On November 6th, I visited an area that I'd only hunted once this season. It's a mix of crop land, open hardwoods and an expanse of cedars that deer use for a bedding area.
About 40 minutes into the morning, a pair of does being followed by a forky traveled through behind me. The does broke off into the cedars, while the small buck stopped and stared intently to the south. In short order a mature buck was walking toward him.
The small buck gave way to the mature buck, but the two of them remained about 60 yards behind me for a few minutes. With nothing to lose, I tried the grunt call on him. He snapped his attention my way, but didn't move. After the fifth grunt, he pinned his ears back and headed my way.
He eventually wound up at 15 yards, but a branch blocked any shot possibility. As I moved to prepare for a shot when he advanced, I could hear the forky bounding off behind me. This put the buck, a beautiful 11 pointer, on alert. After a tense standoff, he turned back toward the cedar edge where he'd come from.
When his head passed behind a large-trunked tree between us, I came to full draw and waited for him to step out. As his chest cleared the tree, I found a good spot behind the front leg and sent the shaft on it's way.
As he ran off, I could see the arrow had struck him solidly in the chest. He went about 80 yards before I saw him go down. It was time to sit down and savor the gift that I'd just received.
After I snapped some pics, the real work began. I wound up cutting him in two to get him out on a packframe. This method may not be new to those that hunt the western States, but we can't bone out the meat. So with a heavy pack and a pair of ski poles for balance, a couple trips to the vehicle had him out of the swamp. I'll be honest, with my sixtieth birthday approaching, I was really questioning my sanity as I slogged through the flooded cedar patch.
Was it worth it? Absolutely!
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Topic: November surprise (Read 1817 times)
