Saturday, November 8th 2008

A few months ago, we had talked about some good places to put a new stand. One of the more popular ideas was a section of our property that had a dry creek bed in the bottom of a valley that connected two wood lots intwined with cedars and hardwoods. We knew the area had potential, but it wasn’t till we scouted the area in person that we saw just how much potential this area had.

When we arrived, we found several trails that all funneled to a central area of the creek bottom. On top of that, were several mature persimmon trees, plenty of old cedars for cover and an isolated field that extended from the main field dotted with cedars and cover near by.

After we hung the stand, in late summer, we decided not to hunt this area till November, just before the peak of the rut. As the November arrived, fellow pro staff member Jim and I headed over to hunt this area. Jim was situated in the creek stand and I was about 400 yards south in another stand situated in a pinch point on a south facing ridge.

The conditions that first night were not ideal as heavy winds moved into the area in front of the seasons first real cold front. That night a few does wandered by my stand and Jim saw little action in the creek bottom. However that would change the next morning. Friday morning, a few more does passed my stand and when I met up with Jim later, he was excited to report seeing several bucks that morning thanks to a hot doe, including a shooter 8 pt.

The stand’s potential seemed to be showing. Jim had already downed a great 10 pt a few weeks earlier, and with only a doe tag and a turkey tag to burn, I went ahead and hunted the stand that evening in hopes of getting a crack at a good buck. Jim had reported seeing a number of rubs walking back from the stand, including a massive rub on a cedar that could have doubled as a telephone pole.

That evening, the winds calmed a bit, but they where still noticeable. Sitting in the stand for the first time, I couldn’t get over how great this spot looked. Most of the evening went by with little movement, but the last 40 minutes gave way to 4 does and a small buck to keep my attention. Three of the does came behind me, skirting the field edge to my right. They offered a great 18 yard shot, slightly quartering away as they walked by. Tempting as it was, I knew the potential of this spot and was hoping a buck would follow that same path.

The does turned and briefly fed on some left over persimmons in front of me before moving off and the daylight quickly followed suit. I was in no way discouraged and could not wait to get back for the morning hunt that Saturday.

Saturday morning, did not start off with a bang. In fact after two hours, the only thing that walked by my stand was a solitary squirrel. It was a little after 8:00 that I heard the steps of a deer walking in the dry leaves scattered in the field behind me. I could not turn and risk spooking the deer, but I was confident the deer would either walk just to the left of my stand and into the creek bottom in front of me or skirt the field edge to my right. ?

After a brief pause, the deer started walking again and it was going to follow the field edge exactly where the three does had crossed the night earlier. I was already standing as I looked over my shoulder, and through the cedar limbs that covered my outline I could see a white rack sporting 5 point on the left side atop this deer’s head. I quickly made the decision to take this deer as I knew my shooting lane was small.

As he stepped into the lane, I soft grunted and he stopped to look for the source of the grunt. I placed my 20 yd pin just behind his shoulder and let it fly. The arrow looked to strike true as the buck lunged forward and made his away into the cedars. I could tell by the way he was running he was hit good.

I sat down to try and gain my composure and replay the shot in my head. I could see the arrow, painted red sticking in the ground where I shot the buck, and felt that since he was quartering away slightly, the shot should be a lethal one. After letting a half hour pass, I gathered my her to take up the trail. The first 30 yards, there was a constant trail of small blood drops. It was a good start, but I was a little nervous I wasn’t seeing more blood.

As I followed the trail into the woods, I quickly found a heavy blood trail that ran no more than 40 yards and ending with my buck down at the end. As I walked over to see the buck, the first thing I noticed was the amazing entry hole my two blade Rage broadhead had left. I had never scene anything like it, and was more than impressed.

I quickly looked at the bucks antlers. He had 5 points on the left and 4 with a broken G3 on the right. I’ll be honest, when I first found the buck, I thought I would be standing over a 120 class deer. Ground shrinkage had said other wise. None-the-less it was a solid deer taken with the stick and string.

As I was dragging the buck out, I had gotten about 30 yards from my stand when I heard a commotion. I looked through the cedars to see more than one set of deer legs running circles in from of the stand and grunting. I watched and waited to see a spike and a very nice buck chasing a doe with in 5 yards of the stand and up the hill. It was a little hard to digest at first, knowing a bigger buck was feet from my stand just 35 minutes after I arrowed the one I had.

I had mixed emotions as I walked back to the truck and drove back to get help getting the buck back to camp. I ran into Jim and told him the news, and as we drove back, we picked up Joe walking back from his stand as well as Mark who was hunting in the area I was that morning. They were excited about the news of a buck being down. I told them the story as well as my feelings regarding the hunt. I’m glad they were there, cause as they helped me finish dragging the deer out, they help put in perspective that even though this was not the deer in my dreams the night before, it was a nice deer that was taken by bow and something to be proud of.

I felt a lot better and enjoyed a quick photo session as Mark took control of the camera. As we drove back to camp, everyone was anxious to see the buck, and happy about the success. As much as I believe in quality deer management as well as the my desire to take a Pope and Young whitetail, I had lost sight of the reason we hunt in the first place and allowed the my head to outthink the hunting desire in my heart.

I was no longer disappointed that I had not shot the buck I thought I had, but that I had almost let my management views and record scoring detract from what hunting was about; and that was sharing a great harvest with stick and string with a great group of hunters, both family and friends. I actually let the adrenaline rush of having a whitetail under 20 years with my bow at full draw become an after thought. The thrill of tracking a blood trail to success become diminished by an antler score.

I am more than happy, for more than one reason about this particular bow kill. One, for the accomplishment of taking a whitetail by bow, but more importantly, this hunt reminded me of why I step into the woods over and over each season in the first place. It only felt appropriate that when I arrived at the butcher shop that afternoon, that I donated 100% of the meat to the Share the Harvest program for the people in need. It wasn’t the first time I had done it, it won’t be the last, but I can tell you, it never felt so right.

I learned from this hunt, that goals and management practices are good to have, but don’t ever let that get in the way of why he hunt in the first place, and don’t ever let that get in the way of taking away from an positive experience of a tradition that’s older than we can imagine.