I woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, so my mind drifted to things that need to be done on the lease this weekend before opening day of deer season a month or so away. As I pondered food plots that need clearing and stands that needed moving, I realized I had decided to move my favorite stand due the land being cleared beside it, causing deer travel to switch a little further away.
Now this stand was called the "top stand" between my father and myself. It was as spot my father and I found in in 2005 after some land was cleared opening up a clear path to the creek. I had shot a 140 inch 9 point in 2003 that had died in this opening and we decided now would be a good time to check it out.
As soon as we entered the spot my dad started to grin as he looked at me and said "This is a Deer Mecca" (This phrase I have heard him say two other times, both time within a few weeks I had helped him drag horns form the area he had named this.) The spot was special you could just feel it as you looked around. There was a huge bedding area some 300 yards to the south of this little opening a clear cut to the east, and a wall of grape vines to the West. There as a creek that ran north to south and turned just before the opening and then forking just after the opening to make a little pool to the southeast... This forced the deer to walk through a 30 by 50 yard opening that had the prettiest forked oak tree sitting in the middle of it.
That lock on has sat on that forked oak tree since that day six years ago. I have sat that stand on every Northwest wind I could get. I have blown shots from buck fever in my early years of Traditional hunting, on three 140 class eight points, one high 150 inch twelve point (that my father still blames my wooden bow and arrows for) but I know it was my own dang fault for not picking a spot, lessons I have taken to heart and made me a much better hunter to date, and in later years has lead to several nice hogs being harvested from this stand.
I have seen more deer from that stand in the last six deer season than any other stand I have ever hunted.
Which brings me to ask, do you have or remember your "Deer Mecca"? That stand that as you think about it right now, you get a little rush of excitement as you mind drifts to what could happen next time you sit there.