the same tree, and began my wait. As I had a while to think, I started appreciating how fun this hunt was. No carrying / climbing a treestand, making all kinds of noise, no carrying that heavy compound bow, etc... Just me, a good pair of walking boots, a light pack, small hip quiver, and a super light bow (carrying weight) that my friend Greywolf had built for me last November. Now THIS was cool hunting.
Unfortunately, I got busted that afternoon by two cows that came in on my right. The wind had been in my face all day, and right as they walked up, my blind material pushed out slightly away from me. "OH NO!!!" I thought. Yep, a split second later, they winded me and took off running. However, right before dark, the "big show" began. Nowhere near close enough for a shot, but I got to watch the Sika out in the open field, and decided that if I couldn't get a shot, I could at least study them a bit better, as it seems NOBODY has info on these things. First, I saw a cow and bull (doe and buck, etc... depending on how you want to refer to them), come out from the right side of the field and feed their way across the short green grass. Another bull came out into the field, and it was "on". The first bull ran across and met him, and they began to circle each other, sniffing each other from the rear. Then they both trotted off to the far end of the field, and I think the first one was merely pushing the other one out. Then came the "families". Bunches and bunches of Sika. I lost count at 20+, as they mulled around in the field, playing and grazing the grassy areas. Not a one came anywhere near the water out of that large group. Then a big whitetail buck showed up. You could pick him out of the crowd so easy. He was a nice tan color and all the other Sika's were dark brown / black. However, he was out there playing among them like they had adopted him or something. He acted like he was one of the group. Finally, they all filed out one by one, and I was left alone in my blind. The whole show lasted about 20 minutes, from 6:15 to 6:35. One lone Sika came into the water hole a few moments later, and walked around inside it, all the way to the middle. Hmmm... guess it's not deep after all, because these guys are rather small, and the water only reached his chest when he was in the middle. I met up with Curt and our other hunting partner Shawn, and relayed the days events. I thought that Curt and Shawn would have similar experiences, given our relative positions, but it seems I was the only one to see that many. Nobody said anything to me about it, but I kind of got this unnerved feeling from the way they were looking at me - kind of like "Yeah, right... you saw 20.... uh huh...." Ha!!! LOL!!! OK guys - you gotta come see this now, first hand. Although nobody said a word to me about it, I felt uneasy. They HAD to see what I saw tonight. I know I don't have to justify myself, but when the other two people see one or two each, and I see almost two dozen, I kind of felt uneasy even telling them how many I had seen.
Day 2 of the hunt, we headed to our same locations, as we did not have time to scout much else. I settled into my comfortable little ground blind, with Curt closer to my position this time. Shawn headed off to his same location. I saw two Sika come in on the opposite end of my water hole, but they never came close to me. Then, right about the time when we were going to call it a morning and meet up, from my right, out pops an 8 point Whitetail at about 15 feet from my blind. He walked right up to the camo material, and put his head right to it - he was 5 feet from me!!!! The wind was blowing right across me, and right into his nose, and he didn't move at all. I could have reached up with my bow and touched him on the nose with it!!! I froze, just laying there paralyzed. The worst part - I have never taken a buck with antlers yet. Button bucks - yes. Antlered deer - no. And I have yet to take an animal with my traditional equipment. BUT... Whitetail bucks were off-limits this week to archery hunters. Only Sika cows and bulls, and Whitetail does. So all I could do is watch. He circled the outside of my blind, making a 180 degree pass on the side of it that was exposed to the open. He got to the other side and went to the waters edge for a drink. I carefully slipped my other "weapon" out of my pack - my camera phone (by the way... does anyone know how to get a picture off a Verizon LG phone so I can post it on the internet???). He walked back to my blind, and again stopped within spitting distance of me. I slowly snapped three pictures of him from beneath that tree. He never moved. As he turned to walk around the front of my blind, I decided to try something else. Moving slowly, I was on my knees, and if he had been legal to shoot, I think he would have been an easy take at less than 7 feet shooting from the ground on my knees. However, I didn't touch my bow, as I didn't want my mind to go blank and do something stupid. I was so excited, no telling what my brain might have snapped and done. LOL!!! Finally, he came back to the front of my blind, again standing about 5 feet from me. He was alert to something in the field. Finally, he snorted and took off like a shot in the opposite direction. It was then that I realized my friend Curt was in the field, and had been walking to me when he caught sight of the Whitetail. He had stopped to observe it, and made the comment that he was thinking, "I don't remember there being a duck blind in front of the water hole that Glenn was hunting. Oh wait! That "duck blind" has antlers!" Ha!!! No big loss, as he wasn't a legal animal to shoot anyway. Curt and I headed to the open field where I had seen the "big show" the night prior, in order to pick out some new spots.
So... after a brief lunch, we head back out to the field, and Curt and Shawn are now with me in the open field. I have to admit - I was uncomfortable where I was. Curt had helped me set up a spot behind some grass, right along the tree line. The grass was only about a foot and a half to two and a half feet tall, so sitting on my folding stool, it only reached me chest to neck level. So I would have to move slowly, as I was basically "in the open". I have never done this before on the ground, so it was a new experience for me. As it turns out, I was perfectly fine. None of the animals we saw that evening made me. The show started early. About 5:50 is when we saw the first Sikas. Curt saw one to his right, which was to my left, but he judged it as being closer to me, so he did not take a shot. He was wondering why I wasn't shooting, but I was actually about 60 yards from it, with a small tree to my left, so I couldn't even see it. But I was concentrating on two that had come out of nowhere and suddenly were in the middle of the field. "Good going Glenn... where did those two come from?" I thought. They moved slowly across the field, grazing as they came across. I got excited because they were angling my way, so I prepared myself for the shot. No such luck. They entered the woods to my right, out of bow range for me. Right before they entered the woods, the smaller Sika to my left, which was originally out of my sight picture, came running and "hopping" across the open field. FUNNY to watch!! It was like a cartoon character. All that was missing was a "boing!, boing!, boing!" noise. Then the "big show" opened - a little later than the previous night, but just as exciting. Several filed out - I lost count as some were chasing others off, and they were running in circles. I would say no less than 15 appeared at any one time. A bull and cow showed up and walked to the water hole edge, to the far end of my original stand. Another bull showed up, and the show got better. As the two bulls squared off, and started to clash antlers with each other, Curt decided to make his move from 100 yards away. He picked up his Bighorn recurve bow and headed quickly across the open field, right to the bulls. He figured (rightfully so), that it was his best opportunity at a shot at one of the two, as they were totally engrossed with each other, and didn't' look like they would make it over to his way before shooting hours were over. He didn't quite make it across before they made him and took off. Excellent try, but it just didn't pan out. He is putting his arrow back in the quiver, thinking the show is over as they all took off, as a Sika cow decides to charge right at him!!! We don't know what the cow was thinking. Maybe it thought Curt was another Sika. It figured it out right as Curt was trying to get the arrow re-nocked for the shot. Off it went. Show over, we picked up our packs and met up. Curt informed me that he saw two Whitetail DOES pass within 10 feet of my prior stand. DANG IT!!! LOL!!! Story of my life - right place at the wrong time. Ha! As we walked back to the truck, I could only describe the nights events as "exhilarating". When you can walk away from a two day hunt, after not taking any animals or even getting a shot off at all, and say out loud "We HAVE to do this again next year!", you know you have had an exciting, enjoyable trip.
Thank you Curt Lytle, for a fantastic hunting trip. Thank you Shawn, for being a great hunting partner - I greatly enjoyed making your acquaintance. And thank you Greywolf, for making an awesome longbow for me. It's the first time it has been on a hunting trip, and it definitely will not be the last. As light as this bow is, especially compared to my compound, this bow will definitely see hunting use again in the near future.
All the best,
Glenn
If you would like to see the animals, and a short summary of Assateague, check it out here:
http://www.assateagueisland.com/wildlife/sika.htm
Topic: My Sika Deer hunt w/ Longbow (Read 884 times)
