A bad day in the woods
10-21-2010, 06:00 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Bedford, NH
Posts: 45
A bad day in the woods
Sometimes things go wrong on unprecedented measures. Today I decided to go out behind the house to see if I could call in a deer & perhaps nail a nice buck. Things went well until I arrived near the new stand that I wanted to set up on (knoll near a nice climber tree near swamp). On my way in I applied some doe urine to the scents pads attached to the bottom of my boots figuring I'd lay in a sniff trail for a buck(s) to follow where I would setup. The following sequence of events may not necessarily be in the correct order, as I'm still trying to figure out how so much could go so wrong so quickly. Humor me if you can.
• Upon arrival at the "knoll stand" area I laid down some more doe pee at several locations within bow range with decent shooting lanes. Gotta lay down the scent to draw in the bucks right?
• I then started climbing the knoll to set up my ground blind only to discover I'd forgotten it. Now I ask you, how can anyone forget a blind he's going to hide behind?
• Faced with the decision of whether to go home & get it, or try my luck without it, I figured it would be too late & I would only spook the deer by going out & coming back; it was already 3:45 PM. I'm in camo right, I'm invisible, who needs a blind anyway???
• I looked at the two trees on the knoll & realized they are lousy trees for attaching a tree seat anyway. I can't stand for more than a few minutes because of my damn knee (already starting to swell up).
• Have to find another stand location.
• So I'm walking around on dry leaves, cringing at the noise, trying out several trees, none of which are suitable, all of which are too exposed, none of which have clear shooting lanes.
• One seems to be better than the others however, so I attach the seat & wait 20 minutes for things to quiet down before bleating. I feel like I'm so obvious and posing for the "Worst Stand of The Year Award". What to do?
• I go back to the knoll & set up the tree stand only to find my original decision to leave was the right one. However, it's getting late, so I go for it. The tree is wrapped with vines & the ground is severely steep, not a good place to rest one's feet, especially with my knee acting up.
• By this time I'm soaked with sweat; the deer are probably holding their noses.
• My glasses are fogged up & I can't see ****.
• A battery has died in one hearing aid (my good ear), so a deer could tap me on the shoulder before I'd know it was there. My senses are really tuned for this: I stink, can't see, & can't hear - the deer must be laughing their butts off.
• I clear the leaves at the base of the tree in preparation to sit down & notice that the foot pads are still on.
• I remove one pad & try to remove the other, only to find that the string has knotted up & I can't untie it. Bending over is harder these days.
• I use my knife to cut the string & place the knife back in the sheath. It's awkward doing this as my jacket is outside the sheath & I can only feel my way to do this.
• Trying to blindly push the knife into sheath results in cutting my forefinger.
• The upside is that the knife is really sharp. The downside is that it cuts well.
• So, I sit on the seat watching the blood drip from my finger. Pinching the cut closed is temporary at best. The coyotes are probably scenting me & closing in.
• I bleat a few times only to hear squeaks coming out. What am I doing wrong? Sounds like a herd of field mice.
• Maybe this whole thing is not such a good idea. I must be alerting every deer within a mile.
• Time to leave quietly & hope I don't spook anything on the way out.
• I arrive home at 4:30 PM, strip the gear off & because I sweated so much I sprayed the inside of the camo jacket with Scent Away.
• Unfortunately, yesterday I emptied the Scent Away into a larger spray bottle & poured the doe pee into the small Scent Away spray bottle for use in the woods. Guess which bottle I used to spray my jacket with? My memory fails me at times.
• Have you recently smelled doe pee, up close? You don't want to do it twice! It has a way of staying with you.
• Now I really have to spray the jacket with the real Scent Away, or wash it, otherwise I might be putting myself in jeopardy if I wear the jacket in the woods untreated.
• I clean & bandage the finger, & take a shower.
• Another day down the tubes!
• It's tough getting older, all because I forgot the damn ground blind!
• Can't wait for tomorrow for another day in the woods.
• Upon arrival at the "knoll stand" area I laid down some more doe pee at several locations within bow range with decent shooting lanes. Gotta lay down the scent to draw in the bucks right?
• I then started climbing the knoll to set up my ground blind only to discover I'd forgotten it. Now I ask you, how can anyone forget a blind he's going to hide behind?
• Faced with the decision of whether to go home & get it, or try my luck without it, I figured it would be too late & I would only spook the deer by going out & coming back; it was already 3:45 PM. I'm in camo right, I'm invisible, who needs a blind anyway???
• I looked at the two trees on the knoll & realized they are lousy trees for attaching a tree seat anyway. I can't stand for more than a few minutes because of my damn knee (already starting to swell up).
• Have to find another stand location.
• So I'm walking around on dry leaves, cringing at the noise, trying out several trees, none of which are suitable, all of which are too exposed, none of which have clear shooting lanes.
• One seems to be better than the others however, so I attach the seat & wait 20 minutes for things to quiet down before bleating. I feel like I'm so obvious and posing for the "Worst Stand of The Year Award". What to do?
• I go back to the knoll & set up the tree stand only to find my original decision to leave was the right one. However, it's getting late, so I go for it. The tree is wrapped with vines & the ground is severely steep, not a good place to rest one's feet, especially with my knee acting up.
• By this time I'm soaked with sweat; the deer are probably holding their noses.
• My glasses are fogged up & I can't see ****.
• A battery has died in one hearing aid (my good ear), so a deer could tap me on the shoulder before I'd know it was there. My senses are really tuned for this: I stink, can't see, & can't hear - the deer must be laughing their butts off.
• I clear the leaves at the base of the tree in preparation to sit down & notice that the foot pads are still on.
• I remove one pad & try to remove the other, only to find that the string has knotted up & I can't untie it. Bending over is harder these days.
• I use my knife to cut the string & place the knife back in the sheath. It's awkward doing this as my jacket is outside the sheath & I can only feel my way to do this.
• Trying to blindly push the knife into sheath results in cutting my forefinger.
• The upside is that the knife is really sharp. The downside is that it cuts well.
• So, I sit on the seat watching the blood drip from my finger. Pinching the cut closed is temporary at best. The coyotes are probably scenting me & closing in.
• I bleat a few times only to hear squeaks coming out. What am I doing wrong? Sounds like a herd of field mice.
• Maybe this whole thing is not such a good idea. I must be alerting every deer within a mile.
• Time to leave quietly & hope I don't spook anything on the way out.
• I arrive home at 4:30 PM, strip the gear off & because I sweated so much I sprayed the inside of the camo jacket with Scent Away.
• Unfortunately, yesterday I emptied the Scent Away into a larger spray bottle & poured the doe pee into the small Scent Away spray bottle for use in the woods. Guess which bottle I used to spray my jacket with? My memory fails me at times.
• Have you recently smelled doe pee, up close? You don't want to do it twice! It has a way of staying with you.
• Now I really have to spray the jacket with the real Scent Away, or wash it, otherwise I might be putting myself in jeopardy if I wear the jacket in the woods untreated.
• I clean & bandage the finger, & take a shower.
• Another day down the tubes!
• It's tough getting older, all because I forgot the damn ground blind!
• Can't wait for tomorrow for another day in the woods.
10-21-2010, 06:15 AM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Eastern PA
Posts: 12,745
Ancient Archer - IMO you should have stuck it out. Also, I believe setting up a ground blind and hunting it the same day would be a futile effort anyway. I'm sure the deer would have noticed the ground blind long before they would have noticed you in full camo against a tree. I know I've shot quite a few deer while I was on the ground in camo. And several others that I didn't shoot that walked right on by me. And that was with the 'crappy' camo in the old days. Not the new 3D stuff which is much better. Hey our ancestors killed lots of critters without ground blinds nor camo.
As for the rest of the stuff - that sort of does sound like a comedy of errors. But what the heck, it still beats being at work or working around the house.
As for the rest of the stuff - that sort of does sound like a comedy of errors. But what the heck, it still beats being at work or working around the house.
10-21-2010, 06:30 AM
#3
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Bedford, NH
Posts: 45
The decision to leave was really based on having to take care of the cut finger. I doubt if I could have pulled back on the release as it was bleeding quite a bit. No stitches required, but I didn't want to get it infected.
Tomorrow's another day!
Tomorrow's another day!
10-21-2010, 09:44 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Sulphur,Indiana
Posts: 1,350
AA that was quite a journey we shared with you and it has much humor in it as well as frustration. I can relate to your fumbling around and forgetfulness also the same was my expierence tuesday night. I've been trying to get close to some nice size Does for weeks but without success so far.Well I got agressive tuesday night and just marched in to where I thought I could ambush them coming into a corn field. All I accomplished was runing them off and geting a bunch of rips in my 3D leaf suit and lots of burrs. I got Doe P all over me to when the thing would not shut off and the winds shifted and blew it into my face. I never had P in my face before not good. Take care and things will get better.
10-21-2010, 09:53 AM
#7
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 411
Even if I screw up do to indecisiveness, forgetfulness (binoculars a lot lately) and many others - which I have - I am always thankful for being in the woods because I don't get there as often as I would like.
Thanks for sharing, gave me a good laugh and makes me remember how fortunate all of us are for having the ability to get out in the great outdoors.
Thanks for sharing, gave me a good laugh and makes me remember how fortunate all of us are for having the ability to get out in the great outdoors.
10-21-2010, 10:51 AM
#8
Typical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Northern Indiana
Posts: 579
Thanks for the story sir. I've very glad to know that I'm not the only one that does that crap. Last fall I walked 4/10 of a mile carrying my climber to get to the tree, climbed 16 feet in the climber, pulled my bow up only to realize my release is in the damn truck!
Gotta laugh about it, and turn it into a campfire story!
Gotta laugh about it, and turn it into a campfire story!
