I started a new job on September 7th so I knew I would only be hunting weekends this hunting season. Last year i hunted a public land spot that had limited access due to the fact that it was surrounded by private land but you could access by walking close to 3/4 of a mile along a major highway. When i scouted it last year i found a lone wolf stand on the public land but right on the edge of the private farm. I made sure i was 150 yards away from that stand. When I went to put out a camera after hunting season started I found that my stand was stolen.
My guess is the person that has been hunting that property doesn't want company even though it is open public land. On another close by piece of public land that is permit access only I went in to check my camera and found that that stand was also stolen and they cut my lifeline so it was unusable. Sadly that is what hunting on Long Island NY has become. Both of these spots the stands were at least a mile in to access and had to go through some really thick brush. I decided to hunt another area and bring my wedgelock stand in and out each time I hunted. To tell you i wasn't bummed out would be telling a lie, bothers me that we have slob hunters in our ranks and to steal from someone, especially another hunter. Thankfully I could afford the monetary loss without it being an issue like some folks.
Well I decided to scout a new spot and hunt it that afternoon. The spot I picked was about a 1/4 mile in and I found a decent rub line. There was several trails running basically north and south that it looked like the buck was using. I selected a decent size red oak with some leaves still on it and set up for the evening. I saw a family out for a walk in the woods on a nearby trail which is typical surburban hunting and then around 4:00pm a spike came walking by. I let the spike walk by but was up for shooting a doe or basically anything else. Nothing else came by but my mood was lifted being in the woods.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving was my next chance to get out. I was going to hunt a different stand further out east on Long island where i shot my biggest buck to date. Well the wind was going to be 22mph further out east and only 14mph at my new spot. Decided to hunt the new spot, got up at 3:30am and made the 45 minute drive out east. I was in my stand by 5:40am with first light coming in at 6:20. Nice crisp 30 degree morning. Sure enough i hear a deer walking at 6:45am on one of the trials I'm hunting. Looks like he is a four point which is ok by me, I want some meat. Now I'm hunting a cross wind and i will have to shoot him before he gets to the 1:00pm position of my stand. He decides to take a different trail and walks right to the bottom of my stand and starts browsing. After 5 minutes he walks directly away not giving me a shot. My spirits were high though on the encounter.
I'm thinking to myself, no way he made the rub line, since the trees were decent and it must have been a bigger buck. then I hear another deer coming from the same direction. Sure enough I see antlers and then the deer slowly ambling along. He is on the trail I'm hunting and I had just checked the wind and know i have to shoot him before he gets to the twelve o'clock position since the wind had shifted a little. He walks into my shooting window at a slightly quartering too position and then stops. He turns his head and body to scratch his side moving his shoulder out of the way and my arrow is off. I hit him a little high but under the spine angling downward and he books out of there heading towards a power line road 100 yards away. I lose sight off him around 70 yards but hear a branch break. Is he down?
I wait 1/2 hour and then leave my stand to check to see if i can find blood or my arrow.
Topic: Two Stolen Tree Stands and a Buck (Read 3341 times)
