Mistake #1....always stick to your plan unless something changes and makes you decide otherwise !
I lowered my gear and was gathering my gear at the bottom of my tree when all of a sudden busting out of the cedar thicket came a doe with the big 10 hot on her tail ! I was scrambling around trying to get an arrow nocked as they were closing fast ! I came to full draw just as they stopped 20 yds from me kneeling on the ground. The buck was wide open and I was looking at him at full draw down my feather shaft.....but he was quartering too and I wasn't about to take that shot. Within seconds the doe noticed me and took off with the buck in tow ! Lesson learned ! If I'd stayed put up the tree until 1:00 like my original plan, most likely a shot would have materialized at that moment ! Needless to say frustration was building ! Good thing was they were headed to the river bottom and so was I !
Slipping into the river bottom, I had a predetermined spot I was wanting to setup. It was where the drainage between the two long ridges emptied out into the bottom. Perfect spot, but the perfect tree was on the upwind side of the trails, so I was forced to hunt on the side I didn't prefer. Once situated the wait began. I knew if they were still in this bottom, chances were good they would make there way by me and back up the ridges. Just as the sun set over the ridge I could feel the wind change 180 degrees....and I knew this wasn't going to be good ! I'd been better off in the "perfect tree" now. Just as the wind changed directions I could hear the buck in the bottom start chasing the doe again. He was really putting on a show from what I could hear ! Within minutes they were making there way in my direction....and I was in discust with what I knew was about to happen ! Sure enough the buck pushes the doe in my direction. Closing fast I was preparing for the shot.....the doe runs right under me and stops ! At this point the buck is standing 10 yds from the perfect tree and broadside.....30 yds from where I'm up a tree with no shot oportunity ! Praying they doe would move on thru with him in tow ! Prayer didn't work...at least not this time ! The doe sprinted back the direction they came with the buck hot on her tail ! It was something to see....him cutting her like a rodeo horse cutting cattle and that big rack busting thru brush ! I was sick.....oportunity #2 in the same day.....mistake #2, should have hunted the perfect tree regardless of the wind direction ! Lol....but that was the best decision at the moment !
I hunted the bottom for a couple more days without a sighting of the buck, so I decided to move back up on the ridges. The spot I chose was in a late 1700's early 1800's graveyard. It was situated between 2 cedar thickets and was grown up with briars, rose bushes and small locust trees. I had found this spot while shed hunting a few years ago and knew it would be a great spot ! As I was slipping into the spot I noticed several leg sized rubs as well as a very large single bed on a small point over looking the river....I knew I had hit pay dirt...if time allowed ! The tree I chose was a very large cedar that was actually feet from a 8' tall grave marker. As I was setting in the tree I looked at the grave sites and thought of the people that were buried there and the ones who stood around there Graves mourning !
The first evening and morning hunts didn't produce a sighting of the buck, but each passing hunt the bucks that passed buy seemed to get bigger !
Morning #3 broke like all the rest before with a light frost and cool calm air. Time was running out, but my hopes were still high that God was going to deliver the big 10 to me. Just after daybreak I could hear aproaching foot steps, it was a mature doe. She was on a trail that wound thru the thick stuff which passed withing 15 yds of my tree. She was taking her time feeding and browsing. Within moments of her arrival I could hear another deer aproaching from the same direction, but I could tell this was no female deer !
Topic: Frustration and the graveyard buck (Read 2556 times)
