My son, Reed had a varsity football game on Friday night so it was 11:30 PM before I left the house which made it 4:40 AM when I got to my lease. I parked the truck just inside the gate and across the railroad tracks and settled in for an hour of sleep. Mark Land and Rob McCabee were in the camper and I didn't want to wake them up.
Just after I closed my eyed a train came through. In my sleep deprived fog I momentarily forgot where I was. I'll park a little farther from the tracks if I pull that all night drive again.
I drove on in to the camp as Mark and Rob were getting moving. I quickly changed into hunting clothes and headed to a ladder stand that I have set near a powerline right-of-way. I settled in to the stand and turned on my thermacell. The mosquitos were THICK! A short time later I heard something walk behind my stand, but it was too dark to see.
I didn't see anything else for the next couple of hours and by 9:00 AM I was getting pretty tired. I got down from the stand and started walking along the powerline scouting and still hunting as I went. About 40 yards into my walk I saw a deer running towards me. I quickly pulled an arrow from my Safari Tuff quiver and nocked it. As the deer came closer I came to full draw. At 14 yards the deer noticed me and came to a halt. I let the string loose and the arrow found its mark. The deer took off but piled up 35 yards away.
The deer turned out to be a young nubbing buck. I don't have any pictures, but I will say that it should be very tender.
That was the only deer any of us saw all weekend. It was hot and buggy and tough hunting. There is sign all over the place, but the game (hogs, deer, bear) just wasn't moving at all.
Topic: On the board-worth the drive. (Read 963 times)
