Scarface Escapes Me.....AGAIN

[SheltonCreeker]

Well tonight found me in a stand over looking a meandering creek, perfect wind, and to be honest just felt like a good night.  I have to say I have been haunted by horns this season. I run trail cameras year round. I work crazy hours and don't have the time to spend behind glass that I would prefer. I am lucky enough to own a small tract of basically just brush. Forty acres of Russian olives and then a few smaller tracts of ground that have been taken out of crop production and put into a tree program. So you put cameras in one of the larger patches of cover in my part of the country your gonna get some pictures..... I have gotten a lot of pictures. As a matter of fact I have gotten picture of almost every buck that has been killed on neighboring properties. So it's bitter sweet knowing what's out there.
   So as November rolled on and the text message pics kept rolling in of bucks dead, my dreams were haunted of deer that slipped away. I'm not an envious person and most of the guys that killed bucks around my parts this year I knew. All are good guys and hunt hard so I was always happy for the hunter but just a bit disappointed one of my "friends" was gone. I tried something new this November.....no does. I understand the concept well. If you want to kill a buck quit shooting does when they are rutting. Which I did this year. But man it made for a slow month....

[SheltonCreeker]

So I burnt all my vacation during the month of November. I was off almost the entire month. It was awesome. I kept the honey do list at bay most days... and spent most of the month doing what we all love to do.  The whitetail rut seemed slow on my little piece of earth this year. I saw a lot of young bucks and a little chasing here and there but not the full on    blow your hair back type rutting I have enjoyed in the past.  
  I passed on some very young bucks and some great shots on does. But as the month went on and I hadn't seen a bigger deer I started to lose focus. I started to question what I was doing. Was I just out there after horns? Had I become something I always told myself I wouldn't? So the longer I would sit alone in the woods the more these questions would nag me. I got sorta down on myself and I am a true believer that what ever mentality you take to the woods, that's gonna play a part on your hunt. And did it ever. I had some long sits in November and when the month ended I breathed a sigh of relief. December was gonna be my redemption month. Get my head straight, quite worrying about rutting bucks. Just hunt.

Keep after them! It is a game of ups and downs. You have to relish in it when things are up because they will go down sooner or later! And you have to trod thru the down times because things will get better!

Good luck!

Bisch

[Bernie B.]

Waiting for the next edition....  

Bernie

[SheltonCreeker]

Your absolutely right Bisch. This story has a happy ending.

[SheltonCreeker]

Just hunt. That was my plan when I left the house this afternoon. I headed to a stand hung late last summer not far from my back door. A blessing in and of itself. I try and always recognize that blessing anytime I walk out my door with bow in hand. So after convincing my wife, that even tho both our girls were sick, she could handle it without me for just a few hours. She agreed. A blessed man indeed. I was like a chained dog freed. I made a slow deliberate trek to my ambush for the evening. It had rained off and on all day and the walking was quiet. I slipped in and was setup not long after leaving the house. Just a little after 2 p.m.

[Jayrod]

Keep at it man!!

Come on Charlie,.....er, I mean Shelton, out with the rest of the story!!!!

Bisch

[SheltonCreeker]

Sorry Bisch... I was butchering.

[SheltonCreeker]

Sorry Bisch... I was butchering.

[SheltonCreeker]

So 2 p.m. I'm on stand and I have to say it was like National Geographic. Squirrel edition. I what seemed like 100's of squirrels around me. I have been recently hunting around the house for squirrels and for that normally have some blunts handy but not today. All broadheads in the quiver. I text my frustrations to Mike. It was about quarter till four and I saw a small 4 point a couple hundred yards off thru the brush. This was good deer were moving.

[SheltonCreeker]

I was on the edge of a small woodlot. Around 10 acres I was where a large fence row meets the wood lot. Behind me was open ag fields. I took a look behind me after seeing the small buck and noticed a large group of does eating bean stubble pods. I began a head count. Looked like 4 large does and 4 fawns. 8 deer total.
The group is probably 60 yards at first sight. As soon as I laid eyes on them I got my bow and turned so I would be facing there direction of approach. It didn't take long and they had made the edge of the brush I was hiding in. The fawns make it in first and work directly under the big water oak I'm hid in. The big brood in the group gets right behind me. Luckily I have a quartering wind and its all in my favor. For now.

[SheltonCreeker]

Its as this group is coming in that I notice Scarface. An old doe that has been on my place for at least 4 seasons. She has a long scar that runs all the way down her nose. This old gal and I have danced before. 3 seasons back I shot directly over her back at about 22 yards. My top limb hit a branch and my arrow sailed over her back. So fast forward to this hunt. I knew it was gonna be super tough but I had made up my mind. It was this old gal or nothing.
The deer are behind me. But I'm facing the tree. So I'm hid well. The lead doe the old nanny making every step like the forest floor is about to drop out beneath her. She settled best an old doe like her could and would pick at acorns every now and then. I would sneak a look at scarface who was bringing up the rear of the group.
Im up pretty high in this stand. Maybe 18ft. So I was hoping the group would filter past close to my tree and my scent would go harmlessly over their backs. Well no dice. One of the other mature does worked a little to far and caught a little of me. The group explodes and head back the way they had came. All except Scareface and two fawns.

[Tsalt]

  keep it comin'...

[SheltonCreeker]

Ole Scarface the doe is nervous as I had ever seen. She starts to head back the direction she had came and gets broadside 18 yards. Slowly walking I make fawn sound as I draw. She stops, I draw hit anchor release. It's a swing and a miss. Arrow sails right over her back. She bolts. But the fawns stay put. I recover from my miss quick. Nock another arrow and start watching these two fawns. The one I decided to shoot closest to me stayed at all the wrong angles then slipped into some thick brush no shot. But the other works around and ends up broadside at 8 yards.
I had been staring a hole thru this deer. Drew anchor picked a spot and my fletching disappeared right where I was looking. This deer was dead on its feet. Shot took out both lungs complete pass thru.
I watched as it made a full on death run for about 100 yards and started to collapse as it reached my thicket.
It was just before dark and had been raining all day. Wasn't much of a blood trail as the deer was hauling the mail. I did manage to find a little but saw it laying dead just inside the thicket.
 
What I thought was a young fawn turned out to be a button. I swore no fawns this year for this very reason but after a long November of shots past and questioning what I was doing. All those questions were answered when I admired this young guy and took time to appreciate the shot made. Thanks for reading this long tale about a little button buck. It sure did set my mind right. Its gonna make some great table fare.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Killing a Button Buck every now and then will do nothing to change the buck to doe ratio in the future.

Congrats on your deer David. It will be good eating and quite perfect for getting a monkey off your back.

[stocker56]

It's all venison. Well done and meat in the freezer.  

[DanielB89]

Glad you made it through the "turmoil".  I know how waiting for the "right one" can be very draining, and I think we can all learn a thing or 2 from you, Hunt and Have Fun!  

thanks for sharing.

Sorry about Scarface. Most all of us that hunt in the same place for very long have a deer or two with "history"! You still have another chapter to go in your history book!

Congrats on the one you got, and good eating!

Bisch

[njloco]

Glad you got one.

I don't mind saying " I hunt racks ! ", since I don't eat a lot of meat, I give the meat away to people that need it or friends. As we all know if you hunt the big bucks, it takes patients unless you get lucky. In n.j. some zones require that you shoot a doe first or does only until a certain date. Some zones require 3pts on one side for bucks, but a hunter can shoot two does a day in most areas so if one hunts for meat this is the place to be.