At 7:30 this morning I was sitting a high 25 ft in my climber and was getting pretty upset with all the noise the local chipmunks and squirrels were making. With the leaves so crunchy and the wind so still they were actually very loud. I tried some grunting and light rattling earlier to no avail. Then I decided to set my grunt call to "doe bleat" and gave 3 sets of 3 bleats about 5 minutes between each set. I had just started to get aggravated by the squirrels again when I caught movement to my left. Two deer about 60 yds heading from my 10:00 position toward my 8:00 position. I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard these deer. The darn squirrels in front of me had actually drowned out the deer further away.
I slowly got my bow from its holder and stood up hoping they would not spot me. They didn't. At first glance I thought I recognized the buck from my trail cam pics as a decent "y" buck so I wasn't actually in full nervousness mode since I knew he wasn't a legal shooter.
Then the buck did something strange. When he got to the9:00 position he turned left coming straight at me. When he made the turn I noticed the two brow tines, making him a legal shooter. Again the Gods smiled on me and he turned right and stopped, broadside at 22 yards. In an instant my arrow was on its way. I heard the hit, saw the deer hunker down and watched him run with his tail clamped tight to his butt for about 50 yds. as soon as I lost sight of him I saw a flash of white and heard him crash. Then he got up and crashed a second time. Then I heard him no more.
While gathering my gear and climbing down I said a prayer to the Lord for sending this buck to my stand and also for a quick and clean kill.
I was too excited to follow the blood trail from my arrow which was stuck in the ground and covered with bright blood,so I walked right over to where I heard him go down and there he was. A six pointer. Not the biggest deer I have taken, but a typical non farm-fed Pennsylvania mountain deer. And one I am very proud of.
I'm having a good year from my mountain so far. A spring Gobbler, a doe and this six pointer with the bow.
I have a Bear tag for Pike County and Boy oh Boy would it be GREAT to fill that tag in this license year.
Sorry so long, but I feel the need to tell people about it>
Here is a link to the pic.
http://img343.imageshack.us/my.php?image=crop6rg.jpg