Thanksgiving day, 1993: I have a friend who owned a river bottom ranch that had quality whitetails and an elk herd. He is a heart surgeon and a wannabe hunter who didn't have the patience to put in the time or effort to be successful.
He asked me to take him with me to see if he could shoot something...with a bow, no less. Pre-dawn we crossed a channel of the river to an island where I had a stand set up. I carried a second stand and some screw in steps for my use. I got him up his tree and made sure he was belted in, then went about 40 yards away (knowing this guy I felt I needed to keep tabs on him) and took ten or so minutes installing myself in another tree. By this time it was pink light and about an hour before the usual movement of the elk from one side of the river, across the island to their bedding area.
I look over at Doc and he's talking on his cell phone! Fifteen minutes later, I see him climbing down and he comes over under me and says, "Looks like nothing moving today...let's go."
The week of Thanksgiving has always been good to me during the whitetail rut, but due to family and work obligations, I'm typically limited to only a few opportunities to hunt. So, I'm (quietly) steaming on the wade and walk back to the house. It's 9 o'clock and I've had all of 5 quiet minutes on stand.
I have another property 2 miles from Doc's that has no elk but good whitetails (in '89 I shot a 151" buck there.) So, I half-heartedly head for that place, figuring I'll hang a stand near a scrape that I discovered a couple of weeks prior.
Upon entering the trees, I bust about four does and a shooter buck right out of the scrape and they high tail it out of there. I decide to hang the stand anyway and see what happens...maybe there are two shooters around. It's 10:00 or so before I'm settled.
Within 3 minutes I hear shuffling pine needles and see the same buck walking through the scrape and heading up a trail that will take him past my stand at 18 yards! Grab the bow, nock an arrow, draw and release. All within 3 1/2 minutes of setting the stand. The shot looks to be a little back, so I stay in the stand for 30 long minutes then head for where I last saw him and jump him not 60 yards from the stand.
To make a long story shorter, I went home and came back 5 hours later to find a drop of blood every 10-15 yards, eventually crossing the river. I cross without waders (November in Montana) and jump him again, so I backed out again. Found him the next day, back on the original side of the river, not 2 feet from the water.
In my haste to draw and shoot, I had confirmed he was a mature buck, but had not noticed he had a broken G-3. Given more time to look him over, I would have passed and hoped for a shot the next year. He would have scored 139 and change if he could have found that missing tine.
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