Well guys, it looks like I get a D- at the Buck U this year (come on! I get some credit for trying!!). Had my tag soup for lunch today. I really had a fun season hunting with a few of my good friends and sharing some of it with all of you here. If we hold on to our lead I'm really looking forward to defending our crown with all of you next year - so don't leave!!
So I'm entitled to one story for this season. Let me tell you how good of a person my neighbor is.
Mike lives across the street from me and has a couple of nice properties that we have been hunting on.
This weekend we both hunted in our favorite stands on Saturday morning. I saw 3 does and 4 bucks, all of the bucks were not legal or could grow a couple more years. I don't believe Mike saw anything except for a few turkey. For some reason we both got the urge to hang new stands in our final and desperate attempt for a successful Saturday evening and Sunday hunt. My new stand location didn't produce anything as it was really situated for the morning activities that I had seen throughout the season. Mike, on the otherhand, had a doe come in at 4:00 and decided to smoke an arrow through her. He texted me and I suggested he just wait til dark to track her down. He still had one tag left. Within 30 minutes he had a really nice buck come through. Every time he would try to shoot the buck in an opening it would keep moving so he let down his bow after it walked off and sent me a text saying the place was pretty active, and oh, "a huge buck just walked through". He was a little upset at himself for not taking a shot when he had some brief opportunities. After we retrieved his doe that night he told me he wanted me to hunt in that stand on Sunday morning so that I could get a chance at shooting that buck he saw earlier that evening. He felt bad that I hadn't taken a shot all season long and besides, he had decided to take his doe in to get processed at a nearby facility. I didn't want to encroach on his newly found hideout, especially knowing he wanted a second chance at the buck too. He insisted, and since he is the boss I told him I would give it a shot. Well, to make a fairly long story short that buck did come out of apparently nowhere at 9:15 a.m. and I hastely positioned myself on the platform of the treestand. I didn't get a great look at him but I could tell he was starting to walk away from me so I pulled out the doe bleat and let it rip. He turned around and walked pretty quickly towards me, angling slightly to the right. He looked like a nice buck with good mass and I never did count the tines knowing he was legal. At thirty yards he was in a small opening and I figured it was now or never. I quickly let an arrow fly and as the tracer sped about an inch in front of his chest my heart dropped even quicker. I knew my chance was over as he ran back behind some dense cover about 40 yards away. He stood there for a while. I noticed another set of legs with him and they both continued walking away as if nothing happened. My one shot that I had taken this year and it sucked!! I knew I had overgripped my bow and the arrow went to the right - the same thing that happend when I shot my elk last year (but it was still a lung shot - those elk are huge). The elk hung around long enough for me to stick one in him again for insurance. I replayed the shot again, probably a few hundred times, in my head. The whole event was so fast. I only had time to turn on my video camera and hit the record button. No chance to move the camera so my only footage is him walking through the corner of the screen before I shoot and running back the opposite direction in the corner of my screen after I shoot.
I met up with Mike at lunch along with another friend and his son who was hunting for the youth season on his property We exchanged stories from the morning hunt. Then we start talking about afternoon plans. Mike insisted that I hunt that same area to finish off what I started. He said he wanted to hunt another area that we had been seeing deer in lately. I couldn't believe it. I knew he wanted that buck too, but he couldn't let me finish out my season without a deer on his property. I don't think I know anyone else that is so unselfish and giving. Maybe I should have said "no" and hunted elsewhere, but I didn't. I hunted that stand and enjoyed every minute of it despite not seing a thing. Mike had fun shooting at some turkey running through the other location he decided to hunt at. We are both looking forward to next year.
Mike is a great friend of mine.