Bless your hearts - I
am hyped up - :D
OH - ya talked me into it
.
Picture this. Here it is the last night of bow season, and it is the night before full moon - plus last time out I saw nothing. 'Course I hunt bow all year but still in NC Black powder starts this AM and the only way you get to use bows during this next week is in "bow only" areas like the base has. That's where I had been for the last two years because, while I was seeing deer (like this year), no shot opportunities at legal shooters. So ---"Still" it was "last day of Bow Season" - ya know what I mean? Well, now turns up they are talking a front coming in with possible bad showers and cooler weather in the afternoon and evening. Even my wife said, "Did you hear that?" Yep! I decided I would take my after lunch nap, and when I got up, if it wasn't too sunny - or toooo rainy, I'd go and give it one last bloody go. Looking pretty good when I got up - meaning right overcast. Shortly, I was on the road to the base. About half way there it started raining and by the time I got to my parking area it was pouring cats and dogs and there was Poodels in the street, as they say. I struggled into my rain suit and called the wife to tell her the situation. I knew she'd be wondering about the heavey rain (and lightning - in a metal climber). I told her my "plan" was to sit right where I was until and if it slacked up - I couldn't hardly make out the greens on the Golf Course. If it slacked i would just take my bow and leave my climber in the truck so that I could get out in a hurry if it started up bad again. I lamented that I hadn't put my Torges tree seat in the truck (as I'd meant to a week ago)but I would stand with my back to the big pine and the understory for cover and hope for the best. After all, if it let up and with the front approaching - the deer should walk. Yes!
It did slack up, and by the time I got to my tree it was only very light rain - and cowflap size spatters off the trees of course. Within about 30 minutes I caught movement to my front left that I was sure wasn't squirrels. Sure enough a decent deer that looked to be a doe was working its way through the heavy brush across my front. I was really traveling light so had only stuck my flashlight in my pocket and left my fanny pack at the truck. That meant I'd forgot to grab my bleat can. Rats! I made a low attempt at a fawn bleat or two with my mouth. Directly the Deer worked it's way back from my right towards the road in front of me. Somehow I kept myself from fainting - mouth calls are not my forte. As the deer cleared the brush i imediatly saw it was one of the spike horns that i have been seeing in the area. This one's spikes sort of lay back along it's neck and explained why I thought he was a doe in the brush - it wasn't the first time he'd almost got me in trouble this season. Bucks gotta be five points in bow areas. I watched the nice sized fellow, not 12 yards from me in my shooting lane, as usual giving me pleanty of shot opportunities. He was pretty sure the base of that tree looked different and was doing a look of head bobbing and keeping his eye on me the whole sequence of the evening but he never busted me. As my old friend, Eddie, in Maine used to say, "I was standing so still dust was forming on my eyeballs." After about five minutes or so of this posturing and milling about he suddenly looked towards where he had first appeared to my left. Now he was really offering it up - broadside and his attention fixed over there. I turned my head slowly (resisting the urge).