Close but no Cigar (or deer)
11-17-2009, 12:20 PM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Manitoba
Posts: 669
Close but no Cigar (or deer)
For those of you who don't like to read about near misses, may want to pass on this, for those who like a good story read on.
Here in Manitoba we can typically count on the weather being brutal by this time of year, a good 20 mph north wind and temps WELL below freezing. This makes for some interesting deer hunting, especially when it comes to sitting in a tree with a bow....anyway, this year it's nutty, we have had a south wind pretty much every single day in November and the temps have been averaging about +10C. Now since it's usually predicatable, most of our stands are set up for North or possibly West winds, as you can imagine, many of us don't have stands to sit in on South winds and it's a tough time to get in there and start changing things up. Ok so the other day I'm sitting on the deck after raking the yard in a tshirt when what's that I feel???? the wind on my face and I am facing West....honey, gotta go!!! so I'm in my stand along the river 3 hours before dark, wind is absolutely perfect, blows my scent across the river, they'll filter down in front of me (see my thread on the Trail Cam page..Finally some Manitoba Bucks...) right where my cameras have been picking them up, at least 6 or 8 bucks in the 135 - 150 inch range. So I'm sitting there and all is well, feeling like a million bucks when at about an hour before sunset what do i see, about 25 deer pour out on the field in front of me at about 300 yards......they are not supposed to come from that little 2 acre buch????? I lift the binos and start looking them over, nice buck, a doe, another doe, lots more does, another very nice buck and then I stop...that's a BIG buck, he lifts his head and nods at one of the nice bucks and goes back to feeding. I grab my horns and start smashing them together in hopes of getting his attention, he's not concerned or more
likely is unable to hear me with that darn West wind blowing (they are west of me). Now I’m really confused, how could this many deer hold up in a small bush in the farmers back yard?? What to do, well it was killing me to sit there even though another group could possibly have walked by me, this was the guy I wanted to try for. I’ve shot several bucks from the ground with my bow so I formulated a plan, climb out of the stand, grab my Montana buck decoy that I had placed in front of me, drop down into the coulee that ran along the south side of my property, follow it along to a point that would get me to the edge of the field they were feeding on, they would still be at least 150 yards from me but it was a start. I managed to get to the point I wanted to get to without being seen, crawled up the bank and peered out at the many sets of eyes now about 125 yards away. I grabbed my video camera and took some video of all the deer but especially the bruiser buck. I decided to crawl out to the edge of the plowed bean field and stand up the decoy...man I hadn’t stood it up for more than 5 seconds when he lifted his head, stomped his feet and proceeded to start in my direction. I quickly crawled back into the coulee and grabbed my bow, ran about 20 yards to the north and crawled back up into the only bit of cover I had, a very small scrub bush. I didn’t make a sound, just watched as he came in, at about 40 yards, he turned fully broadside and started walking sideways to the decoy, fully posturing to the decoy, he was about to kick his butt!! At about 25 yards I drew back, he stopped and looked in my direction, saw some movement I assume, I had to raise up slightly to clear the bush, I settled the pin behind his shoulder and released.....his belly almost hit the ground as he ducked/reacted to the shot, I remember seeing the arrow fly just over the top of his back, a clean miss at 25 yards! To be sure I watched with the binos as he stopped about 50 yards out, no sign of a hit, thankfully not a bad hit either. I re-played the shot and although I am pretty certain I cleared the bush, may have caught one little branch as I released, regardless he’s still out there and we’ll have another opportunity or two to cross paths.
As I sat on the field edge, I felt great about the opportunity, not really in any way bummed, as I heard Jim Shockey once say, it just means you still get to hunt! It’s not always about the trophy on the wall (although that is still my favourite partJ), it’s about the experiences along the way, I journal and take a ton of pics and this will go down and one of my favourite times out there.
Here’s a few pics of him that I grabbed from my video camera, not sure what he’s score, as he was coming in I was thinking in that 150” range but not sure, will update you when he is in fact in the back of my truck...thanks for listening!
A few other bucks i saw that night after my near miss
Montana Decoy
Here in Manitoba we can typically count on the weather being brutal by this time of year, a good 20 mph north wind and temps WELL below freezing. This makes for some interesting deer hunting, especially when it comes to sitting in a tree with a bow....anyway, this year it's nutty, we have had a south wind pretty much every single day in November and the temps have been averaging about +10C. Now since it's usually predicatable, most of our stands are set up for North or possibly West winds, as you can imagine, many of us don't have stands to sit in on South winds and it's a tough time to get in there and start changing things up. Ok so the other day I'm sitting on the deck after raking the yard in a tshirt when what's that I feel???? the wind on my face and I am facing West....honey, gotta go!!! so I'm in my stand along the river 3 hours before dark, wind is absolutely perfect, blows my scent across the river, they'll filter down in front of me (see my thread on the Trail Cam page..Finally some Manitoba Bucks...) right where my cameras have been picking them up, at least 6 or 8 bucks in the 135 - 150 inch range. So I'm sitting there and all is well, feeling like a million bucks when at about an hour before sunset what do i see, about 25 deer pour out on the field in front of me at about 300 yards......they are not supposed to come from that little 2 acre buch????? I lift the binos and start looking them over, nice buck, a doe, another doe, lots more does, another very nice buck and then I stop...that's a BIG buck, he lifts his head and nods at one of the nice bucks and goes back to feeding. I grab my horns and start smashing them together in hopes of getting his attention, he's not concerned or more
likely is unable to hear me with that darn West wind blowing (they are west of me). Now I’m really confused, how could this many deer hold up in a small bush in the farmers back yard?? What to do, well it was killing me to sit there even though another group could possibly have walked by me, this was the guy I wanted to try for. I’ve shot several bucks from the ground with my bow so I formulated a plan, climb out of the stand, grab my Montana buck decoy that I had placed in front of me, drop down into the coulee that ran along the south side of my property, follow it along to a point that would get me to the edge of the field they were feeding on, they would still be at least 150 yards from me but it was a start. I managed to get to the point I wanted to get to without being seen, crawled up the bank and peered out at the many sets of eyes now about 125 yards away. I grabbed my video camera and took some video of all the deer but especially the bruiser buck. I decided to crawl out to the edge of the plowed bean field and stand up the decoy...man I hadn’t stood it up for more than 5 seconds when he lifted his head, stomped his feet and proceeded to start in my direction. I quickly crawled back into the coulee and grabbed my bow, ran about 20 yards to the north and crawled back up into the only bit of cover I had, a very small scrub bush. I didn’t make a sound, just watched as he came in, at about 40 yards, he turned fully broadside and started walking sideways to the decoy, fully posturing to the decoy, he was about to kick his butt!! At about 25 yards I drew back, he stopped and looked in my direction, saw some movement I assume, I had to raise up slightly to clear the bush, I settled the pin behind his shoulder and released.....his belly almost hit the ground as he ducked/reacted to the shot, I remember seeing the arrow fly just over the top of his back, a clean miss at 25 yards! To be sure I watched with the binos as he stopped about 50 yards out, no sign of a hit, thankfully not a bad hit either. I re-played the shot and although I am pretty certain I cleared the bush, may have caught one little branch as I released, regardless he’s still out there and we’ll have another opportunity or two to cross paths.
As I sat on the field edge, I felt great about the opportunity, not really in any way bummed, as I heard Jim Shockey once say, it just means you still get to hunt! It’s not always about the trophy on the wall (although that is still my favourite partJ), it’s about the experiences along the way, I journal and take a ton of pics and this will go down and one of my favourite times out there.
Here’s a few pics of him that I grabbed from my video camera, not sure what he’s score, as he was coming in I was thinking in that 150” range but not sure, will update you when he is in fact in the back of my truck...thanks for listening!
A few other bucks i saw that night after my near miss
Montana Decoy
Last edited by RonPenner; 11-19-2009 at 05:28 AM.
