moosehunter
PMA Member
I knew my chances of at least seeing deer today would be good. I absolutly love still hunting. But the conditions for a good still hunt don't come around very often. Today was one of those rare, perfect still hunt days. Rain yesterday softened up the leaves and a stong gusty west wind today had me itchen to go. So I left work at 2:00 and headed out to my woods. I walked the long way around a bean field, then cut across rows of corn so I could get to the far end of a east/west running heavy wooded valley that I know bucks use to get to the field. Slowly, taking baby steps I inched my way to the edge of the hill. Stopping every 2 or 3 steps to glass everything. As I got closer to the edge I slowed even more and glassed further down the hill with each step. That's when I saw the 1st deer. There were 2 ten's, one small and one big about 120 yards away. Almost all the way to the bottom. I snuck to the nearest tree and soon found 4 more bucks in the same spot. 3 little dinks and a whopper of an 8. But my eyes were one the big 10. Now my problem was I needed to close the distance somewhat to give myself a higher percentage shot but with me on top of the hill I was gonna profile myself to at least one of those deer. So I layed down flat and belly crawled for 30 yards to a nice deadfall where I could hide behind, plus I could use it to steady my gun. I knew I was OK when all the deer layed down. Now the wait was on. Almost an hour went by before the big guy stood first. At 80 or 90 yards this boy is done I'm thinking but there's plenty of crap in the way too, so I wait some more. Now all the deer are up and moving. The dinks start up the hill on the upwind side of me thankfully. Followed by the small 10 then the 8. A few minutes later the big 10 start in that direction too. He walks behind a huge deadfall, the kind where a big ball of tree roots are stuck way up in the air, and he never breaks the other side. Now I put down the gun and start glassing trying to find him and he's gone. The only way he could have gone was straight away from me. Now I'm thinking, "ya dumb ass, why didn't ya take the shot before". So I back up the hill 10 feet or so and sit next to tree and keep looking for the mysterious dissapearing deer. 5 minutes later he walks right in from farther away. He did go straight away. Now another 8 has joined the bunch. Him and the dissapearing 10 start to spar, nothing serious, just testing each other. They stop, and the 2 8's start in with each other. Now all this time I have the cross hairs on the 10 and just needed him to stop or get clear of crap. Then all hell breaks loose. There's deer running staight at me, going past me on both sides. The first 3 or 4 were does and all the rest were bucks. All were young dinks but one 8, maybe 110 inch stops 10 feet in front of me and give me the stare down. I'm thinking he's gonna weeze and it will all be over. But he never did, he just kicked it into overdrive and got the heck away from that stupid looking lump next to the tree that blinks. So as I'm raising the gun again on the 10 one more deer is coming up the hill at an angle. One look is all I needed and I swung the gun over to him. He stops about 50 yards out behind a tree for a few moments then takes off. I did my best imitation of a grunt and he stopped in his tacks and I sent the 250 grn sabot on it's way. He didn't go down but I knew I just killed him. So as he's struggling to keep moving I'm trying to reload and watch where he's going at the same time. I can tell you this doesn't work good at all. It's even worse when you get the shakes. Anyway, I was quickly loosing my light, so I hiked back to the truck and give my best friend Hogie a call. It didn't take us very long to find him. He went 100 yards at the most.
Sorry bout the long story but it was a Hell of a good hunt. Maybe my best ever. So I just had to put this on here before I crash for the night.
I didn't put a tape on him but he should go around 150. 9 points. Also took him to the scale to get weighed for a big deer contest I'm in and he tipped the scale at 233 lbs dressed. So after haulin him in and out of the truck a few times, not to mention getting him out of the woods, I'm bushed............moose
Sorry bout the long story but it was a Hell of a good hunt. Maybe my best ever. So I just had to put this on here before I crash for the night.
I didn't put a tape on him but he should go around 150. 9 points. Also took him to the scale to get weighed for a big deer contest I'm in and he tipped the scale at 233 lbs dressed. So after haulin him in and out of the truck a few times, not to mention getting him out of the woods, I'm bushed............moose
