Opening day of MZ found me sitting in a deer stand instead of out rabbit hunting w/ my pack of beagles. It was the 1st opening day of rabbit season that I missed to go deer hunting and I'm sure glad I did. I missed bow season due to work so this is the 1st time I've deer hunted this Fall. I get in my stand about an hr. before daylight and am chilling out. I hear rustling in the leaves well before sunrise & although it's still dark, I can make out the light color & outline of a red fox. Around 1st light, I see two more foxes, then the squirrels come out and begin frolicking around.
Shortly after daybreak I hear a rustling in the leaves that sounds different than the squirrels and grabs my attention. W/in a minute, a nice mature doe is wandering down the draw right towards me. As she's approaching 40 yds. away, I catch a glimpse of another deer behind her. Turns out to be another doe, a yearling this time. Being the heart of the rut, I decide to pass in hopes that a nice buck will follow them in shortly. After they've hung around my stand for close to an hr. & I've had the crosshairs of my scope on them several times, they finally wander off. W/in 30 min. here comes another doe, heading in the same direction as the two previous does. I let her walk also, hoping a shooter buck is close behind. She continues on her way & w/in an hr. another doe passes by me, well w/in range of my scoped muzzleloader.
All is quiet for about an hr. when I hear loud rustling behind me like something heavy is running. I turn quickly and it's a coyote, a female I believe. She's running quickly so I stand up and holler at her. She stops at 80 yds. out, but is behind a group of sm. saplings and I can't take the shot. In another blink, she's gone. Dayum I think, I would love to put that coyote on the wall. Bummed, I sit back down in my stand. A phone call comes in and it's a good buddy of mine so I answer it thinking he's probably out rabbit hunting having the time of his life. We're talking on the phone for about 5 min. when all of a sudden I catch movement 30 yds. to my right, a yearling doe has been working her way out of the fields & up the draw right towards me. I quickly get off the phone but she too has no buck in tow.
15 min. later I again hear running behind me, coming from the opposite direction the coyote had came from. I turn around just in time to see 2 mature doe running from the fields into the thicket which they bed in. The funnel I'm hunting is only 70 yds. wide at it's widest point so deer can cut across it pretty quick when running. By this point it's approaching 10:15 and I've been in my stand for 5 hrs. and have seen 7 doe and not one buck.
5 min. after the two does ran into the thicket, I'm contemplating getting down when I hear running behind me, going in the same direction as the does. I turn to my right and all I see is a nice set of antlers, nose down, w/ the buck trailing the does on a run. My heart is going a million miles an hr. and I stand up as I turn to my right. The buck stopped running and is standing still but I can't see him. It seems like 10 sec. but was prob. only 1 before he starts running after the does again. Now my heart is really pounding, if he continues running, he'll be out of sight/range in 3-4 sec. Just as he's approaching the thicket, he stops, but he's facing directly away from me. A Texas hole shot isn't my thing and my heart sinks, I'll have to let him walk. He's 10' from the thicket, 2 leaps and he's gone.
Just as I thought I'd lost him, he turns to go in at a different angle and I get a perfect quartering away shot at 65 yds. BOOOOM, there's white smoke everywhere and I can't see a thing! I'm trying to see through all this smoke and I can't but I hear him run 10 yds. into the thicket, then he turns and comes back into the draw and is running semi-towards me. I can tell he's hit good and he trips over a downed tree about 20 yds. from me and piles up. Total time from when I saw him to when I shot him was less than 10 sec. but felt like eternity!
He's an 11 pointer (split left G2) that should score in the mid-130s. He's not the biggest buck on the wall, but he's in MY top 3 and what a story to share! Now... it's time to rabbit hunt :)
