On Thursday, October 20th, I was hit with some disappointing news. A new piece of private property was off limits and I was back at square one - Public Hunting. I would be hunting only on Saturday and would be able to do an hour of scouting Friday night to hang a stand, get out of the woods and get in on Saturday morning. I found myself at work on Friday viewing arial maps and topos in hopes of finding a honey-hole on public land. What I found was perfect- a creek channel seperating the public land. It was more-or-less an island. Friday after work I took my blow up raft, paddled across, hiked in and found some good sign. I hung a stand and got out as soon as possible.
Saturday morning I was perched between two pieces of water with timber in front of me and behind. I was surrounded by scrapes I found the night before and a small 4x4 ft water hole. It was a beautiful clear brisk October morning. At 7:00 AM I had a nice mature doe come 10 yards from me but no bucks were in pursuit. She came from in front and wandered behind me. I hoped she would get picked up and bring a buck by or perhaps a buck would come later following her trail. At 7:50 I heard a stick pop from behind and slightly turned to see this brute walking parallel to me. He was not in a hurry. Not brousing, but just casually walking. I was surprised to see a buck and even more to see a good racked buck. I then picked up movement on the same trail the doe had traveled down. It was her! And she had brought him! She was casually brousing. It was then that I realized he was tending her. He was 20 yards away, not behind her, more like beside her. He was watching her every move and only walking when she walked. The doe read the script and walked on the 10 yard trail beside me. He stopped to drink in the large water puddle. He must have been seeking all night because he drank for atleast 2 minutes. He stopped to dabble in a scrape at 25 yards. Now was my chance. I had to be careful for my draw, as the doe was right below me. At full draw, the deer was on the West of me, the sun rising on the East gave perfect light through my peep sight, the buck just gazed at his new girlfriend. As the arrow released, I could see it in almost slow motion disappear behind the bucks shoulder. SMACK! It's difficult to express the feelings I felt seeing a perfect (lucky) double lung shot. The muzzy was hungry and it was feeding time. The buck jumped and ran back where he came. I immediately called my brother and left him a message of excitement. I said a prayer for recovery and of thanks. After a long 45 minute wait, I got down and picked up the blood trail. This was one even my brother could follow:) I found the buck less than a hundred yards away in some tall switch grass. I was so excited to have recovered this deer. It had been a long time coming from a difficult last year. What a beautiful animal. You gotta love bow hunting.
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