Thanks again guys. Yes, I always pack a big lunch so I can handle the adventure. It seems like it follows me at times.
Well, thursday was a very nice day. It was cold in the morning but warmed enough to be comphy in the mid morning.
Action started early. I had several deer walk through and then two does right under my stand and then out to about 10 yards. It was around 7:30am and I think I will use excuse #7. I was wearing too much clothes and it caused me to hit one of the does high. She launched out and I was able to watch her most of the way. I had left my bino's behind and could only follow so far.
After about 150 yds I had that sinking feeling set in because she still was running well.
Well, what do you do? I sat back down and re-played all the events and remained hopeful. Many more deer came and went including a couple of nice bucks sporting broken points due to fighting.
About 11: am, I climbed down and began to investigate the scene. No blood but I knew which trail she took so I followed and found only a scant few drops.
As I stepped into a cut wheat field, I noticed that the trail passed through a small patch of uncut wheat about the size of two pick up trucks.
I stopped and thought to myself, "that patch looks like a great place for a wounded deer to watch out for BigJim". So, after nocking an arrow I proceeded forward. I only traveled a couple of steps before two does erupted from the patch of wheat.
I tried to determine if either one was the deer that I had shot. One doe evaporated into the far treeline and the second ran out to 35 yards and stopped to watch me.
I felt confident that she was my deer. She seemed to run a little labored and why would she stop so close to me?......Well, I shot her and upon investigation, it turned out to be a different deer.
I returned to my trail and followed it in to the wheat patch to find a small puddle of blood the size of a coke can where she had been bedded for the last 3 1/2 hours. There was no blood leaving the patch and no sign of injury when she left for parts unknown.
It was a bitter sweet moment. For one I had a nice doe to show for my efforts. But on the otherhand I lost another from a poor shot. I believe she may make it, or at least I hope so.
The preceeding events left me hot, tired and hungry (well, I'm always hungry). I retreated to the truck, ate some fine junk food and proceeded to quarter my doe. Right in the middle of the process, I look up to see a great 10 pt wathching me work from the neighboring field. Of course he is safe, but he just added to that overwhelming feeling I was experienceing. WHAT A MONTH !
Back in the stand, it was a decidingly slow afternoon, that is until after 5:
I hit the horns together and did a little calling sequence (yes, I had already taken my buck, but I couldn't help myself. The deer were responding so well that I thought I would enjoy the show).
Within 15 minutes, I was surrounded by bucks. Little ones, big ones and hot does. Everyone was partying! I even had a huge 12+ pt with a drop tine chase a doe about 12 yds behind my stand. He had junk everywher and I was surrounded by deer so I couldn't rais my bino's to count. Heck, i could barely move.
I left the stand excited. Even though I had no shot that evening, I was feeling lucky.
I think if you were to ask Jake, he will tell you that I was giddy most everytime we spoke of deer hunting and Thursday was no different.
Friday morning was tough. Six mornings of getting up at 3:30am was taking it's toll. I made it to about 10 miles from the hunting land and had to stop to take a nap. I set my alarm on my phone and slept for 20 minutes. It didn't help much, but I was able to make it safely to my destination.
Action was just busy enough to keep me awake until about 10:45 when a heard of does came in. They moved so slow that I completely calmed down before they came to my stand. They were in a line as they started passing at about 12 yards. There goes the small ones and then two nice mature does, but the one in the back is what I want. She was considerably larger and noticeably darker. Yep, she's the one for me.
Well, it didn't happen. Every deer in the heard gave a great shot opportunity except the bigun.
As they walked off, I questioned my sanity. What was I doing? Hunting a "Trophy Doe"? "Huh?"
As they walked out of sight, I kind of kicked my self, but just then, a very helpful spike ran the deer all the way around me and then back in front. There she was. Just fifteen yards and all she had to do is take one step. This was almost as much fun as my buck adventure.
As she walked forward and stepped into my shooting lane, I drew and released and the arrow flew true. I watched her race away only to colapse in sight. The rest of the does, didn't know what to do. Lucky for them, I was out of tags.
After my two less than ideal shots during the week, I had asked for just one more opportunity to make it right. During the autopsy, Jake and I found the evidence that I was rewarded with a three blade hole through the top of her heart.
Now you might think that that should be it. I have filled all my tags. Time to go home. Well, not so fast. I decided to sit the rest of the after noon and do some research
I drug my doe back to my stand and proped her up as though she were sleepping.
About 2:30, two small bucks came in and noticed my dead doe. They were a bit cautious, but came right in. With in a few seconds, the larger buck (He was a small 7 pt that had broken off all of his tines except his brow's)ran off the spike and clamied my doe as his own.
He proceded to check her out from head to toe. He licked, nugged and prodded her and then walked away. He would seldom ever go more than 10 feet and then come running back to her.
This went on for an hour before he decided to bed down just 10 yards out.
My little friend spent the entire afternoon there. Unfortunatley I didn't get to see how a mature buck would react to my dead doe, but I think it would have been much the same.
Well, that pretty much ends the story. Jake and his family were very gracious hosts and I can hardly wait til we see them again. It would have been fun even without so much action.
Maybe next year, Jake will have the week off to join me.
Thanks for putting up with my rambling on,
BigJim
Topic: Big Jim is back from KANSAS! (Read 1148 times)
