Well that was good practice for what lay ahead. We decided to switch around some and I ended up sitting in the stand Allen Devore had been in and seen some good bucks in the prior hunts. I didn't know that at the time. Settled in, got my harness hooked up, was reaching for an arrow when they started milling around out 100-125 yards out. This was before 4 PM and the feeder going off. Several forkhorns and does. One doe was frisky and was doing wind sprints every now and then and continued that off and on between both periods of this hunt. After awhile they started filtering in. I had pretty much made up my mind to shoot a doe early on in a hunt if I got an opportunity because like most others I'm keyed on shooting a nice buck and thought maybe you might be able to shoot a doe and have bucks come in later. Its hard to think about shooting a doe when there's a 10 point milling about the other side of the feeder.
Well there was a mature doe, a smaller doe and a fawn type doe feeding off to my left where Robert had spread a little extra corn where I had a shooting avenue to the left of the feeder. I was lucky as the deer fed to places where the others were blocked by the limbs of my tree and I had a clear broadside shot at the medium (but small by any other standard) doe. 4:10 PM. Drew back, remembering the several deer I had missed previously at Solana, even at 10 yards that had dipped and turned leaving my arrow a pitifully sympathetic howl to the Gods of bowhunting.
This time I approached it from a foundation of failure and expected this deer to duck. Got a steady, slow draw, anchored and imagined the shot under the deer a foot or so. Hard to do, folks. Saw the arrow fly and it did exactly what I envisioned it doing before I released. Hit the deer right around the heart, I thought. Deer turned sprinted away from me snapping the arrow off immediately and I lost it after 40 yards.
Well I felt like I had really accomplished something. I knew it was a kill shot and it had gone right where I aimed and the deer didn't drop and turn so much that the arrow was grasping fur.
Sat back and reminisced about prior failures and how nice it was to have a successful shot and still had the afternoon hunt ahead!
And ahead it was! As soon as the feeder went off I had a number of deer come in, a bunch of fork horns, 6 pts, and a nice mature 7 point. As I watched about 12 deer off to my left including about 6 bucks I happened to glance to my right and my heart stopped...........
Below me feeding quietly was a mature 10-12 point heavy beamed buck and two does. Had this been a stand in the piney woods or pretty much anywhere else I could have simply quietly shifted, drawn and I would have shot this buck, but Solana is a different game. I quited and had tension on my fingers waiting for the buck to offer me any contorted shot. But a few moments later the deer opposite the big buck looked up at something away from me and he and his 2 does took off. I watched him for a few minutes as he decided whether to return and he did not although his does returned gleefully to feed. Man this is frustrating but fun. The deer are the smartest dudes in the woods and we never know why they are self preserving, they just do.
Topic: OFFICIAL 2013 SOLANA RANCH HUNT THREAD (Read 27374 times)
