I didnt get a chance to hunt saturday so I left around 3am sunday morning to get to my hunting area. I make it to my stand and climbed in around 4:40 am. I like to be in the stand atleast 1-1.5 hours before the area starts to wake up in hopes that anything I disturbed has time to settle down well before the sun lights things up. Its nice and cool, looks to be a good morning, but its pitch black outside and I wont be able to see anything until the sun starts to rise so I relax and enjoy the surroundings. Around 5:40 I hear a 4 wheeler coming down the road to my stand and Im thinking WTF?!? He drives right by my stand and continues down a trail heading south from my stand location. When I checked a month ago, there wasnt anything down at the end of the trail so I dont know whats going on. About 5:45 I hear another 4 wheeler coming and he drives down the same trail, now Im getting a little ticked. The sun is not yet visible but the area is starting to get lighter and I can see my food plot with nothing in it...BIG SURPRISE lol. Right at 5:55, which is darn near shooting light, here comes a third 4 wheeler put-putting along. I'm pissed, not because they are coming by me, I can expect that on a hunting lease, but the fact that they are coming by me so near to shooting light and feeder times.
Anyways, all three were heading in the same direction, just south of my location where last time I checked there was nothing. I spend the next few minutes thinking about what happened and realize that its 6:05 and I have not heard my feeder go off yet. I wait until 6:10 without hearing anything so I get the gun up to look through the scope and check for the feeder and its not there! FREAKING UNBELIEVEABLE!!!! I search for a few moments in my scope and can see what appears to be the feeder sitting off to the side by some bushes...well, atleast its not gone.
By this time, my opening morning seems ruined. I'm sitting in my stand, FUMING at the entire situation, and generally in a foul mood all together. I am contemplating everything imaginable: neighboring hunters sabotaging my feeder, intentionally trying to push deer away from me, etc. (knowing full well thats most likely not the case). Basically doing everything I can to stay ticked off. As I'm thinking this, I realize "hey, its opening day, it looks to be a beautiful morning in the making, your not in the office so just enjoy it for what it is and relax". So I did, I listened to God's creatures waking up, started to enjoy the morning and let everything go. I simply relaxed.
It wasnt 5 minutes later and I see a big bodied buck step out from behind the bushes walking quickly my way, directly from where the other hunters just went. I watch him as he parralles my food plot but he doesnt want anything to do with it, and appears to be in a hurry to get out of Dodge. I cant see how many points he has so I get the gun up and notice a nice (for me) older 8 point buck with the antlers just outside the ears. Figuring he wont be staying around long I put the cross hairs on him and let the boom-stick do its job. He collapsed on the spot and expired in a matter of seconds.
I never saw a doe and he wasnt acting like he was chasing one, but he was definately on the move, maybe smelling one from a distance, I dunno. My only thoughts are that he was trying to avoid the hunters that just drove through and was heading in the opposite direction of them when he crossed my path. Either way, I benefited from it.
So, what started out briefly as a not-so-good opener quickly turned into a great opener! Moral of the story is to stay positive and enjoy your hunting days for what they are, a way to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
Here's my Sunday morning buck:
