One of the places I hunt is a state park in N/E Illinois.
I've recently stayed relatively close to the trails because my wife was pregnant with our first child and I wanted to available to leave quickly, as you can imagine. Baby is now here and everybody is doing well.

Now, back to REAL hunting. I treated myself and got in deep where I have not explored yet, but desperately wanted to go.

I bumped 4 or 5 deer on the way in, and had one come up to me while I was getting my stand ready on the ground. I never saw him, but he was VERY close. Then about a half hour after I got up in my stand this BIG brusier of a buck comes walking by broadside at about 30 yards! "This could be my first deer, and he's huge!" I realized afterwards that I never counted his points because I immediately focused on his ribcage looking for an oportunity for everything to line up for a shot.
I waited until his head went behind a tree to draw my bow, but had to shoot quickly because of limited openings in the dense trees. I let it fly, but it knicked a tiny branch deflecting it up over his back by about a foot or so.

That would have been one heck of a first deer!

I missed, but he's still out there. The difference is now, I know where he hides.

Keep 'em all in the Bull.

I hate when that happens. Good luck on finding him or another next time.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" Martin Luther King Jr.

its nice to know where they live isnt it. i was in the wrong spot last seasona dn didnt see squat, now i see deer every time, well lets hope it stays that way

propmahn
save the world, reload your brass

The same exact thing happened to me on the first friday of NYS bow hunting. I have been bow hunting for 2 years. Anyway, this whopper came strutting up after some doe had just passed. I sat there in disbeleif, counting his horns.(Yes, my cousin already yelled at me for that one). I finally counted about ten, he came into a nice spot, head behind a tree... I let fly and I thought that I had hit 'em and damn, was I happy. Then I noticed my arrow sticking out of the ground some 5 feet from where he had been standing. (At least I did'nt wound him.) My arrow too deflected off this minute little branch... all I can say that really got my blood moving. What a magnificent animal he was! (or hopefully still is). Gives me something to look forward to next season. We will both get one next year!! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
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