Kentucky Early Season

[Marvin M.]

OK, so the whitetail season opens early in Kentucky.  Last Saturday was the opener.

But a little background first.  I made my first longbow (takedown using Binghams instructions) a couple of years ago.  Hunted with it all last year with no shot opportunities.  Last Thursday I was shooting with it and the string broke (again) and I know with my work schedule I would't have time to make another, shoot it in, tune it and be ready to hunt.  So, I dragged out the Martin Savannah and got ready.

[Marvin M.]

Two weeks before I had moved one of my ladder stands to a new spot.  I hung a trail cam and had checked it once and found no pictures.  I wasn't too concerned with this since the trail I placed it on wasn't necessarily the most traveled area and I had seen deer in this little depression on numerous occaisions and another hunter has consistently taken deer here.

Turns out that when I pulled the memory card on opening day, there was a shot of a really nice eight pointer on there that passed the stand at 7:50 pm.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'll be back later.  Have to make a living.

[rastaman]

  All of you folks who went to the "Charlie Lamb School of Story Telling" ought to be ashamed! (just kidding)  :p   Can't wait to read the rest of the story, and i hope you took pictures!

[Horner]

[Hot Hap]

Tap-Tap-Tap

[xtrema312]

[bornagainbowhunter]

Man o Man.  This is like hearing the music in a suspense movie.   You know something is gonna happen, you just don't know when or what...  

[Marvin M.]

Rastaman,

I'm offended that you would say that.  Charlie sure knows how to tell a story.

Just so you know, it may be tomorrow before I can squeeze in enough time to finish this one.

Now, lets set the stage.  Saturday morning (finally) gets here.  It's in the fiftys and the wind has finally calmed down.  I meet they guys I'm going to hunt with and we compare notes on where we are going to hunt.  Four of us  and I'm the only trad guy in the group.  Everyone else uses a compound.  

Two of them are going to the back of the farm but myself and the young guy in the group are going to hunt the front.  Since my new stand is in a spot that he has hunted before and I'm invading his territory (so to speak), plus he's family of the landowner, I let him have the new stand.  He has hunted that spot before and has even had success from the ground.  I opt for the "Remington Stand" about two hundred yards away where I have killed two deer in the last four years.

I take a circuitous route to the stand as it's already getting light and climb in.  After buckling in, I start getting set and in the process I drop my number 1 arrow.  It falls point down and sticks into the ground underneath the stand.  I pull out number 2 and get ready.

[Marvin M.]

This stand is on a ridge with a red oak to the left,and white oaks in front and behind.  This is the first time I've even visited this stand this year, but it's always been a good producer in the past.  Deer come down the ridge heading to the neighboring farm and stop for a snack on the way.

About half an hour after getting in the stand the wind picks up and even though the direction is good, I've had minimal luck in the stand with the wind blowing -- too much noise and with the wind blowing the way it is, deer are walking with the wind behind them in the morning.  I figure it's going to be a quiet morning and it is.  Not much going on, even the squirrels are relatively quiet.

So, about 9:30 I climb down.  And that's when the fun begins.

[Marvin M.]

When I hit the ground I retrieve the Number 1 arrow and since it hit point down and has been sitting in the groun for about three hours, I pull out my AccuSharp and start to work on the edge.

That's when I heard the deer blow!  I look up and there's a buck standing on the ridge looking in my direction.  I'm down on my knees underneath a ladder stand hunched over the arrow and I've been made.  There is no way to get my bow up (laying on the ground beside me) nock the arrow and shoot without spooking this guy.  Besides, he is thirty-five yards away, on high alert and looking right at me.  Nothing to do but watch the show and hope for a change in the situation.

This is a nice buck.  Antlers out about even with the ends of his ears and standing up tall.  Last year I played tag a couple of times with a high-racked eight pointer that I was never able to get a shot at.  I suspect this was him or his brother.

Well, he stands there for a while blowing and stomping his foot, trying to get me to commit.  He finally decides to head back across the hollow above me so he turns and steps off down hill.  This put him behind some brush so I stood up, nocked an arrow and watched to see if a shot would be presented.  But, even though he cleard the brush briefly on his exit, he's getting farther and farther away and it's just not a shot I want.

I let him walk, hoping that I haven't blown the stand and will get another chance at him later.

What I found out later was that Mike (remember the guy who sat in my stand) Jumped this buck when he got out of the stand.  He left a little earlier than me and ran this guy out of his bed on the ridge in front of the other stand.  The deer came over the hill and followed the ridge down to where I was.

If I'd stayed in my stand about five more minutes, I might have had a shot at this guy.

I couldn't hunt the afternoon (family issues) and would be in church the next morning, but was planning to be back in the afternoon.

Meanwhile the others hunted again that afternoon with no results.  I don't think anyone even saw one.

Stay tuned for day two coming up.  And for those that asked for pictures; I won't be posting any.  I didn't get any good ones that I would put up, but there will be a successful end to this story.

[Marvin M.]

Alright, fast forward to Sunday afternoon.  I was late getting out there.  It was almost 5:00 before I got to the stand.  I went to the stand that I placed and climbed in.


A little about this stand.  There are two very large Oak trees out in front about 25 yards out.  The area is basically shaped like an amphitheater with my stand in a tree in what would be the stage.  The hill comes down in front and levels out at the Oak trees and it's flat to the tree my stand is in which is part of an old fence row.

It's really dry here.  We haven't had rain in weeks and we're about three inches behind on rainfall for the year and we were ahead at the beginning of the summer.  Vegetation is parched and brown.  All that to say that it's very noisy if you are walking.  I made a lot of noise getting to stand but it couldn't be helped -- things are just too dry.

I settled in and dropped my number one arrow again.  I pulled number two and got ready.

[Marvin M.]

It's an absolutely perfect afternoon on stand.  We started the day with the low temp at 47.  We hit the eighties, but this late in the afternoon, the temp is starting to drop and is on the way back to the fifties for the low tonight.

There is no wind and it's absolutely calm.  The sun is out and is giving me some trouble since I'm facing into it, but as it gets lower, it gets behind the oaks in front and is no longer a problem.

It's quiet and peacful with only a few interuptions from squirrels behind me in a hickory tree.

About 7:10 I hear a noise and look up the hill.  There are two deer heading my way easing down the hill in front approaching the Oak trees.  Theyre still in brush and I can't quite make them out but they are definitely coming my way.

[rastaman]

[Cherry Tree]

[Marvin M.]

They cleard the brush about 60 yards out and I can see that what I have are a doe and a young buck.  Not the big guy I was looking for, but I'm not always choosey.

As they come on down the hill, I can make out the buck better and can tell that he is a little six pointer.  I usually let little bucks walk, and especially on the second day of the season, I'm not interested in taking this little guy.  He gets a free pass.

They come on down the hill and the doe kind of drops back and lets the buck come ahead.  He comes down and hooks a left in front of the stand then meanders off along the fence line that my tree is in.  Eventually he clears the open area and goes back into the timber.  

Just after he hooked the left he walked in front of my trail camera, so I'm hoping I got a picture of him as he went by.  I didn't pull the card when I left because this card has only been in there since the day before.  I'll pull it out and check this weekend or next and see if he is on there.

[Marvin M.]

Meanwhile, the doe has stopped and is browsing on a bush out in front of me.  She's about fifteen yards out, relaxed and munching on leaves from this bush.  Her vitals are covered by another bush so I don't have a shot.

But, I decide that if she offers a shot, I'll take it.

She stands in that one spot for what seems forever then steps around the bush on my side and turns back toward it.  She is now at twelve years, quarting away, and totally relaxed!!!!  It's a perfect set-up.  

I focus on a spot just behind her shoulder and up high, draw to my anchor and release.

[Marvin M.]

It always surprises me when I look and see an arrow sticking out of a place where there wasn't one a second before!!

Arrow is there with good penetration, entering right behind the shoulder, angling downward right where I want it.  She turns a 180 and heads off on the path that the little buck took a few minutes before.  Once in the tree line she hooks a left to head back up the hill and I lose sight of her, but can hear thrashing.

[Marvin M.]

It's getting close to dark and I don't have a light with me.  The arrow did not pass through (I was aiming for the opposite shoulder) so I'm a little concerned at this point.  

After twenty minutes I ease out of the stand and look for blood -- Nothing.  Nothing at the impact site nothing in the area she started out.  I grab my bow and creep over to the edge of the woods where she went into the timber.  Still no blood.  I know it's a good hit, but I still don't want to push it.  I'm just getting ready to turn back and give her some more time when I see white just inside the trees.

It's her.  She made it about forty yards!!!

Amazingly, even though she fell on my arrow it didn't break.  I'll clean it up and it will see service again.

[Marvin M.]

This was a young deer.  I'm estimating about 18 months old and my first impression of them was that she and the little buck were siblings.  They were similar in size and obviously both young.

I got her field dressed and ready to deliver to my friend and we had her quartered out and ready to put in the freezer that night.  She'll be some really good eating.

[Marvin M.]

And since everyone always wants to know:

I was using my Martin Savannah.  Fifty pounds at twenty-eight inches with a POC shaft and Magnus Stinger 125 grain Broadhead.

I'll be back out there.  That big buck is still out there and I've still got my tag reserved for him.  The season here doesn't end until Martin Luther King Day, so I've got lots of time left to chase him.

The only picture we got was after he was back at the shed for processing.  I don't want to post it and since the bow isn't there and I don't even have a copy of it yet.

Thanks for following along.