2013 KennyM lease hunt part 2

[Cyclic-Rivers]

After a quick lunch we decided the rain would hold off long enough to get in an afternoon sit.  

The plan was to go to the same area as the tree stand I had been sitting. Onlty this time, there was an east wind.

My curiosity was getting to me so I was headed to the other side of the wood lot to sit over the gully I would see deer dissapear into.

I sat near an intersection of several fences and near a small pond that was still holding water.  It was evident, deer were still using this area frequently.

I sat on the side of the hill going down the ravine.  this hill had tarils tarversing it but I was also 20 yards upwind from the crossing at the bottom.  Any shot I would have would be 20 yards to mny left in the bottom, 20 yards in front of me below the pond or self defense if deer were on the hill side.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I sat in my guillie suit up against a nice Oak tree.  right in front of me was an osage tree that would make bowyers think about it the rest of their lives.  It was Perfect, tall and straight.  It still had hedge balls, I prayed one would not hit me.

The woods were pretty quiet except for squirells.  The Rain had made foot falls impossible to hear.

I had a covey of quail land and walk 5 yards to my right. It was quite enjoyable to watch them so close.

At this Time I had a squirrel above me who would not Shut up. He saw me move and wanted everyone to know.  I sat still and was hoping he would eventually give up.  Thats when I saw him.

The 8 point from the first afternoon. He was a beauty, not real wide but Tall. His tines were all of 12 inches and more.  He was already inside the red Zone.

As he travelled, he went exactly where i hoped.

Standing there in the Bottom, he was perfectly broadside at 22 yards.  I drew Back, hit anchor and he looked in my direction.  

It was evident the movement of me drawing caught his attention, he was looking my way for the source of his danger.  I held at full draw until I started to shake a bit.  He was stoic and still.  I focussed hard on a spot and let the string slip from my fingers.

It all happened so fast and he was wheeled out of there, tearing out with his tail tightly tucked and his front end appeared to be dogging closer  and closer to the ground.
 
After he covered about 50 yards, he was gone from veiw, as he turned behind a huge Oak blow down.


I could see my arrow lay just behind  and parallell to where he was Standing.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

After waiting an hour I slipped down to the Ravine to find a Clean Arrow!  :(  

I had walked his departure route and found NO blood.

As far as I could figure, he ducked the arrow, must have turned it with his feet when he wheeled around.  Thats the first time thats happened to me.

Still happy, not to have wounded him though..

[woodchucker]

Well Brother, It happens.....

Sounds like a HEART POUNDING moment!!!!!!!!!

(How long did it take you to stop shaking???)

[Cookus]

It happens to all of us Charlie!  You were blessed with a shot that lasted a moment and an indelible memory that will last a lifetime!  Ain't life good brother?  Now to plot revenge...    

[huntingarcher]

Where did everybody go!  

[just_a_hunter]

Get him next time!!...errrr.. I hope you got him the next time!

Todd

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The Next Morning Called For Rain.  The wind was to be from the East.

We woke up and it wasnt raining so we decided to see how long we could hunt for.

I decided to sit the Famed Gap Stand.  This is the same stand where Charlie saw the deer and Bobcats on the first day.

I saw a few distant Lightning strikes.  After getting up in the stand the lightning started getting closer and more frequent.  

My internal Barrometer said GET OUT!!!!!

I was almost back to the truck when the Bottom let out, we are not talking rain,  This is Monsoon downpour and Hail.  Visibility was inches, not feet.  

We saw Tom Porter huffing it back to his vehicle and picked him up.

At least we were able to sit until 7:30 However the deer were far smarter than we were and were well within safe cover all morning.  No one saw even a tail.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

At about 3 PM the rain was letting up, the sun would frequently poke through and we decided we would try again to get to the woods.

The feilds were far too Mucky to drive in so it would be a long walk.  Wind was from the east still.

I chose to go to a gap where we had seen a decent trail heading from a tree farm into the Lease.

I should have been there a bit sooner as I kicked up 5 Deer in 3 different groups as I approached my hide.  The rain came back and it was a wet walk out, Charlie was safely dry inside his truck when I reached him.

We all hung our clothes out to dry but there was so much moisture in the air, the best you could do was Damp.

Tomorrow Morning called for Rain, Hoping to wake up to a full sky of Stars.

[Charlie Lamb]

I think many of us get as much out of camp life as any other part of the hunt. Of course spending time alone matching wits with our intended prey is the acid test and the pudding the proof is in.

But isn't it a little like the tree falling in the woods without someone to hear it axiom. There's just a natural extension of the hunt's excitement in sharing the experience with your brothers.

I think Kenny is hooked on it. Oh sure, he comes around each night seemingly checking on our comfort and well being. He's that kind of guy. He cares!
But I suspect he craves the tales of critters and trails of shots and sign. The fellowship of the hunting story.

He listens a lot more than he talks and mostly when he does say something he's drawing out the teller of the tale to expound on his story and for a moment go back in time and relive his adventure.
Yeah, he's an enabler of the best kind.

I hate putting up substandard photos, but it seems that's all I have from our evening gatherings. One day I'll learn my camera better and ALL of my photos will be razor sharp moments in time.
Here' a couple. Out of focus, but moments just the same.
         

[KellyG]

Well Charlie after that fall you, probably thought they were in focus!

[Charlie Lamb]

Even now after I take my pain meds they seem pretty sharp.  

[Charlie Lamb]

The weather really put the kibash on hunting plans for a couple of days.
Hell, I never go out in the rain and I even got soaked a couple of times. Being wet put me in a bad mood and being wet and out in the woods brings back some very bad memories.

When I finally got back out it was the next to last evening to hunt. My tree seat had been left in my little hiding place by the rock gap and that's where I'd spend the evening.

It was a fairly dull sit until just before dark when a doe showed up at the exact spot as the previous sit there. I was very curious what the draw was right there and determined to find out the next day.

She never came through the gap while it was light and was joined by her youngster as the light faded.
When I left I had a plan to come back and hunt in the A.M. from my tree seat and then check out "the spot" when the morning hunt was done.
There were tall "horse weeds" along the field edge right there and I planned to build a blind back in them to hunt the last evening.

As it turned out that never happened. More rain that evening on top of what we'd already gotten was turning the field roads into treacherous quagmires.
Nobody wanted to take a chance on tearing up the fields or getting stuck far from the road.

As the last morning dawned cool and damp I went to plan B.

On past hunts and this one as well, I'd often seen deer standing in an opening along the edge of lease property near the road.
There was an old abandoned trailer house there and I suspected it was a travel corridor from the deep thick timber to the tree farm across the county road.
Kenny had mentioned that the brush between tree rows had been mowed this year and that the young oaks were bearing acorns. Hmmmm. That seemed to add up to an opportunity.
 
Considering that I could easily access spot without worrying about getting my truck stuck I formulated a hasty plan.
I'd go early in the morning and find a spot close to the run down building for a chair and ghillie set up.

I could drive through heavy fescue right up to the opposite side of the trailer and park the truck out of sight. The wind was perfect and there was enough junk scattered about that I'd fit right in to the landscape.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Our next morning , we woke up to the Pitter patter of a steady Rain.

The crew thought it best to sleep in, then head to the local diner and enjoy a hot breakfast prepared by someone else.

It was a cozy Cafe and the food/service was great.  It was neat to see all the farmers from this small town who were rained out of their feilds come together and talk about "stuff".

Seems to me a good place to meet people to gain access to property  

[Charlie Lamb]

A couple of Tom's cookies and a good strong cup of coffee served as breakfast for the last morning. My spot was so close to the cabin that in a few minutes after leaving I was parking the truck and walking around the rear of the trailer.

I hadn't really looked the place over all that well before but I knew where I'd seen the deer in the past and anywhere close to the trailer would be good.

It was gray light and no hint of the rising sun on the eastern horizon as I waded through the wet  Fescue.
The first thing I saw was an old porch swing sitting on the ground next to the twin trunks of a small walnut tree. Good enough.

Opening my chair next to the swing I laid out my gear on it. Camera, haversack and my ball cap. I threw on my ghillie and it's extra bulk helped shield me from the damp coolness that laid on the land like a blanket.

From my seat I could see across the nearby county road to the tree farm where I expected the deer to come from. The progress of the morning was marked by the warm sunlight creeping down the hill toward the cold, damp, shadows that hid me.
   

35 yards in front of me a ray of light penetrated the dark forest promising warmth which was coming all too slowly.
   

I wasn't watching the time, only the slow progression of light down the ridge. How she got down that hill without my seeing her is a mystery.
But she did and the first time I saw her she was standing at the bottom on the other side of the road.
   

She grazed there for the longest time while I waited for her to move across the road and into the old driveway where the deer trail started.
It's what she was supposed to do, what I knew she would do, but it's not what she did.

Instead she slowly crossed the road farther down and entered the ditch on my side. She found plenty to satisfy her appetite there and lounged without a care in the world while I tried to will her to me. I knew that wouldn't work after all, I can't bend spoons with my mind either.

Finally she jumped the old fence in a small gap in the brush and trees that lined the road.
   

She was very comfortable in the brushy edge so tantalizingly close to me. I was tempted to take the shot. Though I couldn't have told you the exact yardage, I knew she was very close to being within my effective range. I wasn't confident given the tricky lighting and the ground falling away toward her like it was. The tip of my bow remained seated in the top of my boot.
   

[Cyclic-Rivers]

After  a nice hot breakfast in town we drove around the block to see a remote entry to the one farm Tom was planning to hunt.  

On this trip we saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a Tree.

After getting back to Camp, the rain was stipll upon us.  It was nap time and hoping things would change by evening as my clothes were still damp, I would have hated to make them wet again.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

As Luck would have it the Rain let off enough to make it out to the woods.  

I decided to go to the wood lot near the Wooly stuff and sit the blind where we jumped the good Buck a few days before.  

We built 2 blinds in there to accomodate an east wind or a west wind.  My favorite was the blind for the east wind but Today it wouldnt be.  The wind had shifted back out oof the west again.

I snuck in and it was drizzling.  I took it slow and was watching the woods closely.  I knew this place could hold deer. Furthermore it was the tye of place where they could be under your nose, get spooked and only go 25 yards before hiding again.

After making it 40 yards in, I saw a deer.  I couldnt make it out but watched it as it walked off.

[coaster500]

Great story and pictures guys...  this is the kind of read that keeps me glued to TG....  

Thank you


 

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Son enough I found the blinds and quickly was settled into the blind on the edge of a ditch allowing my wind to funnel down into the ditch behind me.

I was covered up in squirrels which made acors fall like rain.  A few were dropping hickory and Walnuts from their treetop perches, landing with loud thumps.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

After being nestled in for approximtely an hour, I heard the squirrelds start screaming their heads off.  They were barking and Carrying on, making an aweful commotion.  

You knew it could only mean one thing.  Predator!  

I wrapped my fingers around the string in anticipation of the guest.  The Chatter from the squirrels was getting closer, I knew the critter was closing fast.

Thats when I saw it.  A BOBCAT!!!! how cool is this?  this cat passed me at a mere 4 yards.  It travelled through the bottom of the ditch I was sitting against.  My Guillie suit performed flawlessly.

Since the bottom was to my back, I turned me head and watched him walk past me.  He was soooo close it was unreal.  Here is where he walked off: