Earlier this year I was lucky enough to draw an access permit for the Marais Des Cygnes national wildlife refuge. I was really pumped about the opportunity to hunt a new area and quickly started planning my attack. I ordered a topo of the area and printed several aerial photos off the net. I really enjoy studying maps and trying to figure out the best places for an ambush. I have very limited time to actually hunt so I try to get as much enjoyment out of the anticipation and planning as I can. Studying maps lets me do this from the comfort of my living room. I marked several places that looked promising then took a scouting trip a few weeks ago to confirm my hunches. I had a couple of different places selected for each different wind direction and was eager to hit the woods with bow in hand. One spot in particular really had me intrigued. It was a natural funnel created by three different types of cover converging at an old fence intersection. I needed a northeast wind to hunt it which is somewhat unusual for this part of the country. Well, as luck would have it, I checked the weather forecast and a northeast wind was predicted for the first few hours on Saturday morning before switching around to the south later in the afternoon. The trap was set...
When I arrived Saturday morning there was already a truck in the parking lot. I really didn't think this fellow bowhunter would interfere with my plans since the spot I was heading to was about a mile and a half from the nearest road. Most guys just won't hunt this far from the truck. I grabbed my bow and ghillie suit and started the long walk in. I had to cross a tall grass field and with the heavy dew my bottom half was soaking wet when I arrived at the old fence intersection. I picked out a good tree, trimmed a few small branches, zipped up the ghillie suit and sat waiting for the sunrise. At first light several turkeys started yelping from the trees out in front of me. It was great to be out in the woods again!
At about 8 o'clock, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a small buck coming from my left. One side of his rack was missing and the other side was forked. I didn't have any intention on shooting him so I just sat back and watched. He ended up coming right through the funnel at 20 yards which brought a small grin of satisfaction to my face. With over 5,000 acres to choose from, today I had picked the right spot and no matter what the rest of the morning would bring, I was satisfied.
About 40 minutes had passed since the little buck had wandered through my little corner of the world when I again caught movement to my left. A quick flash of antler had me reaching for my bow and the go light was on. It was immediately evident that he was headed to the funnel and if he stayed on his current path he would be passing in front of me much closer than the small buck had. Maybe to close. At under 15 yards he stepped behind a large tree and I raised my bow. He continued on with no idea I was there. He passed directly in front me at 8 yards as I slowly pulled the arrow to anchor. I released and the arrow instantly appeared just behind his shoulder. As he charged out of the area I tried as hard as I could to stay calm and mark his direction of travel. After ten short seconds of chaos, all was silent.
I sat back and tried to catch my breath. The shot looked good and I was fairly confident of a short blood trail but I still forced myself to wait for 30 minutes before looking for blood. The first couple of clues gave every indication that this blood trail would be a short one.
More later.....
Bill
Topic: This one took some work. (Read 7463 times)
