Friday morining started off good got to the stand and did not spook a single deer. I get all set up about 80 yards off two fields in a draw. I was situated near an old logging road with minimal shooting lanes other that the logging road. About 7 I hear something coming, I start getting all excited. Get the gun turn around and a coon is going back to his home. Then about 5 minutes later I hear something else. This time it is a deer and it is coming right at me and the wind is blowing from the deer to me. I get the binos up and see that it is a buck. We have a pretty firm rule about shooting bucks less than 140 and we really like them to be 150. I get all excited and start the heavy breathing and fog up my binos as he is getting closer. He comes in about 50 yards behind a tree and then turns and startd working he way away from me. My binos have cleared and I still cant tell of he is a shooter or not for all the limbs. He makes it to the logging road 60 yards away and I thought he would come right to me. So I try to judge him one more time. He turns and walks away. Leaving me all fired up and proud of myself for passing up a nice deer. I could tell he was a 10 but had weak 4s. I call my cousin who owns the farm at work and aske if he has seen this deer and he says no. I decided if he came back I would most likley take a shot after talking it over with the cuz. Well not to worry only seen 1 doe and small 8 pt and called it quits about 11.
I head back to the lodge for some chili and formulate a new game plan for the afternoon hund. The wind was blowing from all directions so I decided to go down in a deep draw where 3 bluffs all come to a head at the end of a horse pasture abut 1/2 -3/4 mile away from my morning stand. I park the four wheeler about 500-800 yards from the bottom of the valley and head in. I was taking my Ol'man climbing stand and going in blind as I never hunted this particular draw before. I loaded only 2 shells into my 20 guage 870 and off I went with my stand,jacket and all strapped to my back. About ten minutes into the walk I get to the bottom and start looking for good trees to sit in as this was a perfect funnel. I fould a good tree and was checking the lanes when I looked to my left and noticed a tail flicking. I get my binos up and lean my gun on my leg. It was a buck and a good buck at that. He had great mass and even better spread and he had 10 points that I could see. He was walking away about 52 yards and getting ready to crest over a knoll. If he made it over the knoll he would be gone. I grunted at him with my mouth and he turned to look back at me, click the saftey was off and I was taking aim. He gave me just the right amount of time get off 1 shot. He dropped on the spot. Keep in mind that the entire time my stand and all my other stuff was still on my back.
I walked up to him and he startedlooking familur. The ten that I seen that morining had crab claws as did this one. Did I just shoot the same deer I seen that morning? I radioed Dad who had not even been in his stand 5 minutes to come down for some help.After further discusiion with others at camp my Uncle seen a large buck heading in this direction the same time I seen my first one around 7. So I think we have another good buck left for bow season or the Cuz!
Each year as I get older I start to appreciate the small things in the hunt more and more and not the actuall harvest. My Dad took me on my first deer hunt 20 some years ago and I took a basket rack 9. Every deer sseason since then I have used the exact same 870 and exact same knife. We talked about that for a long time and had a good laugh as Dad says that they are still his. We then started thinking about how many Deer we have dragged out together over the years. Dad turned 60 this year and I wonder how many more times we will get to enjoy each others company as he lost a leg in Vietnam and now his good leg is giving him troubles. I thank the Lord for all the memories that I have with my family and friends in the outdoors that I will cherish forever.
147 1/2 Gross. 19.5 Spread 5/34 bases.
IL Shotgun Buck.
