Thanks for the nice comments everyone... So here's a write up on the story....
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Up to this point, it had been a fun but exhausting season starting with archery antelope in WY then SD, a 2 week out of state elk hunt then whitetail hunting starting at the end of Sept. With nearly 30 sits underneath my belt and passing many bucks along the way including missing one dandy, my wife’s patience was starting to wear thin and the hour glass on my available hunting time left for the season was starting to run low. It was time to mix things up. I started to come to the realization that if I was going to fill my tag I was going to have to throw a Hail Mary so on Tuesday afternoon I left my private ground and drove over an hour further away, hopeful I would get into an area with better deer numbers. With only 1.5 days left of my deer hunting vacation I decided I was going to hunt a public area that I had briefly checked out prior to the season but never actually hunted.
Tuesday afternoon was promising as I saw numerous deer including 2 smaller bucks within shooting range. Wednesday AM I decided to hunt my private ground closer to home. Shortly after 9AM with no deer sightings, I decided it was time to give the public ground one last shot. Showing up around 11AM, even with the action I saw Tuesday, I decided to setup ˝ mile north and try what I thought would be a great cruising area. I walked in, identified what I considered the main trail and set my stand. Shortly after 2:00 I saw a buck cruising through the timber. When he hit around 50-60 yards and went behind some brush I drew, anchored and waited... At 25 yards, I shot - he went around 50 yards and disappeared behind some brush. As it turned out, that was his final resting place. Not a big buck but considering the impending pumpkin army and how my season had been going so far, it was just time to punch my tag – put some venison in the freezer and start making up for all the time I’ve missed with the family this fall….
So here is the buck I missed and still haunts my dreams... The big branch you leave to give yourself more cover - yeah that one bit hard...
I passed these on the way to my new stand site - always a good feeling seeing sign...
View from my last day perch....
My last day public land buck..
