Well yesterday was opening day of gun season here. I always go out with in law with my Model 70. He could only go out for about an hour and a half in the morning. So I watched some does and a lot of hunters for the morning. At lunch I went home and caught a shower, it was 70 degrees here yesterday which is crazy. Since the afternoon was solo, I grabbed the LB and decided to hump in a ways and get away from the crowd.
I went to a spot that has been good to me before, an oak ridge an a 40 foot cliff that has one trail running up it that leads up from another with a thick bedding area. I was a little concerned with the lack of scrapes and rubs with all the talk of the rut going on elsewhere. About 3:30 a large storm front rolled in and the woods got really dark. Perfect!
About 4:00 I caught a little movement in my peripheral vision and through the tangle of scrub brush I could see a head rubbing a tree. Buck! better yet a legal one! Dark is approaching real fast so I'm pulling for him to feed across the ridge and sent check where some does crossed earlier.
After what seems like forever he starts moving across the edge of the ridge toward s the one shooting lane for that trail. (there are four trails here and I set-up at a spot that gives me shots from 40-5 yards on each). I now see he has a large doe feeding in front of him, he already has a date! She starts feeding through a tree-top straight for me while he continues along the trail. The wind has been pretty dead so far.
Time is running out, I need him to clear one last tree to get a shot and I need it before the doe busts me. The breeze tickles the back of my neck and it is real close to being to dark(I still have 25 minutes of legal shoot time but the cloudcover has really made it dark). He moves his front quarters out from behind the tree and the arrow is gone before I even think about it. I here the loud crack of steel hitting bone and he is gone! No running off, just gone, like he was never there.
I head down to where I shot to see if there is any blood while I can still see a little and watch two deer moving away through the brush. I missed or didn't hit as well as I sounded I think. Move down to where I last saw him and there he is! The arrow caught him in the spine and is no where to be found(I think when he fell it went over the ledge, he hit the ground so hard he broke his shoulder).
As the saying goes, now the work begins and 3 1/2 hours later is what you see in the picture above.
Topic: Daily Hunt pics and Stories 2006 (Read 49446 times)
