And here is a picture of the view from inside the Taj Majal:
I threw out a little hand thrown corn and climbed up into the stand about an hour before daylight. I just curled up in my chair and waited for the woods to come alive with the break of daylight.
As it began to get light I caught movement out of the window and could tell there was a deer there already having breakfast. I could not tell anything about this deer. As it continued to get lighter I realized that this was buck as I could just make out tines moving around as he fed.
Then, as it got light enough to finally see good, I realized that this was a pretty good buck. I also decided that I would shoot him if given the opportunity.
For the next thirty minutes we played cat and mouse. The buck came and went several times but every time he would come in close he was always quartering towards me and I had no shot.
Then one of the coolest things I have seen in the woods happened. A Red Tailed hawk came swooping in several times like he was dive-bombing the buck. The buck paid little attention to the hawk but would kind of duck when he would swoop down. After several swoops, the hawk landed on the ground and walked right up to the buck. His head was all cocked sideways as he was looking at the deer. The hawk then flew up and lit on a fence post about six feet in front of the deer. The hawk had lit on a T-post and was having quite a hard time balancing atop the post. He was flopping his wings around trying to balance himself and I think he was in the bucks comfort zone.
The buck raised his head staring at the hawk as he backed up a few steps. That is when I realized that the buck has now put his self in a perfect position for me to shoot. The next thing I knew, the arrow was on its way! It appeared to hit exactly in the spot that my eyes were just focused on. At that, the buck turned and ran. I thought I could see him get wobbley in the brush not too far from the stand.
After a short while I got out of the blind and took up the trail.
Here is what I found at the spot where I had shot him-
This was about ten feet into the trail-
And the rest of the trail-
And this is what lay at the end of the trail (a long and arduous 22yd trail)-
In this pic you can see the exit hole (and that is a pretty good place for and exit hole if I do say so myself)-
More pics to follow!
Bisch
Topic: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker (Read 124639 times)
