Great morning on stand...with pics!
10-21-2008, 12:24 AM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Southeast Missouri
Posts: 968
Great morning on stand...with pics!
Hey guys!
I work a swing shift and last night at work, I'm sitting there looking outside the window at what I just felt was going to be a promising morning. I kept opening the window and it was cool, about 38 degrees and no wind at all. I kept telling myself that I was definately gonna have to put a few hours on stand when I got off at 7 a.m. Luckily, my relief showed up about 20 minutes early and when I asked if I could skeedaddle to get on stand he said sure, wish I could go to!
So, I jump in the truck and take off like a bat to make the 5 miute drive home. Weather report said we would have calm winds then light SW winds most of the morning. Perfect conditions for a hunt from my stand in a saddle behind the house. As I'm pulling up the driveway, I spot a doe feeding on acorns under a large whiteoak at the edge of my foodplot. I'm figuring she'll eventually head for that saddle to go to a bedding area on the neighbor's property and I'm confidentI can sneak in ahead of her. I was lucky enough to take a nice doe on my trip out to Maryland earlier in the year, but to be honest, with my three kids, she was about gone. SoI decide that a nice fat doe would be great for the freezer!
I slip up a draw to the stand and climb in and get settled. My confidence was growing because I had spotted some new rubs and scrapes across the draw from me as I went in. About 30 minutes later, I think I hear a deer coming towards the saddle so I clip on and wait. I finally catch movement about 50 yards out and see a young deer walking a path to cross behind me. Then I notice that the deer is actually grunting quite a bit as it walked. It hits my entry path and turns to avoid it. I catch a glint of antler and decide to try for a better look. Turns out to be a spike. He walks in and gives me a perfect 12 yard broadside shot. I'm pleased because this year I'll have both daughters participating in the youth firearms season, and I'm thinking he'd be a great one for one of the girls to take for a first buck.
He saunters on through the saddle and heads down the hill toward a bedding area.I start hearing him grunting again and notice another deer about 75 yards away. After they mingle for a bit, the spike heads on his way, and the other deer starts toward the saddle. As it approaches, I catch glints of antler again. Turns out to be a 4 point. He crosses the saddle directly in front of my stand and then makes his way to my downwind side.I figure the jig's about up and he's gonna blow. To my surprise, he jumps back the way he came and unbelievably gets distracted by what must be some very tasty acorns!
I have a perfect 21 yard quartering away shot, but elect to pass again. He settles back down, and feeds off the way he came! I'm thinking I must be living right! About 30 minutes later, I hear another deer approaching from the southeast of my stand. It looks to be a bigger bodied deer than the last two, and then I see antlers again! Another small buck! He walks right to the path I entered and decides to skirt my path via the saddle. He ends up directly under my tree. Then he gets a whiff of my tree steps and his head swivels up.....and his eyes locked on me. AsI studied him I noticed he's in fact a 5 point as he's grown a small brow tine on one side. He's locked onto me, and thenhe bolts across the shooting lane to the exact same spot the 4 point stopped......those are some mighty tasty acorns indeed! He feeds on away and I'm thinking to myself, I'm so gladI was here today. Lesson re-enforced...nobody kills deer at home on the couch, or in bed as I normally would be at this tiime!
So, I'm sitting there for another hour or so and lack of sleep is catching up to me. I'm totally content with my morning's hunt and am starting to think I should get down and call it a day, or night as it was in my case. But, no the hunting Gods weren't done blessing me just yet! Off to my left I catch a glimpse of movement. I ease up and clip on because it just looked like it might have been a deer working it's way to the saddle. Sure enough, I see a set of legs coming through a treetop.I get turned to the best position I can so I can try and cover both likely routes across the saddle. About that time I see a set on antlers clear the tree top and I instantly said to myself, I'm gonna shoot this buck if I'm given the chance! He's nice and fat looking, and definately a 2.5 year old 8 point buck at least! As he approaches the west crossing to the saddle I can tell this is a different caliber of deer as far as his awareness of his surroundings. He cautiously approaches my first shooting lane and stops and studies his surroundings. About this time, I'm trying to fight down andrenaline and I'm struck by just how still a deer can stand for what seems like an eternity, though it was only about a minute. He crosses into my next shooting lane and stops again. He's got a larger pine directly ahead of him and I decide that when his head goes behind that tree, I'll try and draw. As he's studying the area he decides to reach back and lick his side for a second. I decide now's the time. Slowly I draw my Tribute to full draw. As I'm about 3/4 of the way to full draw he catches the sound of my arrow sliding through my whisker biscuit and crouches to spring....and as I've seen many times before, he freezes as he's deciding which way is the best escape route.I crank on to fulldraw, and as I try to settle my thumb to hollow under my ear, I encounter some discomfort because of my facemask.The adrenaline dumpI experienced next can only be undertood by those who have had similar problems.[:@]I fight through it and jam the base of my thumb to it's proper place, settle the pin on his shoulder and touch off the shot. I'm rewarded with a solid THWACK! as my arrow strikes home! The buck spins and completely goes down on his belly, gathers himself and crashes away from my stand. I see him stumble once about 40 yards out and then he's out of sight. I'm listening hard as hear him crash on another bit and finally hear another big tumble and then silence. I start replaying the shot in my head and I distinctly remember seing quite a bit of my arrow shaft sticking out from his shoulder as he initially spun. I sit down and try to endure the long 30 minute wait. After about15 minutes I'm shaking worse than ever and decide that this fatboy had better climb down before he falls out or drops his bow! I make way down to the base of my tree and collapse! After another 15 minutesI cautiously approach the area I shot him. I find my arrow and am not pleased with what I find. About 2" of shaft and broadhead are broke off and I have blood and hair about 10" up my 28.5" shaft. I find good blood where he fell, but being colorblind, I see no blood past the area. I hang my facemask in a tree above the blood and slip back out to the house. Once there I wait another hour and bring my wife and son along to help me track. You all can laugh if you like, but she can spot small amounts of blood with her eyes closed much better thanI can!
To make a long story short, he died right whereI heard him fall. Approximately 80-90 yards from the shot. My shot was too far forward to give much blood, but she was able to track him to within 20 yards before we found him piled up. It seems my arrow entered his front shoulder, breaking it and lodged in the off shoulder. To my delight, he had 9 scorable points. A nice 2.5 year old buck for this area. He's notnear as big as some of the great bucks you all have been so generous to share with us, but he's a personal best for me and I dare say I couldn't be any more proud.
Oops! Edited to avoid man law violation! Sorry for the long post, but I felt so blessed by this hunt I wanted to share it all!
Here's one of the scrapes I spotted on the way in this morning.
Thanks again for letting me share!
GH
I work a swing shift and last night at work, I'm sitting there looking outside the window at what I just felt was going to be a promising morning. I kept opening the window and it was cool, about 38 degrees and no wind at all. I kept telling myself that I was definately gonna have to put a few hours on stand when I got off at 7 a.m. Luckily, my relief showed up about 20 minutes early and when I asked if I could skeedaddle to get on stand he said sure, wish I could go to!
So, I jump in the truck and take off like a bat to make the 5 miute drive home. Weather report said we would have calm winds then light SW winds most of the morning. Perfect conditions for a hunt from my stand in a saddle behind the house. As I'm pulling up the driveway, I spot a doe feeding on acorns under a large whiteoak at the edge of my foodplot. I'm figuring she'll eventually head for that saddle to go to a bedding area on the neighbor's property and I'm confidentI can sneak in ahead of her. I was lucky enough to take a nice doe on my trip out to Maryland earlier in the year, but to be honest, with my three kids, she was about gone. SoI decide that a nice fat doe would be great for the freezer!
I slip up a draw to the stand and climb in and get settled. My confidence was growing because I had spotted some new rubs and scrapes across the draw from me as I went in. About 30 minutes later, I think I hear a deer coming towards the saddle so I clip on and wait. I finally catch movement about 50 yards out and see a young deer walking a path to cross behind me. Then I notice that the deer is actually grunting quite a bit as it walked. It hits my entry path and turns to avoid it. I catch a glint of antler and decide to try for a better look. Turns out to be a spike. He walks in and gives me a perfect 12 yard broadside shot. I'm pleased because this year I'll have both daughters participating in the youth firearms season, and I'm thinking he'd be a great one for one of the girls to take for a first buck.
He saunters on through the saddle and heads down the hill toward a bedding area.I start hearing him grunting again and notice another deer about 75 yards away. After they mingle for a bit, the spike heads on his way, and the other deer starts toward the saddle. As it approaches, I catch glints of antler again. Turns out to be a 4 point. He crosses the saddle directly in front of my stand and then makes his way to my downwind side.I figure the jig's about up and he's gonna blow. To my surprise, he jumps back the way he came and unbelievably gets distracted by what must be some very tasty acorns!
I have a perfect 21 yard quartering away shot, but elect to pass again. He settles back down, and feeds off the way he came! I'm thinking I must be living right! About 30 minutes later, I hear another deer approaching from the southeast of my stand. It looks to be a bigger bodied deer than the last two, and then I see antlers again! Another small buck! He walks right to the path I entered and decides to skirt my path via the saddle. He ends up directly under my tree. Then he gets a whiff of my tree steps and his head swivels up.....and his eyes locked on me. AsI studied him I noticed he's in fact a 5 point as he's grown a small brow tine on one side. He's locked onto me, and thenhe bolts across the shooting lane to the exact same spot the 4 point stopped......those are some mighty tasty acorns indeed! He feeds on away and I'm thinking to myself, I'm so gladI was here today. Lesson re-enforced...nobody kills deer at home on the couch, or in bed as I normally would be at this tiime!So, I'm sitting there for another hour or so and lack of sleep is catching up to me. I'm totally content with my morning's hunt and am starting to think I should get down and call it a day, or night as it was in my case. But, no the hunting Gods weren't done blessing me just yet! Off to my left I catch a glimpse of movement. I ease up and clip on because it just looked like it might have been a deer working it's way to the saddle. Sure enough, I see a set of legs coming through a treetop.I get turned to the best position I can so I can try and cover both likely routes across the saddle. About that time I see a set on antlers clear the tree top and I instantly said to myself, I'm gonna shoot this buck if I'm given the chance! He's nice and fat looking, and definately a 2.5 year old 8 point buck at least! As he approaches the west crossing to the saddle I can tell this is a different caliber of deer as far as his awareness of his surroundings. He cautiously approaches my first shooting lane and stops and studies his surroundings. About this time, I'm trying to fight down andrenaline and I'm struck by just how still a deer can stand for what seems like an eternity, though it was only about a minute. He crosses into my next shooting lane and stops again. He's got a larger pine directly ahead of him and I decide that when his head goes behind that tree, I'll try and draw. As he's studying the area he decides to reach back and lick his side for a second. I decide now's the time. Slowly I draw my Tribute to full draw. As I'm about 3/4 of the way to full draw he catches the sound of my arrow sliding through my whisker biscuit and crouches to spring....and as I've seen many times before, he freezes as he's deciding which way is the best escape route.I crank on to fulldraw, and as I try to settle my thumb to hollow under my ear, I encounter some discomfort because of my facemask.The adrenaline dumpI experienced next can only be undertood by those who have had similar problems.[:@]I fight through it and jam the base of my thumb to it's proper place, settle the pin on his shoulder and touch off the shot. I'm rewarded with a solid THWACK! as my arrow strikes home! The buck spins and completely goes down on his belly, gathers himself and crashes away from my stand. I see him stumble once about 40 yards out and then he's out of sight. I'm listening hard as hear him crash on another bit and finally hear another big tumble and then silence. I start replaying the shot in my head and I distinctly remember seing quite a bit of my arrow shaft sticking out from his shoulder as he initially spun. I sit down and try to endure the long 30 minute wait. After about15 minutes I'm shaking worse than ever and decide that this fatboy had better climb down before he falls out or drops his bow! I make way down to the base of my tree and collapse! After another 15 minutesI cautiously approach the area I shot him. I find my arrow and am not pleased with what I find. About 2" of shaft and broadhead are broke off and I have blood and hair about 10" up my 28.5" shaft. I find good blood where he fell, but being colorblind, I see no blood past the area. I hang my facemask in a tree above the blood and slip back out to the house. Once there I wait another hour and bring my wife and son along to help me track. You all can laugh if you like, but she can spot small amounts of blood with her eyes closed much better thanI can!
To make a long story short, he died right whereI heard him fall. Approximately 80-90 yards from the shot. My shot was too far forward to give much blood, but she was able to track him to within 20 yards before we found him piled up. It seems my arrow entered his front shoulder, breaking it and lodged in the off shoulder. To my delight, he had 9 scorable points. A nice 2.5 year old buck for this area. He's notnear as big as some of the great bucks you all have been so generous to share with us, but he's a personal best for me and I dare say I couldn't be any more proud.
Oops! Edited to avoid man law violation! Sorry for the long post, but I felt so blessed by this hunt I wanted to share it all!
Here's one of the scrapes I spotted on the way in this morning.
Thanks again for letting me share!
GH
10-21-2008, 12:34 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Illinois
Posts: 3,558
RE: Great morning on stand...with pics!
Congrats! Great story, but where's the pics? I'm not going to claim any violations just yet, but you better get them up here before some of these guys wake up!
Again, congratulations! It's a good feeling isn't it?
Again, congratulations! It's a good feeling isn't it?
10-21-2008, 12:36 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Illinois
Posts: 3,558
RE: Great morning on stand...with pics!
Spoke to soon! Nothing wrong with that buck man! Don't sell that buck short. He's a dandy! Great father and son team right there. You'll cherish that picture for a long time!
