As most of my friends know, I haven't had much time to hunt as a result of my work schedule, but I have been out a handful of times for a few hours each. Shot a small spike that I thought was a doe at last light a little while back, but no other shot opportunities other than that, up until this week.
In the NW corner of my alfalfa field (which seems to be eaten into dirt), I found trails coming in from both the west and the east that were loaded with fresh tracks since the recent rain. A cold front was coming through, so I hoped something would be moving into the field during daylight.
I didn't have much cover for a spot on the ground or in a tree to the west, so I followed the trail from the east into a drainage, and found a decent tree for an ambush. I quickly pulled a treestand and some climbing sticks from a different field and got seated for the evening hunt with less than 2 hours of light remaining.
around 45 minutes before dark, I could see 4 day and a small buck up in the field, which must have entered from the west. Around 20 minutes later I heard deer coming through the drainage toward me from the Northeast. At first I only saw two, and they were nice 3.5yo deer that I have been following since last year. I had previously resolved to hold off on shooting them because they should be really nice next year, but my mind was racing, with season ending soon. I was doing complex mathmatical equations in my head, regarding how many mature deer I would still have next year on my property if I shot one of these, and was getting ready to draw down on a buck a freind named 'High and Mighty', when I heard noise further up the trail. I grabbed my binoculars and saw a mature 8 point that I had some night time pictures of. I let the 2 younger deer pass, even though they had nicer racks, and decided to hope that things worked out for the older 8 point.
The other 2 contined toward the field, and the older deer slowly made his way down the trail. He passed by at around 10 yard, and even though I was 12 feet up the tree, he was nearly level with my because of the contour of the drainage. I drew as he crossed behind a tree, and he was nice enought to pause nearly broadside just after passing by the tree.
I had recently been shooting my Silvertip in the expecation of using one of my ground blinds, so I left my Stickflingers at home for this hunt, and that reliable Silvertip did it's job. I put a real good hit on him, using Nitro stinger arrows made up by Gary at DM custom arrows. tipped with wide 2 blade VPA head. Got a mule kick, and he ran around 30 yards toward the field before doing a spin and flop, making for a shorter drag for me. Anyway, I am pretty happy with the result.
Some pics of him on the hoof.
Topic: Started off the New Year pretty well. (Read 3773 times)
