On this particular hunt, my son-n-law was supposed to meet me before daylight to go hunt in Muddy Creek Wildlife Management Area. But, vehicle problems caused a delay and we had to take of them first. So it was a late start and we stopped at a gas station and grabbed some quick food. He and I had spotted the tops of some water oaks way back behind a turn a round at the end of a long dirt road. I meant to bow hunt them this morning, having never been there before. I dropped him off at the spot he wanted to hunt and I drove over to my spot. Hardwoods were getting harder and harder to find because they were being cut out and replaced with pine which was more profitable.
So I got out and loaded down with everything, the Ole Man climber, my back pack and my bow. It took a minute to figure out a way thru the thick grown up mess to get thru to where the hardwoods were. It was actually fairly open in the water oak flat, just briars and some huckleberries. I quickly scanned the area and picked a straight tall water oak to climb and hurried over to it. This tree was about in the middle of a fifty yard wide and probably 100 yard long stretch of water oaks.
As I made my way over to it, I could see the very small acorns here and there scattered on the ground. I knew that the deer loved them so that was a good sign. I quickly set up my climber and was soon climbing up. I had checked the wind and was facing into the wind as I reached a big limb and stopped. I always tried to get 20 feet or higher on new trees and was around 24 feet high.
I was and still am a fairly big guy and I wanted to get up where my scent might be hid better. I hurried to get my pack attached to the tree and my quiver hanging where it was easy to reach an arrow. I had already cut an over hanging limb to hold my bow on and so I nocked an arrow and hung it.
As I finally relaxed and sat down, my stomach gave a deep rumble as it suddenly felt like it wasn't too happy. Now I was really hoping that it was just gas from the fried fast food and the walking/climbing. I cautiously stood hope and luckily it was just gas but boy it was some terrible gas. I immediately thought, well, ain't nothing gonna come from behind me now and sat back down.
It wasn't three minutes later as I studied the area in front of me that I heard the unmistakable pop of an acorn being eaten by a deer. I quickly glanced behind me and here was this young nice 7 point walking fairly quickly about to walk directly underneath me! I was not prepared at all and here he was about to cover some ground. I grabbed my bow and immediately stood and shot at maybe four yards.
I instantly regretted the shot because I had not anchored good or even picked a spot. Yeah, a total miss and the buck jumped forward and started off. I immediately voice bleated and stopped it at 25 yards. I was already getting another arrow nocked and at ready as I bleated again.
The buck turned and started back, Well, this time I put the Bear Razorhead light and 2117 through his chest at about 13 yards. The arrow protruded out of the buck on the off side as he took off like a scalded dog. I watched from up high as he ran to the left of my tree and back to the thick mess behind me. Then I saw him get his antlers hung up in the saw briars and thrash for a could of seconds before collapsing down dead.
I smiled to myself, I had managed to right a wrong and get a second shot on the buck. I looked back at the spot where the buck had sunk down behind some huckleberries and thought that this would be a quick and easy recovery. I gathered my stuff and lowered it all down before I began the decent. I calmly positioned the stand to be flat on the ground and then covered it up, I meant to come back to this place in the morning.
With my back pack on my back, I grabbed my bow and quiver to go get the buck. I didn't even look for blood, I just started walking back there. But my oh my, everything sure looked a lot different on the ground. All of those huckleberries and other underbrush now made it harder to see the ground or anything else.
I forgot how easy it is to see things from high above and did not pick a reference to walk to. After five minutes of walking all over the place, I went back to look for blood. There really wasn't much blood but I found a few drops, enough to get me going in the correct direction and find the buck finally. The arrow had kept the blood from coming out the exit hole but man it looked like a bucket full on the ground around him.
That water oak flat was my all time favorite place to bow hunt until a really bad ice storm broke most of the limbs and even the trees down. But I learned several lessons that day. Took several deer from in there until they gated the road off about a mile and a half away. I took that buck about 10:30 in the morning after a very late start, one of several deer taken at mid day or later.
Topic: The Water Oak 7 point (Read 933 times)
