I guess I"m getting older, at least that"s what the kids tell me. When I was a kid you went into the woods with a gun and a knife. You sat next to a tree and waited for a deer to come by. Wait, it couldn"t just be a deer it had to be a buck. The first time I sat there was with my Dad, it was probably about 1969. I think I shot my first deer in 1975 or something like that. That"s a lot if time in the woods when you are 7 or eight years old.
Between that time and now there"s been quite a few deer. Somewhere along the way I got bored. Well my son is getting older now and I guess it"s time to hit the woods again. He was 12 when we started bow hunting. He"s now 15 and he put down his third the first day of bow season. He"s kind of hard on me if you want to know the truth. It sounds something like this, "Dad I shot my third archery deer, and how many have you shot?" You get the idea (I want to choke him).
I hunted this year pretty much like it was my last. We were drawn for a managed hunt close to the house. I spent many hours in the woods. I hunted in the evening after work at least three times a week and on the weekends. Time was running out, well at least before gun season.
I decided to take the last two days off before gun season and spend my time in the woods. We hunted Thursday with no luck. I expected more of the same on Friday but you know I hung in there. It had to happen sooner or later.
Friday started with a cold crisp morning, you know the kind that make you wish you knew how to golf. It wasn"t miserable but I"m sure there was a golfer somewhere sleeping while I sat in the tree. The sun came up and it got colder as it always does. I waited and watched the squirrels as they made the dried leaves sound like elephants were coming. Just when I had had about enough, it happened. I saw motion on the opposite ridge. Here she came, it was just a doe but it"s been a long wait. I"ll take her if she comes within range. She starts up the hill and takes a turn to my left. My nephew swears that if you hit the grunt call they come. I thought that was funny. I did as I was told; he"s 22 now so he knows everything. Well I"ll be, he was right (little snot) she turned and headed my way.
One more step and she"s there. I pull the bow" nope can"t pull it. I have to try again. It"s strange when I"m warm and relaxed I can pull it a hundred times. For some reason it doesn"t work that way when you haven"t moved for hours and it"s cold. I try again, the bow comes to draw and then pulls back. I have to do it again. One more tug and I"m there. She walks into the lane just like in the TV show, I release and the arrow finds its mark. She runs back down the hill and I watch her head up the other side. She stops and falls. I did it.
You know friends are hard on you sometimes. I took the moment to send a text message to my friend Dan. It read, "i did it shut up." Sending text messages from a tree, remember the gun and the knife. Not any more I have more junk in the tree than we used to have in the whole camp.
My job is complete so I sit back and shake. Those of you that don"t hunt probably need an explanation. Adrenaline is a weird thing. I guess staying motionless for hours and hours then in one moment all is gained or lost is more than your (my) body can take. I shake like I"m about to be married again for a few minutes. The last time I shook like that I had just broken my foot falling off my motorcycle.
You know it"s only 7:03, I decide to sit for a while because it"s prime time. I"ll get down later and see the deer. Who knows what might happen.
It"s 8:25 now and I"m getting anxious. I plan to get down at 9:00 after our morning chat on the walkie talkies. You guessed it, more junk to carry around in the woods. Hey there"s something coming down the same trail.
Here he comes, when he sees the downed doe he gets a little weird. He walks in circles. He"s a good buck by my standards (I just shot a doe, they"re all good bucks). I hit the grunt call, Jeremy told me to. He was walking away and he turns back toward me. He"s out of range for the bow so I hope grunt and wait. Every time he starts to walk away I grunt. He turns and walks closer. This has been going on for about twenty minutes now.
Finally he heads up the hill toward me he"s getting closer now. I guess about 40 yards and he"s turned to walk off. I decide that"s about as good as I"m going to get. I pull the bow and release. He jumps and then just walks back down the hill.
I grunt again just as he starts to walk away. He turns again like we haven"t done this before. We do this for a while. You know it"s getting close to 9:00 and he"s coming again. He starts up the hill just as my brother and my son start talking. I can"t reach the radio and my hands are both on the bow. I can"t believe this may still happen. He doesn"t hear the radio because of the wind. I"m laughing to myself because this is just too much.
It"s 9:10 now and he turns and walks off into the brush. Just like that it"s over but it"s ok with me. I"m not even sure that it would have been better if I got him. He made my day and still walked away.
Now back to the doe. I get out of the tree and go to see the doe. Well there she is, " wait that"s not a doe it"s the ugliest buck I"ve ever seen. He looks more like a cape buffalo than a deer. One side of his antlers point down just like a Cape buffalo. The other side isn"t much of an improvement.
I name the buck as they do all of the true trophies. The Cape buffalo buck as it will be know throughout the ages. I take a minute to call my son Nick and brother Dale on the walkie-talkie. Nick and Dale show up to see the "Cape Buffalo" buck. Nick sees the buck and laughs like he"s just seen a Chihuahua in a tutu. Then he said it, that"s not the "Cape Buffalo buck, that"s the "stupid buck."
We spent some time looking for the arrows, I never did find the arrow from my buck. I did find the arrow that missed the second buck. It was stuck in a log and had some white hairs stuck in the broad head. I guess it was his turn for a little luck.
It"s been a long fun road since the days of sitting with my Dad so many years ago. I can"t walk in the woods without thinking of him. I hope that part never changes. I decided to list the things in my tree just for fun. I guess I have to start with the portable tree stand, the camera, walkie talkie, grunt call, knife, gps, surgical gloves, safety harness, hand warmers, flashlight, a trimming saw and you can"t forget the cell phone for harassing Dan. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the bow and arrows.
One more first bow deer story.
