The day before....

I am fortunate enough to have some access to some private land for hunting whitetails. It's a very challenging place to hunt though because of the proximity of neighbors and such. Tonight was one of those really tough nights.

The does came out just before last light and wandered about for a while. Then, just as it was getting dark but with plenty of shooting light left, a huge buck wandered into view. I settled my cross hairs on him but there was no backstop behind him and I had just seen a kid on an horse about an hour before hand riding the local trails. As I sat watching the beast, a second buck came out that was basically a twin of the first. The two spared a bit and chased the does around while I watched and shed a tear. These two bucks were gorgeous but I just couldn't make the shot safely. Once it was too dark to see, I backed out and made my way back to the truck to find a tissue.

I will be back there tomorrow night in a different position that will give me a better angle on that spot but for now... back to my beer.... sniff.... sniff.

Getting it done....

Ok, here's the story as it unfolded. As I mentioned, I had watched these two bucks the night before and they appeared to be in full rut. On that evening there were a few does that moved out of cover at dusk and began feeding in the field. The bucks didn't show until just about last light. Again, I couldn't make a safe shot that night so I walked out and formulated a new plan.

Yesterday afternoon I crawled up into a tree stand that would give me a much better view of the area and provide me with much safer shot scenarios. I got into the stand at about 1:45 which was probably way too early but I wanted to make sure there was plenty of time for things to settle down. My back was to the cover area and it's a no hunting zone. I was facing out into the field. The plan was that the does would come out below me and head into the field and the bucks would follow when they were ready.

At 2:15 I was basically snoozing when all hell broke loose. A doe bolted out of the cover area at a dead run followed by a nice buck and what was probably her fawn from this year. I'm guessing something spooked them but it was not a good omen. Looking back on it, that buck was probably the one I eventually shot but it all happened so fast it was hard to be sure.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful but I was starting to get really cold. The temperature was only about -1 but the wind was pretty strong and I quickly lost the feeling in my nose, toes and fingers. I was getting pretty concerned about whether I could pull the trigger if things fell into place.

Sunset was at 3:55 last night so it would probably all start to happen about then. At 3:45ish a doe and her fawn wandered out of the cover area right on schedule. They slowly fed around an area about 80 yards away and they appeared to be quite happy to stay right there. At 4:05ish another doe came out of the cover area and made her way out to feed with the others. All three deer kept looking back at the cover area so I figured a buck might come from there. Boy was I wrong... and now it got pretty exciting.

There is a treeline about 250 yards in front of me where the two does and buck had disappeared into earlier in the day. All of a sudden the buck appeared at the tree line and started walking towards me. After a few seconds he burst into dead run heading for the does. He started to push at them and got them pretty excited. Then two of the does stood up on their back legs and started fighting. I've seen it before but these two were being pretty vicious and one took a pretty good hoof to the head.

While all this is happening I was pulling off my right glove and trying to get the rifle into place. My fingers were so numb that I knew that I couldn't take the safety off until the last second. I settled the scope on the buck but the does were in the way. He was calming down a little but was still moving around a lot. All of a sudden there was an opportunity for a shot. Safety off, squeeze... bang!

Ok, now I get to tell you again about why you absolutely have to have a back stop. I missed.... and the bullet went into the dirt because I was looking down on him. I don't know whether it was my freezing fingers or an errant branch from the tree I was in but yes, I missed. This guy was so focused on the does that he just stood there. I quickly racked another round in and lunged him.

Everything pretty much happened the same way as is it had the previous night and other than the miss, things had gone exactly as I had hoped. He's a really nice buck and I'm very happy with him. I'm really looking forward to getting the euro mount onto the wall at some point.