This is why they call it hunt'n and not kill'n.
Windy today as all get out! It was already good and daylight when I got down in the hollow I was going to hunt. I walked a haul road in and at a "Y" intersection I turned towards my intended spot. One step around the corner and I see two racks heading toward me. I'm in the wide open, so I back up a couple steps and back up against a multi-floral rose bush.
It seemed like an hour but was only about 1 minute before the first buck rounds the bend. A small eight pointer or six pointer,,, I was trying not to look at the rack!...
Just my luck he turns towards me instead of heading out the other road. He was 4 paces away and quartering towards me. He spotted me, but he was not sure what I was, but he wasn't staying to find out, and then he turned and trotted back past the other buck. They stood together, looking back down the road about 35 yrds away. A few minutes later they both hit the woods and went up the hill face's into the wind. It was four paces away and could not get a shot.... that's hunt'n!
I usually tree stand hunt, but today I was heading for a dead fall with my three legged folding stool to hunt from the cover of the deadfall. I climbed through the dead falls limbs looking for the best spot to sit. before I could get my stool off my belt, I spotted a spike 30 yrds out heading my direction. I kneeled on the ground and readied myself raising my selfbow. This is it, I though to myself,,, just as I got to full draw he looked right at me,, ten paces away! I released and the darn thing jumped the string and the arrow just grazed its back and the hair flew. Straight down over the hill and acrossed the hollow he went,,, that's hunt'n!
I like this spot at the dead fall and have never taken a deer from the ground with a bow. So after missing the spike, I spent some time making the deadfall into a blind by using brush and dead tree limbs.
I decided to cross back over the hollow and see if I could walk out this knife ridge thicket and spot something before it spotted me. There is large cow pasture's on each side of this ridge.
It was really windy and I figured most deer would be bedded, hopefully in the thicket out that ridge.
As I crossed the hollow I found where the spike I had grazed earlier had stopped. I must have gotten a little more than hair. I found some blood and a few more spots as he walked off again. It petered out qiuckly and I soon lost any trail. This little buck will be fine as frog hair and a little smarter from now on,,, I'm sure!
That's hunt'n!
Finally at the ridge, I stalked slowly using the wind to hide my movements and sound. Toward the end of the ridge, I started getting discouraged and just had given up when I walked a few paces at normal speed.
I took this pic. I never seen a turtle sleeping with its head out of the shell....
Then I took two more steps and up jumps the devil,,, a monster buck and 4 does running out of the thicket 20 yrds away and out and down the hill through the wide open cow pasture,,,, That's hunt'n!
I had had enough,,, and walked out into the pasture for an easy walk back to the Jeep. As I walked toward the woodline, I spot some turkeys about 150 yrds ahead and out in the pasture. My heart starts beating and I set up in a clump of brush in hopes they would keep heading my direction.
Half way to me they turn left and into the woodline,,, That's hunt'n
My digital camera is fairly cheap and you can't hardly make out the turkeys in this picture at 150yrds,,, but that's my luck this year.
As I head toward the jeep, I slow down at a thicket that I sometimes jump deer in. Again just as I give up on the still hunting a four pointer jumps up and snorts as he heads south over a steep bench on the hillside,,, that's hunt'n!
Regardless of the mishaps, I really enjoyed the morning that lasted until 1:00pm,,, THAT'S HUNT'N!
Topic: Home Grown Hunting Equipment for 2006/07 (UPDATE - Nov. 5th, 2006) (Read 49024 times)
