The night of the 8th I was torn on where to go the next morning. This is our second year hunting this farm, so we were just starting to really figure things out. I'm a mobile hunter and had been moving around the farm quite a bit during the week trying to get a good feel for where the action was really happening. Something that I read in an interview, that was posted on here, with Andrea D'Aquisto has really stuck with me, and I'm paraphrasing here but it's something like "the difference between me and most other hunters is the I recognize hot sign and I sit it". I had hunted an area two days before and it was hot. I made myself leave the next day due to the wind. The wind switched back to my favor and I thought this is my best opportunity to score with one day left.
The morning of the 9th started as the others had. We woke up at about 4, got ready, and made the half hour drive to our farm. This is when things go sideways.
When I hunted this area the other day, I was hunting tight to the downwind side of a cedar thicket. I noticed however, that the bucks were all crossing the small creek in the same area. So I thought I would hunt right along the creek so that I could cover more area. It is so thick in there that to even get a 20 yard shot would be tough to do. Well, having not scouted this out in the past for a tree, I stood in the creek walking back and forth trying to look for a good tree in the area I wanted to be. I did this for about a half hour, and now I was just starting to see a hint of sunlight creeping over the horizon. Frustrated, I made up my mind that the creek crossing wasn't going to work, and that I was going to have to move off the creek about 30-40 yards. I pushed my way through the brush to a tree that was in the vicinity and finally made the decision to set up.
At this point the sun is coming up, and I have yet to set a stick. So, I set my four sticks and get my bow rope out only to realize that it's a tangled mess. I stand there for about 15 minutes trying to untangle it before giving up. I made the decision I was just going to have to set my stand, then climb back down get my backpack and bow, and climb back up with my bow in hand. When I hit the ground to grab my bow and backpack I hear a deer blow behind me and take off. Defeated I climb up up the tree with my bow in hand, which is no easy task.
It's now full blown daylight and I've just sat down....
I was in for about an hour when I hear rubbing on a tree down by the creek. I can't see down there but I'm immediately at attention, and straining to confirm what I think it is. It stops and there's a long period of silence. I'm wondering should I grunt? Then I decide against it due to the fact that all of the times that I've called on this farm have been met with a glance and walking in the other direction. Now, I'm sure it was only a couple of minutes, but it seemed like an eternity before I caught a glimpse of a deer. It was a doe, and she was working her way right to me, very slowly, and glancing down at the creek every so often. This is the best case scenario, and now my heart is really racing.
Finally, I catch a glimpse of him through the trees and immediately decide that he's a shooter. I'm telling myself to calm down and settling in. In the meantime the doe is working her way through the thick stuff just to my left and I'm praying that she works below me and not behind me, because the wind is is quartering from right to left into my face. Well just as she getting ready to hit my wind stream, she starts working her way back down between me and the creek. One of the only things that has gone right in this story, but I'll take it. As she is working her way to me, the buck is working his way along the creek until finally she is right under me. I have one opening 24 yards away that I think he's going to move through and I try to time my draw for when both deer have their heads behind a tree. Just before the buck steps into the opening I have a flashback to the buck I shot and didn't recover earlier this year, so all I can think is stay away from that shoulder.
He steps in the opening and I let the arrow fly, and watch it disappear in his rib cage. I remember thinking to myself, it's a little far back but it should be a good shot. He takes off and the doe hangs out for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what's going on. I wait about twenty minutes and then get down to go look for my arrow. I can't find my arrow or blood and panic starts to set in, then I realized I wasn't in the right spot and that he was standing about 3 yards closer. So I find blood, but there are also chunks of corn in the blood, so my first thought was, man I'm gonna have to let this sit for quite a while.
My friend meets me at my tree and he looks at the blood, and I tell him I'm gonna wait for a long time then send him back to hunting. After taking care of a few things and talking to the farmer for a while 4 hours had gone by and I was more than willing to wait much longer, even overnight if needed but my friend talked me into checking into checking out trail a little further. Well, we do and the blood is good, real good. Once we get to the end there he is.
Normally this is where the story ends, but not this day......
Where I shot the buck was pretty far back in and the drag would be extremely difficult and I was well prepared to do it, but my friend pitched an idea. He thought it would be easier if we quartered it up and took straps and other meat and hiked it out. Well I bit, it probably would be quite a bit easier. So that's what we did. It wasn't easy and even carrying just the meat wasn't easy either.
When we finally get back to the truck, just as I threw the head and meat into the back of the truck, and almost on cue the ODNR drives by. They see us, back up, and pull in. My buddy says oh man this is never good. I on the other hand said hey man we haven't done anything wrong. I put a temporary tag on it, filled out my tag, what else was there? Well as it turns out, in Ohio, you are not allowed to cut up and pack out the deer unless you've checked it first. Needless to say they weren't very nice to me at all, but luckily all they did was fine me. It's my fault, I should have known the law. I'll pay the fine, and know better next time. So that's it.
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