What a week this has been...
Sunday I awoke to a phone call bearing the news we had been dreading, our brother in law had lost his battle with cancer. He was 53, one of the greatest outdoorsmen I knew...
I was fortunate enough to do his funeral service on Tuesday, hardest one I have ever done...
So I just need to blow off some steam and get some fresh air in these lungs...
I called a friend today and asked if I could just go walk around his place with my bow in hand...He said sure!
I arrived around 2:30pm, and grapped Maximus Stealth, my Mike Baker Longbow, 60" 52#@28". We went off on a long 3 hour journey together, the whole time with Mike,my brother in law, on my mind and in my heart...
Throughout the walk I could just sense what he would say or do in certain situations...at one place down on the creek, I just stopped, I have no idea why, then I looked over my right shoulder and a big Mule deer doe was 40 yards away in a thicket just looking at me very peacefully...I watched her for awhile and then she just meandered off on her way.
I continued on and I walked up the ridge of the creekbed to see if I could locate a turkey decoy I had left in the spring...Sure enough, I walked right to it and found it not 10 yards from where I had laid it down while stalking some turkeys. As I stood on the edge of the creek looking down, I had a big cedar tree at my back, again, I don't know why but something moved me to slowly turn around and look over my right shoulder...sure enough, 30 yards away stood the biggest muley buck I have ever laid eyes on, his antlers forked and then forked again, his body was huge...Again we just looked at each other for awhile and I even pulled up my monocular and gave him a good sizing up...He slowly tired of my admiration and eased off to the west..
I picked up my decoy and started to the south towards my pickup, what a day this had been...
As I was walking out, I stopped behind some cedars just to absorb the spirit of the day and breathe deep some fresh air...then off to my right walked out 5 gobblers...Now I had been trying in the spring and some in the fall to kill a turkey on this ranch...I watched as they crossed in front of me at about 20 yards...
I decided that even the rancher would encourage me to take one, so I quietly nocked an arrow and picked out the biggest of the bunch...he was third in line...
I drew Maximus to full draw and then heard all of you whisper,PICK A SPOT, so I did just that, and next thing I knew that arrow was on its way.
Just as I released, the big gobbler took a step to his left right at me...the arrow hit him just to the right of his beard. He was down...My heart was racing...
I ran over to him as his last breath expired from him...What a day this has been...
After gathering up my stuff and beginning the drive out of the ranch, as I was going up the ranch road with the sun setting in the west, a 20 bird covey of quail got up right beside my pickup...
My brother in law, Mike, was truly an outdoorsman and when you were with him you always saw game...I truly believe his spirit was with me today!
By the way ole gobbler weighed 22 lbs, had a 10 1/2" beard and 1" spurs...
Not a bad fall day to remember
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Topic: A fall day to remember (Read 632 times)
