Critter
Life Member
Well, my buck hunting for this year is over, unfortunately.
This afternoon I headed out to a spot that I hadn't hunted yet this year. I pulled out of my drive and headed down the gravel road. About 150 yards down the road my timber turns into a narrow stretch of woods and thick cover that runs paralell to the road. This area has always been an awesome funnel from my woods into the neighboring woods and I've shot most of my deer just at the end of it where it adjoins my property.
Anyway, I'm headed down the road looking to my left and I see a buck headed through the funnel towards my property. By now he's probably about 100 yards from where my stand is, so I turn around at the T and haul a$$ back to my house, pull in the drive, get out and head for my stand. Two minutes later I'm climbing into my stand(which is only 80 yards from my house)thinking there is no way that he didn't hear me. As I'm scrambling to get my release around my wrist, an arrow on my bow, and my hat on my head I hear him about 50 yards away. Now I'm digging for my grunt tube, and trying to find my D ring to hook to my safety lanyard. After I realize that I don't even have my safety harness on( I wasn't wearing it because I was going to sit in an unpicked cornfield) I try to start to calm myself down, but between the rush of the oncoming buck, and the lack of oxygen in my system from running out to my stand, I can't seem to do it.
I can see him now about 35 yards from me through some thick brush and on the wrong side of the fence. I can see he's not moving so I grunt at him once to try to give him a little persuasion to cross over onto my property. Immediately he comes at me, hops the fence and I stop him as soon as his back feet hit the ground. The arrow's on its way and hits him perfectly right in the crease. He bolts and I see the arrow sticking in the ground a couple feet behind where he was standing.
I watch him head through some thick cover and loose sight of him about 50 yards away. I wait about ten minutes, get down and retrieve my arrow. I knew the shot was good, and the arrow backed it up so I headed for the house to give him a little while. Half and hour later I headed back to the spot where I shot him, picked up the blood trail and found him about another 20 yards from where I last saw him.
Now here's the crappy part, major ground shrinkage!!! I've passed up 6 or 7 bucks bigger than him the last couple weeks and can't believe I thought this buck was a "shooter". I don't have any excuses so all I can do is be happy that I made a good shot and a quick kill, even though I do regret not giving this buck a couple more years to grow. Live and learn I guess.
CRITR
This afternoon I headed out to a spot that I hadn't hunted yet this year. I pulled out of my drive and headed down the gravel road. About 150 yards down the road my timber turns into a narrow stretch of woods and thick cover that runs paralell to the road. This area has always been an awesome funnel from my woods into the neighboring woods and I've shot most of my deer just at the end of it where it adjoins my property.
Anyway, I'm headed down the road looking to my left and I see a buck headed through the funnel towards my property. By now he's probably about 100 yards from where my stand is, so I turn around at the T and haul a$$ back to my house, pull in the drive, get out and head for my stand. Two minutes later I'm climbing into my stand(which is only 80 yards from my house)thinking there is no way that he didn't hear me. As I'm scrambling to get my release around my wrist, an arrow on my bow, and my hat on my head I hear him about 50 yards away. Now I'm digging for my grunt tube, and trying to find my D ring to hook to my safety lanyard. After I realize that I don't even have my safety harness on( I wasn't wearing it because I was going to sit in an unpicked cornfield) I try to start to calm myself down, but between the rush of the oncoming buck, and the lack of oxygen in my system from running out to my stand, I can't seem to do it.
I can see him now about 35 yards from me through some thick brush and on the wrong side of the fence. I can see he's not moving so I grunt at him once to try to give him a little persuasion to cross over onto my property. Immediately he comes at me, hops the fence and I stop him as soon as his back feet hit the ground. The arrow's on its way and hits him perfectly right in the crease. He bolts and I see the arrow sticking in the ground a couple feet behind where he was standing.
I watch him head through some thick cover and loose sight of him about 50 yards away. I wait about ten minutes, get down and retrieve my arrow. I knew the shot was good, and the arrow backed it up so I headed for the house to give him a little while. Half and hour later I headed back to the spot where I shot him, picked up the blood trail and found him about another 20 yards from where I last saw him.
Now here's the crappy part, major ground shrinkage!!! I've passed up 6 or 7 bucks bigger than him the last couple weeks and can't believe I thought this buck was a "shooter". I don't have any excuses so all I can do is be happy that I made a good shot and a quick kill, even though I do regret not giving this buck a couple more years to grow. Live and learn I guess.
CRITR
