There is a silver lining. How many of you have done this over the years?
To get ya up to speed I will start with last season. I was fortunate enough to buy some land 2 years ago and I am just learning the property. Last year I found a spot that just looked like a buck lived there. After some late winter early spring scouting I decided I needed to hang a stand in this spot come bow season.
I didn't get a chance to hunt this stand the entire month of October for different reasons, but finally got to sit it the first week of Nov. just prior to the rut. I saw 5 bucks the first morning. I shot the 5th buck that came by. I knew after this hunt that this was going to be one of those spots that just draw the deer year after year. I sat this stand about a half dozen more times and watched the same 4x4 on 3 different occasions. I passed him up at less that 15 yards twice.
Fast forward to this year. I moved the stand about 20 yards this year to help out with the wind and waited until this past Tuesday to hunt it. I was late getting in the stand due to helping my youngest son with his first whitetail deer.
It was almost 5pm when I got to the stand. We call this stand 8 Ball. I normally hunt this stand in the morning but decided to give it a try since the wind was right and a front had just moved through. I was half way up the tree when I heard a noise behind me and when looked over my shoulder there he was walking straight away from me down an old over grown road bed.
I watched this really nice heavy antlered buck for about 15 seconds as he walked away. I finished climbing up and hit the grunt a few times hoping he might come back to investigate. Should have tried the wheeze! Darkness came without seeing this buck or any others for that matter.
I was scheduled to work Friday but the shoot was called due to rain, so I was pumped about getting back in the woods. Friday morning I was back sitting 8 Ball 45 minutes before daylight. It was a beautiful morning watching the sun rise and listening to the woods wake up.
Ok now here is the "I knew better" part. It was such a nice morning I was totally into just sitting until lunch and enjoying the day in the woods. At 10:15 i heard a disturbance off to my left. My internal radar zeroed in on the location of the noise and I immediately recognized the sound of a large animal running my way. It was 2 fat does headed right to me. The smaller doe stayed on a trail that crossed out in front of me about 20 yards and the larger doe ran right under my tree and hit the brakes.
I had the bow up and was about to draw when she looked right up at me. I could see the look in her eyes, O'$#!T.... She swapped ends and made two bounds then stopped again. Then for what ever reason she she turned and started to walk on the trail that the other doe had passed by on. As she stepped out into my shooting lane I was at full draw and locked in on her boiler room.
My fingers relaxed and the arrow was gone. It's flight was true and then the woods grew quiet. I sat back down on the seat of my stand to savor the moment. I knew it was a good arrow and that the blood trail would be short. I waited about 15 minutes then climbed down and walked over to my arrow to confirm what I already knew.
After checking my arrow and the deers exit trail I made my way back to the the path leading out of the woods. I dropped my pack and removed my vest knowing I would get a little warm dragging out a deer. I leaned my bow up against a sapling and when I turned back to remove my hunting knife from my pack there he was again standing 30 yards broadside looking the other way.
All I could do is watch as he vanished into the brush. Looking at his back trail I realized he had walked maybe 15 - 20 yards behind my stand. I just shook my head and said to myself "I knew better". Truth is I would have loved a chance at this buck as he is a real nice deer, but I was happy and content in knowing that I had taken a deer with my recurve and I had done it the hard way and that's why I love traditional bowhunting.
Topic: I knew better! (Read 813 times)
