On to the good stuff.
I am typically a big woods hunter. Which is one of the reasons it has taken me until my third year to take my first animal with a bow. There is just an overwhelming amount of woods for a few deer to elude hunters and though I hunt every weekend I have yet to connect and score. This weekend I had an invitation to hunt some private land in farm country that is also bordered by public land. That in conjunction with the amount of deer in this area and the cruising being in full swing made this a perfect storm of a 3 day hunt.
The first morning My friend put me in a stand at a field corner since I didn't know the area I was fine just getting in good country. However I quickly realized that the stand I was in was not right for the wind and I lost my excitement within the first hour. I stayed until 9 which was the plan. The way my buddy hunts involves permanent stands, mock scrapes all over, doe urine sprayed all over, and I did not feel that the deer were being fooled by all of this. I had my new Lone wolf Alpha and sticks along (thank goodness) and decided to talk to my friend and see if he minded if I began to fend for myself after the morning hunt. He was a little concerned about property lines and my woods experience but we worked it out since there is no chance of me getting lost in an area that is dwarfed by the big country I hunt in the north woods.
The first afternoon only 2 doe seen but my buddy saw a few bucks. strike two for me. That night I studied some aerials and topos and found a nice pinch of two large tracts of woods adjacent to two fields. I sat there from 615 am until 11 when a doe showed up. I shot her after realizing no bucks with her. FIRST BOW DEER DOWN. I was jacked. After the kill and tagging her I got right back up and sat unitil 230 when the neighbor came out and sat in a gun stand about 45 yards upwind of me and started grunting like a sasquatch in heat. I decided to move. I went back into where I believed the land dipped to swamp and got wet and sat the evening out. My buddy saw 3 cruising bucks that afternoon. We talked about where he was and I though it was very wet behind him. In finding out it was not all that wet he simply said no its not wet but it's public land. Perfect I said. I'm going in.
That morning (which I was not even going to hunt, I stayed an extra day) I went back into the swamp early. I could barely see but cam to a creek bottom through the swamp and figured it was enough of an edge to sit as a last ditch effort. I set up in my Alpha and before I even got my release on could see a shadow coming at me of a big deer. I could barely make him out at 40 yards but it was a large racked buck. I was able to stop him briefly but he did not come in to a grunt and was just too far to shoot. I then finished getting my jacket and hat and gloves on and sat down to take in my surroundings. About an hour later it was getting real windy but my buddy texted me he saw a buck. At 815ish I began thinking I may make the drive back down Sunday to hunt some of the public land again and maybe next week since I have 4 more days off. The der sign was real good and the bucks are on the move. I really felt good about the scenario and was not ready to give up. We were only hunting until noon since I had family watching my dogs an extra day already.
Then just like that at 820 I look up and a deer was cruising right towards me. I grabbed my bow and saw it was a buck, at a glance he looked like a fork or small basket. He came in to about 50 yards then 40 closing quickly to 30. Then he hit a clump of trees that he had to go around one way or the other. He went around to my left and came out from behind a big cedar where he stopped to decide where to head from that clump I think. He was about 15 yards from me. THWACK!!! The hit looked good and the rush of adrenaline hit me like a ton of bricks. I started shaking and had to sit down. I watched and began to worry "Did I hit him well? I hope I didn't just wound him" He trotted pretty good away then slowed down at about 50 yards where he stopped. Then he just tipped over. I saw him die! I started dancing in my stand and was elated with joy.
I got down and walked over to him and put another arrow in the back of his neck just to be sure. (first one was not getting away).
I decided not to tell my buddy. I gutted him and dragged him to my stand. I packed everything up and took my warm gear off. Since I had like 35 pounds of stuff with me and a bow and now a deer I wanted to drag him to my buddy and tell him "Hey I am outta here this place is exhausting". But since I had no water and no breakfast I didn't make it all the way before calling him and letting him in on the news. We got him out and I enjoyed the entire trip home with my first 2 bow deer on my hauler.
My first bow buck, ironically taken off of public land that I left private land to hunt the way I prefer. This was an epic day in the woods for me.
Oh by the way he ended up being a real nice (probably 2.5 year old) 8 point nice typical rack about 14' spread. Not a beast, but I am happy as could be with him. I am going to do a skull mount to commemorate him. What a great weekend to be alive! I would put up a pic but I have not figured out how to on here yet, and am butchering deer in between watching the Packers loose.
