I had an incredible day in the swamps today. The weather was supposed to be cool this morning, so I took the day off. I was hunting over some chestnut oaks that are showing bunches of feeding sign. I have found that deer much prefer certain trees over others in this variety of white oak. They only produce mast about every third year. If you luck up on one that is dropping and holding deer you need to hunt it now!
This is only my second traditional only bow season. Last year I was fortunate to kill a nice 7 pt with my Great Northern Ghost recurve. This year it's only Apex Predator longbows! I have killed quite a few hogs already this year though, with the latest falling to my first ever glass laminated longbow "Old Red".
I left home without my Lone Wolf climbing sticks, and had to double back. I didn't get set up until 30 minutes after daylight! At 9:55 I had a lone doe come in. I didn't see/hear her until she was within 10 yards. I possibly could have been snoozing a little.
She went right to crunching those big acorns. I was able to stand and turn in preparation for the shot, without her any wiser. I was about 14' up a tree. With her quartering away and head sucking on the forest floor at 10 yards I drew my bow. At the shot she dropped enough for my arrow to skip off the top of her back. I can't figure it! She never even once looked at me. My bow is very quiet. My buddy says to shoot them when thier head is up, because they have slower reaction time in dropping. Anyone else heard of this?
I got back in my stand and settled down at 5:00. About an hour into the hunt I hear some great commotion coming from the cypress swamp behind me. Lots of splashing. It sounded like either a boar chasing a sow, or buck chasing a doe. I heard no pig or deer sounds though. About 15 minutes later I see two deer paralleling me about 60-70 yards out in the swamp. It's amazing how quite they are when the want to be. They were walking in 12" of water and I couldn't hear them at all. After another thirty minutes I could hear a clicking/popping sound to my left. I do the old slow head swivel and spy two bucks sparring! That's a first for me. They looked like 4 point yearlings. They weren't being too serious, but pushed each other around some. The smaller of the two headed back out across the swamp, and the other headed my way. He got to about 30 yards and stuck his head in a hollow tree. He was eating something in there. Every time he went to pull his head out, it would get stuck until he turned his little rack just so. It was quite entertaining. Finally he had enough and started to parallel me at 10 yards too far out. I grunted to him, but he didn't hear me. I gave it a loud grunt and he stopped and looked my way. I was in position for a shot if he would close the distance. He turned and walked into about 23 yards, and started paralleling me again. I normally don't take a shot past 20, but this one felt right. He was broadside and slowly walking. He would stop every couple of steps and check for acorns. I drew when his head was behind a tree. He took two more steps into the open and the shaft was away. The shot looked to be perfect! He bolted straight ahead and stopped after 40 yards. He wobbled and went right down. That Magnus I tipped 650 grain CE Heritage 90 was sticking in the ground crimson where the little buck had been standing. Awesome! My little straight cedar longbow only draws 47@27, but it was plenty.
One of my best days afield. Here is my little buck.
Topic: First deer of the season! (Read 3379 times)
