It's so still this morning. I watch my breath hang in the air. Not even a thermal current, much less wind. The leaves are dry, so I relax, close my eyes and just listen.
Behind me is a laurel thicket. I assume he will be comong or going from there as the many wrist sized rubs say.
Below me is a very large scrape and in front of me is a small, what I call basketball scrape. A steep hill to my right and a medium sized stream off my left about 60yds away. My tree is just in the edge of a Hemlock stand with it opening up into a flood plain of mature whiteoaks with a slightly brown grassy floor in front of me.
As I wait dangling from the side of a tree, my confidence is just not there. I think to myself.. I will stay till eleven today instead of all day.
After that I pack up and hunt my home grounds with higher deer numbers.
Turkeys are yelping in the trees far in front of me as the sun rises. They should fly down soon.
I shift my wieght to look towards the stream when I hear an unidentifiable comotion about a hundred yards in front of me. I strain to see through the tangle of limbs where the Hemlocks give way to the open oak flood plain.
The sun is hitting the ground there and I see it....Antlers! The curve of main beams thrashing a bush! He lifts his head and starts walking towards the scrape in front of me. I guessed right, he is heading for the thicket behind me, he has to come thru me to get there.
He crosses a large downed tree and is now in the open at 40yds. At twenty he stops cleans out the scrape...violently. What an impressive beast. His body is behind a tree blocking a shot. He rears on his back legs and works the branch. I draw. When he comes down he should be in the open from his current position. He twists as he comes back to all fours and walks in the direction he came from. ugh! No!
I swear...I prayed right there to the good Lord to bring this deer back to me. He was about out of sight when I hear a grunt and chasing sounds behind me. I turn to see a doe with a spike hot on her trail. As they angle up the hill on my right, my buck just watches as they run out of sight. I know he is about to leave after them when the doe turns and runs back down the hill and passes under me.
The spike stops at my buck and dare not pursue any further. To my surprise the buck doesn't run after her, but calmly walks on a path that will bring him about twenty yds to my right. he's taking the short line to her, not her route.He's at a brisk, determined walk. I swing in my web to position and come to full draw. As my bow hand moves from his rib cage to in front of his chest, in a smooth swing as if leading a quail on the rise, I release.
Topic: Tennessee Teaser/ euro mount on p.4 (Read 959 times)
