It's nice to have everything in check, all finished sighting-in, scouting is completed, a game plan has been worked to death and you now enter the deer woods in persuit of your quorry. Everything seems to be just right because you did your homework.

These are not the times I'm talkin' about. Have you ever done good while deer hunting when you finally get setup late because of some priorities that had to be taken care of. Those time when you relied on past history when picking a last minute stand, or just rushed to be in the woods the last hour or so of daylight,maybe even hunt an unfamilar piece of woods because it's closer and it will give you a little more time to hunt.

It seems those are the time I remember. Finished gettin' stuff done around the house on a Sun, take my bow and rush to get into the woods to hunt the last hour, probably forgot something as well. It's times like that when I see deer and it makes it fun.

Have you ever experienced those times?

Hey Jimmy.
You are dead right. I can atest that i dropped a really nice 8-pointer 2 years ago because there were two other guys hunting in the area I normally frequent. So, a bit disappointed I walked down the trail another 1/4 of a mile and et up my stand. I had little information on this area, but picked the best spot given what i knew. It was raining hard, somewhat on the warm side for Novemeber. I set up my stand, put my tree umbrella into place and waited for light. By 7AM and I had a nice 8-pointer about 50 yards out and dropped him (shotgun season).

One year during bow season I had a lone doe walk near, I was caught off guard. I nocked an arrow and in an attempt to stand and get into a shooting position, my arrow got caught on my stand and fell off the bow and onto the ground. The doe jumped, got very nervous, but did not leave the area. 5 minutes later I dropped her. Go figure...!?

thats usually how i find new hotspots is when i get lost in the dark and stumble around as soon as i can see...or im in a pinch for time and want to hunt......ill head somewhere close to home and check a place out that i never hunted........i was in such a rush to squirrel hunt one day after school(beautiful fall day.....absolutely beutiful...)i grabbed the 308 instead of the 22!!!!! lol....didnt hunt with it....no shells on me! lol......stuff happens.......when it happens i just go with the flow..........

Yep ,them complete surprise deer.Couple years ago I fell and knocked myself out. I woke up and looked up and there stood 3 fat doe I Picked up my x-bow and nailed one while laying on the ground

Yes, last fall when I shot my buck. I got into the stand late and had a small game hunter walk right through my hunting area. The buck showed up less than 5 minutes later.

i will say this. im not proud of it by any meens and deff do not suggest ANYONE doing the same. I got off work one day last season and drove a hour to my lease. At the time i was the only one there so i went and moved a hog trap to another area. I had a few beers with me, all sweaty and not in any camo at all. On my way out one of the guys that hunts near the area came in. I didnt wanna disturb his hunting so i just went about 200yards and sat on creek. I know i had to smell because i could smell you know what im sayin. and it was like 80degrees. Im sittin there with the old 30-30 just drinkin a beer. (only had 3 in a hour so i was nowhere NEAR drunk.) stood up to piss and sat back down. about 10min later I was kinda singing to myself when a freakin 8point walks out not 40yards in front of me. I was in shock. haha he was a nice big deer and tasted realy well over the camps firepit that night.

If this reply was to entice a response....you win!

If you were at my camp Iwould say "There'sa front door and there's a back door....pick one"!

SHoNUFF,
not even going to say a word...i'm sure the guys will say enough for everyone.

back to the subject:
last year i woke up at 5AM...usually i wake up at 2:30 or 3am...was not happy at all because i had planned on hunting in my climber...i ended up getting to my ladder stand which had been hunted way too hard already after daylight...about an hour or so later i dropped my 10pt. at 17yds....it's my biggest buck to date.

Two years ago a friend of mine was down on his luck so I bought his license for him. We were going to go bear hunting but he couldn't drive to my house so I had to spend an hour going to get him. We finally made it into the stand and I was feeling kind of down because we were late. An hour later a bear walked in and I made my first bow kill after 20 years (not actual hunting 20) of taking up the bow and my first bear kill. It was great being able to share it with a friend.

That is normally when I do better oddly enough. A sure way to kill a deer is to forget your knife. I left to go hunting once and almost forgot my bow! Now that would have sucked.

Paul