It's been a tough season for me this year with trying to juggle hunting, work, and a newborn son at home. I haven't got as many chances to get out and sit in the stand as I have in years past, but that's how life works sometimes. So I took off from work for two weeks so I could hopefully put an arrow in one of the bucks that were on my hit list. Here are two of the bucks that I was out for.
The beginning of my hunt started out slow and the weather wasn't really cooperating with temps getting into the upper 60's during the day, but it eventually cooled down and the bucks started to cruise during the day. I sat all day in the stand from the 5th to the 9th without seeing one shooter, and not seeing many deer at all. Yesterday started out slow and never saw a deer until around 10:30 when two does came through and the one I could see had been bred recently because the hair on her back was all roughed up from the workings of a buck. I thought for sure it wouldn't be long and a big ole bruiser would be hot on her trail, but nothing ever showed. Fast forward to 2:30; two does come by and the one larger doe was acting squirrelly and bouncing around and bucking like she was in estrous. As the does are about to walk right at me and directly by my stand, the larger doe turns and runs as fast as she can like she was shot out of a cannon zig zagging back and forth out of my sight. No idea why she did this, but the wind was in my favor so she couldn't have caught my wind. The other doe walked by and continued to feed on acorns 75 yards from my stand.
Then on to 4:30 I spot movement off to my right roughly 200 yards out. I can see that it's a good buck and that he's right on the trail of the squirrelly acting doe that took off running earlier. When he gets to where she bolted, you can tell that he lost her scent and was walking around in circles looking for where she went. Then he heads in to the timber where my stand is, but from the line he's headed on he'll be 50-60 yards from my stand. I went from having buck fever, and thinking he would walk right next to me, to thinking he would be out of range and I wouldn't have a shot at him. When he got directly in from of me he stops and starts to look around searching for the doe that was in estrous but can't see her. Then he turns and heads right for me just like he was following a script until he gets to 12 yards where he stops and I make the shot. It was a little back, but it got both lungs, and liver. He took off on a dead run, and I could tell it was a good hit and see that he was hurt. He went out of sight roughly 100 yards and crashed.
I'm kind of sad my season is over, but excited all in the same respect. Good luck to all that haven't filled their tags yet.
