and someone posts a great tale of being outdoors and has pictures to go along with it. Who cares if you don't shoot anything, it is like a breath of fresh air! Friday I went strait to the woods from work. The days are just getting too short! Soon I will loose my weekday evening hunts! The leaves were dry, and entering was louder than in the past. The sky was perfectly cloudless, though so I was not anticipating any deer to be out yet...but I wouldn't have minded it! The farm I went to was the same that I saw that nice 8 that I posted about under "pic posting test." Each time go there I move just a little bit closer to where the deer are. I haven't been able to get enough extra together yet to shell out for a rangefinder and so my tactic is "simply get so close there is no question of range." It will be nice to get one, and stop passing all these bucks just because I am not sure. I am just glad I have my bow - got that when I was in high school, deer crazy, and had money to blow. Early twenties now and married under a year means man has no money for toys! But everything has its time...
So, I sat down against a tree almost in the bottom of the gully, and under 20 yards from where the deer have been passing by. Wind was ok, mostly into my face, only some swirling currents. I took this picture to my left, showing the hill I wrote of in my last post, and then the second to the right, showing the finger of bush as the gully ends and enters the corn
I was all ready to go but it seemed all I saw or heard were 10pt squirrels! Even brought some rattling sheds for the first time. The smaller 4 to the left is one I found in Indiana a while back. Do little sheds from the United Arab Emirate States of America work for rattling in the big deer of Canada?
Well, that was all I took that night. First deer I saw was a decent 8 it looked like. He came through the finger and back out into the corn, which is right up along the field edge on that slight rise in the second picture. He came through fast and was gone. With the nice clear sky I knew nothing would be out until the sun dropped, not really leaving much shooting light.
Right as the sun went I saw a deer coming in cautiously from the corn on that little rise in the right hand side of the second picture. I knew immediately by how cautiously it was coming in that it was a buck. No grunting as he walks like on Thursday. Oh boy was I ready, crossbow up and everything, readjust position, camera out, even camera on! When I sit on the ground I sit on the soft bow case, and that does a wonderful job of muffling the leaves if I need to move a little.
Well, that buck came in and through the scope (yea, I need binoculars too. Old ones did me well, though) I could see that he had a pretty good rack. Maybe this is my chance for a coveted 10 point? He came down off the rise into the bottom of the gully, and a smaller one came following him in. Well, were I am sitting in the gully is such that even though they are coming in only 15 yards in front of me, I am a good 6 feet higher in elevation, so they cant see me, and until they go right in front or further out into the woods to the left of that pic, I cant see them either. They crawled in it seemed, me not knowing which bucks they were, but not daring to stand up to see. Finally the first one comes out. It is a nice 8, at his ears, and he was the smaller buck that was with that bigger 8 in my original post. In the last picture there of the big buck you can see this guys hind end just above and to the right from behind a tree behind the other buck. Well, he is coming across in front of me and coming up the slope towards me! The bow was on his chest, and he had not noticed me yet, but wait... I did not know if this was the first buck that came out from the field-the bigger one-or was this the smaller one coming up first after passing the first one down in the gully?? I am only meat hunting, and this is my first season actually going out with my bow since I have owned it, and so I want to make each shot count. The bigger the rack means the bigger the buck = the more meat I will get, right? I don't want to use a tag on a little bambi.(well this is the logic I have convinced myself of anyways. Sides' when the tags are gone that's it. Then what excuse do I use to get out to the woods? At least now I have to "get meat for my family")
And so here my brain is going over all this as this beautiful 8 point goes from under 20 yards right up to just five steps away from me "Its not the rut yet. You never know. He was the small one the other day. Which buck is right below you in the gully still?" I kept the camera down. I did not attempt a picture, nor did I move. He looked at me as I sat there with that Phoenix pointed right at him, with its razor sharp wasp broad head begging to fly at him and sting him. He did the stomp stomp thing---and I let him go.
He stomped away from me, leaving from so close I could see his every detail until he disappeared onto that hill where they all go. Who was down in the gully? My 8 was not scared, he did not blow, and was in no way alarmed, but he had changed his advance, and now the second buck was not going to follow up where he had gone. Oh, I had hoped. As he wandered off through the woods to the corn I caught a glimpse of him--only that extremely cautious little doinker 7 from the other night.
They left quietly and so did I, softly in the moon's bright rays. I love these close encounters. They were not scared off, they will be back again...and I still have a tag waiting!
