On New Year's Day, two friends of mine--Dave and Jim--and I headed up to Dave's property in Central Wisconsin for the last weekend of deer season. About the time we hit Madison we got into freezing rain. Deer camp was another 80 miles away. By morning we'd have over 1/2" of fresh ice covering everything in sight.
Once we arrived at Dave's place, we quickly unloaded gear, suited up, and headed out to our respective stand locations. Jim and Dave were hunting opposite ends of a 40-acre woodlot, and I elected to sit a field edge on an 80-acre tract a little further west. Dave only saw one deer that evening, but Jim stopped counting around 50. Unfortunately, a shot never came together for him, but the look on his face made it clear he'd had a great evening. That's why I like these guys, they don't have to kill something to have a sucessful hunt. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself...
The freezing rain persisted, and wasn't due to stop until about 4 am, so I put some rain gear over my wool and got into my stand for the evening. Earlier in the season, the field I was hunting by served as a reliable food source for deer. But now it looked like an ill-kept ice skating rink. I would have gotten down and moved elsewhere, but with the east wind there was no where else to go, except back to the house, which sounded like a great idea.
I usually sit on stand with an arrow nocked and my bow across my lap, but with the freezing rain I had to hang it under a pine bough. Otherwise, I'd have to keep rubbing the ice off my arrow every ten minutes or so.
I only saw one deer while hunting that evening, and when he offered his chest at 14 yards I sent an arrow through both lungs and his heart. He went about 30 yards, stopped, stood for a few seconds, and fell over. He never knew what happened, except that something hit the ground by him--the arrow after it passed through his chest.
L to R: Dave Shumway, Jim Gellner, and myself.
Topic: ***Daily Hunt Pics and Stories 2005*** (Read 129412 times)
