well after a tiring elk season and a long hunting season for deer, I finally had a shot i was going to take.
After looking for weeks for a spot to put my treestand i eventually settled on a tree that had good shooting lanes to my left , straight in front and to my right unfortunately not behind me, but it was a nice looking tree with the branches starting at about the 20 foot mark and that was excellent seeing as my ladder hits that mark all that was needed was a small amount of manicuring to be in the right position. so after doing all that and letting the place calm down i returned to it daily checking the sign and knocking down the old mans beard of the trees and putting it in piles around the 20 yard mark.
well i was thinking about moving my stand because i was convinced that the trails around it were nighttime travel routes because i was there early morning and late afternoon without seeing or hearing an animal. and almost every morning the beard was all gone and i mean big piles of it.
Sunday Nov 25 seen me sitting in the stand from 7 am until 12, leaving to come home to warm up and have some lunch and then returning to sit at about 2:30pm only to find all the beard was gone again! and tracks all around. so after sitting until dark and then knocking down a ton more beard i thought i would return at around 8:30 am Nov 26.
So i am back just when i wanted to be and right when i started walking up the traila truck stopped about 80 yards down the road and started cutting firewood with a chainsaw, damn i thought to myself, so i continue up the little hill and about half way there i see some movement, CRAP! i see a nice little buck feeding on all the beard, at this point i am thinking it is nearly impossible for me to do the sneak because the snow is 10-12 inches deep and loud and crunchy but everytime he puts his head down i take a careful step, this goes for about15 minutes or so and just when i am almost to my shooting range. he looks up and all i hear is crack, snap crunch crunch crunch and to my left at about 15 yards a doe comes running through the bush with a little 2 point on her heels and i thought i am going to shoot this buck but when the doe spots the bigger buck she stops turns and bolts right by me with the 2point right on her. Now i am on full draw and i look to my right and the bigger buck is trotting right to where she stopped and puts his nose in the snow and starts checking out her tracks 1 by 1 and then he steps into the open stops and looks right at me, well, to late for him because i was on draw and have never missed an animal at 15 yards. THWACK! my arrow found its mark, he wheeled turned went about 10 yards the wrong way into some real thick stuff and turned again made a few staggering steps towards me and drops.
He's not the biggest one i seen while hunting this season but the first one i was going to take a shot at.
hopefully steelco reads this and decides to put up my pics.
cheers.....ddog
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"It's not the kill, but the thrill of the chase" - Deep Purple
Re: Finally!
Originally Posted by Elkhound
