WARNING: I AM UNCONTROLABLY LONG-WINDED.
Well I headed outearly Friday, Oct. 26 for a weekend bowhunt here in VA. For anyone interested the weather was crap. Warm, humid, and buckets of rain comes to mind. Luckily I leftmy raingear hanging by the door at the house (I don't need no stinkin' raingear). We had planned this Friday/Saturday hunt before the season and we were going come hell or high water (and yes we got the high water).
While the rain certainly was a downer as far asthe comfort level we really needed it and fortunately the off and on storms didn't seem to bother the deer to much, it actually triggered a lot of movement in our area. We had not been in this area since the second week of October and it was as we had hoped, tons of sign. Scrapes, rubs, and recently cut corn lifted our spirits from under the rain cloud and we got to hunting. Friday was a little slow for meas the rain was rather heavy but I did have onebig deer come in behind meheaded towardsa scrape line. My buddysawa few moving early during a lighter spell in the rain.
Saturday called for better weather by the afternoon but the morning hunt was going to be wet. I hunted a stand we hung in August and had produced some sightingsduring the season already. One good thing about the rain was we hoped it would get the bucks out freshening up their washed out scrapes, and it turns out they were. Around 0700 it was getting to be really good light in the woods so I rattled pretty hard and heavy for about 30-45 seconds then sat down to enjoy a refreshing Red Bull (you guysknow it gives you wings).
With the steady rain (not too heavy though) you could hardly hear anything and around 0725 I looked over my left shoulderand wascaught off guard by abuck only 25 yards away who was in themidst of a minor altercation withsome holly branches who had apparently gotten out of line. He proceeded to make a nice scrape and mark it,I proceeded to dump myRed Bull over in my backpack and fumble arounda little. After Ipulled myselftogether I waiteduntil he was busy with some more branches and I slowly stood up. I waited again and finallyget my bow in my hand, there now doesn't thatfeel better?
At this point he has closed the distance to around 18 yards and I notice that it's agood buck, composure lost, briefly.He tore up branches,I leaned and moved and looked for a hole through the brush, nothing. At one pointI was leaned over and awkwardly squatting a little and he looked my way, I got stuck like that for an hour (well it was probably more like a minute but it sure felt like an hour). He goes back to his business, I mentally slap myself in the face and say pull it together man, be patient! So I did and within a couple of minutes he comes into about 12 yards,puts his head down as he turns broadside, and took a half a step forwardwith his near side leg as if to pose for the perfect shot. I slowly draw, anchor, bringmy pin straight up theoffside frontleg to themiddle of his lungs and touch the release. The arrow blows through and just like that he is gone.
My immediate concern is the rain as itis getting increasingly heavyso after a short wait I climb down to the shot site and findno blood, barely any on the arrow,and none in the generaldirection he traveled. I get up with my buddy and we head back to startgridding and looking for bloodin the direction he traveled. We didn't make it 50 yardsand my buddy spotted him deada short distance in front of us. I felt bad for gettingmy buddyout of his stand but what a relief. My bestbow buck yet and a great hunt with my friends. I already shot a buck a couple of weeks ago for the bow contest sosadly
he won't be helpingourscore.
Here he is.
The left side looks shorter because the G3 is broke off about 3" from the tip. It looks like it was broke in velvet because its kind of discolored and gnarled rather than a clean break.
Life's a drag!! This pic was after a 1/4 mile drag through the woodsto get across the creek to the cart (this buck was
heavy).The crew was tired but we got it done.
Loading him up, soaking wet but I sure wasn't complaining.
The end.
Raindrops Were Fallin' On My Head......
