Opening Weekend!
With much anticipation, and darkness fading fast, my friend, Rich and I waded into the fast flowing waters of the Madison River. There was a small sense of urgency in the air, as daylight was quickly making it way to the valley floor. Crossing the river in daylight, shorts, sandals, and treestands, is completely different than trying to cross in the dim morning light, with bows an hunting gear in hand, and pack. After some thwarted attempts to cross in a more direct line, we finally made it over to solid ground and changed from waders to hunting boots, and headed into our stands.
As the sun's rays started to warm the morning air, the deer started to show, though several passed through the opening where I was hunting, none came within the close range I prefer when hunting with selfbows. It was great though to see the number of deer that used the area.
As the deer finished their way through the area, I went to where Rich was, and was happy to hear the he had also had several deer pass through the area of his stand.
Later that day, after several failed attempts to take a midday nap, I popped up as spontaneous as possible, and told Rich, we needed to go hang another stand, and that I was planning to hunt it that evening! Being up for most adventures, Rich said okay. The tree that I really wanted to hang it in turned out to be too big, but on the other side of the trail was another one, a three pronged, tightly together cottonwood. Not only were the trunks very close together, but the amount dead tiny growth coming out of the trunks was thick, this looked like the making of some very evasive, noticeable surgery to the tree and the area. About then I began to doubt my grand scheme. We got the stand placed, had just enough time to get back to camp, lite lunch/dinner, cleaned up, changed and then back. Rich really wanted to be in the stands early, to let things settle, before the deer started through.
The day had been typical for that part of Montana, a bit of rain, and wind, lots of wind, that evening in the stand, I noticed a break in the grey sky, and coming from the west, was blue sky, I knew with that, the wind would die and be a nice breeze. Shortly after 7, the deer started to appear from their bedding areas and we're making way to the river and across to the agriculture. The set, a doe and a fawn, crossed the little channel behind me a took a turn north, out of my sight, shortly after that another doe and larger fawn crossed the channel, and stayed the course on the trail that went past my stand. It's, almost funny at the level it happens at, but I still get very excited when an opportunity is making its way towards me. Before walking into the shooting lane, there is a clump of Birch trees, as she stepped behind them, I came to the ready, after her head cleared I came to draw, and focused on the spot I wanted the arrow to pass through. From there, the next visual that my mind can account for was seeing the deer run off and those big yellow fletchings going with her. I knew the hit was good, but at a distance of not even 4 yards, that arrow should have passed through. The good thing, was there was no sound of her hitting the water! The stand Rich happened to be sitting in, is only 20 yards away, he got to see the whole thing. After, waiting a few minutes, to start the recovery, we started on the blood trail. The broken end of the business part of the arrow, was found quickly, after crawling through a wall of willows the other end of the shaft was found and a few yards from that lay the deer. The Purple Heart, footed shaft, with an Abowyer Wapti head had passed through both scapulas, resulting in a quick clean kill.
On the blood trail...
The Deer...
Crossing the river at night...
We hunted that same area the rest of the weekend, with several deer making their presence, but with no good shot opportunities....
Topic: A Season of Optimism! The story continues... (Read 510 times)
