Well its been an interesting season and this past Sunday's hunt was a good one. This isn't one of the top bucks I have on the property, but I still have a buck tag for the regular season to pursue that opportunity.
The story with this set starts last year. I felt this area I scouted was a good one and it had a doubler (two trees) which I love to hunt in grown up pasture that was now a thick locust patch. The deer always seemed to move thru this finger to never expose themselves to the more open woods. It was an ideal set. It had cover, along an edge that came off a corner of an old fence post. Not to forget that it was a finger with a gradual decline that drops roughly 250 feet over the course of 300 yards.
This morning was my first morning sit in this stand. The previous week I had hunted this on an evening. This stand works great with a north wind and during my previous hunt I had a great evening of chasing so to return was highly anticipated.
On this morning I had a deer come thru at 7:02am but all I could make out of this lone deer was a dark outline and confirmation that the trail I believed the deer used the most was the right one.
About 7:30am, I had a lone doe emerge from the thick cover again to travel down the hill to the low country where they bed during the day. I decided that with a slight breeze I would blind call with the Primo's Can and Buck Roar to see what I could attract. Within 5 minutes this average racked 2.5 year old presented himself at the head of the trail. At first I debated on whether to pass this buck if the shot presented itself. He was one of the bucks we saw in the summer, but I knew of others that were larger. However, during my last 5 years I have passed on smaller bucks and some larger. I had one good one get away last year due to a poorly placed shot, so I decided that I needed to somewhat start over and get a buck under the belt. This is the second season on this property and it appears that some of our efforts are showing as we only harvested one buck last year.
This isn't the largest buck I have taken, but it was a well executed shot, a 80 yard recovery and a lesson that some of the best spots are those ones that you find first....but most likely walk by. In addition, I was able to share in the successful days with friends, which to me is what its all about.
pic compliments of PABuck HNTR
