Was chomping at the bit to get into a tree stand for an evening stand , but had some catching up to do with the family ! ..
Made arrangements , to hook up with Chris H , Randy S , and Vern A today ( Saturday Oct 6th ) ... was thinking about a morning stand but the jet lag kicked in last night so I decided to meet the crew and run the dogs on some upland treats !
Good thing , because the skys opened up and tried to wash away , anybody that was in a tree this a.m. !
We split up in two groups and hammered the Pheasant in the morning after the rain , and we still got soaked in the long grass ...
Here is a picture of Sally with her limit today .... at Conestoga it is a two bird / one hen limit .... we managed to get 2 cock birds , a beauty ring neck and a nice black neck ... It was real wet today so I shot my waterfowl gun ... ducked into the farmers wood shed for a quick picture ...
The whole crew met for breakfast the rain subsided , and then we set up for a silent push with our crossbows ...
I set up in one of VA's proven hardwood stands and Randy set up along the fence line .. man we have taken many deer from that stand over the years ... we waited for CH and VA to come thru ... the only thing that came out on that push was a Jack rabbit ...
The stand ...
A view of one of the 20 yard opening from the stand ( man I can't tell you how many times I've seen deer taken in that opening over the years ... but not today )
We drove around scouting and decided on an evening stand at one of my favorite spots ... I got some country side shots as the aftrenoon set in... Man it's great to be back in Canada ... I'll take corn fields over rice fields any time !
The leaves were changing everywhere ...
Lots of logging going on from bush to bush ...
I drove with my boots outside wedged in the windsheild wipe slots for the day .... Got many strange looks , but by the afternoon , the 80 km blow dryer did the trick ...
Randy , Chris and I caught a late lunch and headed to my swamp spot for an evening stand ... I headed to the West end stand , Chris got up a tree at the East end , and Randy can be seen driving in the background heading to the North end stand ...
This is the West end stand ... it is approx 20 feet up and we have taken many deer from it over the years ...
I had a turkey feeding about 60 yards out for awhile .... and some other in the next field by where my truck was parked .... ( not a great picture since I'm shooting my 200mm lens , but you can see them in the LH center of the frame ... )
I have 3 Antlered / Antlerless tags for WMU 80 so I was figuring on taking any decent sized buck or doe tonight ...
Randy didn't end up seeing anything from the North end stand ( I actually thought that was the stand to be in today , but it didn't work out ... )
Although , Chris saw an 8 point and a fork horn , and got video of a doe with 2 fawns , I was the only one that was able to connect solid tonight ...
It stared to rain around 6:45 pm .. I put the camera away so it wouldn't get ruined ... by 6:55 pm I had a button , a doe and 2 fawns within approx 10 yards of the stand .... They played around for 10mins then left .... at 7:05 pm a nice doe came down the trail ... she was heading toward a 10 yard opening when she veered off the trail and headed right to my tree ! .... she was right below me with her head head sniffing within inches of the steel ladder rungs and the pull-up rope when I launched a 2216 with 130 grain Wasp Cam lock off the deck of my 2007 Excalibur Vortex ! It didn't take long for the arrow to cover that 20 feet and she crashed off into the heavy cover ...
The arrow looked good ...
The blood trail was easy follow with a heart shot and bottom exit wound ..
She was down approx 40 yards from the stand ... ( I couldn't see her from the stand due to the heavy cover that direction but was certain she crumpled ) and yep , the walk up was approx 40 yards away ..
The arrow hit just right of center and drove thru her heart and out just left of center of her chest cavity , severing her left leg on the pass thru ... ( you can see the entry wound just behind her right ear in the pictuer below )
A decent sized hoove on her as well ...
Great to be back and a bit of luck came my way that put a sweet ending to the day ....
2007 has been a good year for my Vortex ... I took a nice Tom with it in the spring as well ...
Happy Thanks giving to all of you .... good luck in the days that follow ~
Congrats nice day of hunting, I love it when a plan comes together
