tracker
Life Member
Had a wonderful week of hunting during the early muzzleloader season. The week started out cold with deer moving early in the afternoons and moving into the timbers late morning grazing on acorns. Lots of conversation from the turkey flocks early morning with a few jakes gobbling back to my conversations. I was sitting in the middle of three flocks of turkeys on Saturday morning and was able to convince three toms to come over my direction because the food was better. One tom in a group of three had a double beard. I was focusing my attention on this particular bird due to the fact I had already harvested a double bearded turkey this spring with my bow. The biggest of the birds though was hesitant to come through with the other two and was keeping a close eye on me, making it very hard to watch all three. Eventually he jumped from the brush pile and started making his way with the other two, convinced the coast was clear he proceeded forward to me making the other two a directly in front of me at about 26 yards. Well, as he closed in I drew my bow and was busted, a big cluck was let out and off he and two beards went. A quick realingment of my pin to turkey number three and off went the arrow. A perfect shot and bird number one was in the bag. I didn't get the chance to weigh him but I would guess 22-24lbs. About a 6 inch beard and 1 inch spurs. As the weekend progressed during the muzzleloading for deer alot of action was happening, but changing winds made stand selection in the evening always to a second choice stand. Early Monday afternoon the rain started, and I hoped this would be a great chance for a one on one hunt with a mature whitetail. I took stand that afternoon by four o'clock, and was amazed by all the movement of deer out to feed by 4:30. Then finally around 5:30 my hope became reality. There he stood, on the other side of the fence. Looking at me, curling his upper lip, smelling does. Man, adrenaline rush. Okay, now, he has to cross the fence and pass by. So he stands there, shaking his head to get all the water off his face, then he shakes his back like a lab when it comes out of the water, man that is so cool!! He walks back towards the timber, he's not coming out, wait he stopped. Now he's rubbing his rack on some brush. He stops, looks at more deer coming out. He takes a couple more steps back to the fence. He licks his lips and nose, the head goes back up in the air. The lips are curled again, and he looks over my way briefly. I am stuck to this tree tighter that the bark that grows upon it, I'm not moving, I don't flinch. He looks to the right, down the path that I had walked in from. He holds that pose for a minute, then shakes his head again. By this time it looks like that big old rack is just going to come flying off. He then shakes off his body again, wow, that's a ton of water spraying off of him, once again so cool. He then looks my way again, just staring my direction. Does he see me?? Does he know something doesn't look right? He turns once again and takes a couple steps back towards the timber. He stands there, just stands there. Minutes go by, he has no where to go, just stands there. A few more deer come out. He doesn't care, it's like he's in deep thought. What's going through his mind?? I knew what was going through mine. Finally movement. He walks back out to the fence. He comes to the corner. He turns the corner, stops and looks at all the deer that have already come out. Oh no, he's heading back into the timber. He takes about four steps and has his body half into the timber. Then all of a sudden he turns around and takes a quick run and jumps over. Holy crap!! He has caught me completely off guard and has passed my first shooting lane. He is out!! My heart is pounding as I am turning to catch him coming through the last lane I have to shoot through. This shot has to be good. His front shoulder comes into the lane, it's only going to be a three second shot opportunity at the pace he's moving. My anticipated path is right on as my sights have a perfect view for the shot. I take the shot. Smokerolls, visability is void for a brief second. What will I see?? I catch him bolting out of the shooting lane. He's on a dead run behind me, I can't see anything that is now going on due to all the branches and leaves on the trees. I hear the sound of him busting into some brush, then it's quiet. What just happened? Is he gone, completely missed? Play it back in my mind, everything was good, but it all seemed to happen too fast. I keep looking behind me, frustrated I can see nothing. Deer are going nuts all around my stand. They won't leave, they just keep snorting and looking everywhere, they are clueless and everything that has just happened, and in a sense so am I. I decided to sit for about fifteen minutes in case the shot was a off a little, but as the rain continued to come down and darkness seemed to settling in early I figured I had better go now. I strap the muzzleloader to my back and proceed down from my stand to the ground. There I am greeted by 10-15 deer still hanging around. They run off as I finally have feet on the ground. I turn and look in the direction of where he ran. I see nothing but trees. I walk over to the area of the shot. I search for blood on a grassy pasture that is being rain soaked.I see nothing, not even hair. There is no way I missed, not this time. I walk up to the beginning of the timber where I thought he came through,still nothing. As I stand there wondering which way shoulod I go, I catch a glance him laying just inside the timbers edge about 20 yards from where I thought he entered. I cautiously walk over to him. It's over. Everything has worked out. I admire this great deer and start thinking about the many minutes of shaking, smelling, and other events I was able to witness. This is a hunt I will not forget.
