well...might have had an exciting close to the 2008 season (might because it doesn't officially close until the 31st, I just don't know when I'm gonna get out again). so here goes
was late this am cause our coffee maker decided to erupt like a volcano instead of neatly depositing the coffee in the carafe. took me an extra 10 minutes to clean up the spilled coffee and reload. drove into farm about 6:30 and strapped the lone wolf climber to my back. trudged down into the 'hole' towards the tree off the saddle hill I had used earlier in the season. had gotten 3/4 of the way there when I realized there was not a single track in the snow going through the 'hole'. I back tracked to the truck and decided to check out the drainage ditch by the houses. sure enough just on the other side of the drainage was a 2 foot wide run that looked like they'd run a snow blower through. I looked for a good climber-tree and there weren't any close enough to the run for a decent shot. just about 20 yards off the run is a large oak, that my hunting bud mark had hung a stand in the previous year and left there, however, it faces away from the run. I quickly decided to climb up into it, leaving the lone wolf at the base of the tree.
it took quite a while to cool off from the sweat I'd worked up trudging through the snow, but once I did I donned my hunters orange knit hat (even though hunting with a bow, MA requires hunters orange from the close of bow season, throught both gun seasons). settled in and tried to figure out which direction they'd come from and where I could possibly shoot around this tree that forked into about 5 different trunks. at about 8 am I heard crunching from the west, and I was facing east. Turned to see a doe coming up the run from the houses about 80 yards off, I stood and lifted the bow from the hook...then caught sight of another deer. A buck was following her, and from what I could see at the distance a pretty good one at that. then motion to the bucks right caught my eye...2 more deer. here they come up the run, doe in the lead, a spike and a yearling, then the buck. I started to get ready to turn to my left and setup for a shot once they passed behind the tree, when the doe suddenly locks up, nose to the snow. I realized pretty quickly that she was standing adjacent to the path I chose to approach the tree....darn, she caught my scent. she did the head bob thing for a few minutes while the other three froze. she finally relaxed and veered off the run toward the drainage, but by this time the buck, a nice 20+ inch wide 8 point had locked on to me in the tree and stood there stomping from 60 yards away. the little ones stayed on the run and the yearling -which turned out to be a button buck- actually continued on up the run a bit, but I would have had to spin about 200 degrees to get a shot with 6 eyes on me the whole time. the spike -which turned out to have small forks on each spike- started to follow the doe. this would have given me a broadside at about 22 yards. I got set and started to draw but the doe bagged me and took off in the direction that she came from taking the two little ones with her....the buck waited till they passed and then started to follow. I snort wheezed in desperation, and he stopped looked back for a minute...then continued on after the others.
that was my best encounter this year and quadrupled my season total for deer sightings in MA. in total it lasted about 25 minutes (give or take), leaving me cursing and grinning in the tree at 8:30. sat back, had a cup of java, climbed down and followed the run up i the direction they would have headed had they not bagged me. lead right up to the apple tree I had the trail cam in earlier in the fall, where I had gotten pics of a bunch of deer. the snow under the apple tree was completely trampled, where they'ed bedded and dug up apples frozen under the snow.
if I had to guess, I think this might be the buck from 2 years ago...rack wider and bigger but not really tall tines:
Topic: the sun sets on another Mass. Bow season... (Read 554 times)
