From my blind I could see the big oak, just inside the forest edge, where my stand was hung. Instead here I was inside one of those dang tents. I didn’t like the restricted visibility of the blind and I’ve never liked watching fields. I liked being in the woods and I liked being up in a tree.
But I had made my choice and I decided to stick with it. After all, I did shoot a small buck last season out of a ground blind, even though that did seem like a bit of a fluke.
So I sat, looked at soy beans and passed the time by imagining deer staging underneath the big oak, getting ready to step into the field, well out of range of my little tent.
With the light starting to go flat, I looked at my watch which read 6:30 pm. I don’t usually call during that magical last half hour, but I was in a nothing-left-to-lose sort of mood, so I huffed twice on my grunt tube followed by two bleats on my can call.
A minute went by, perhaps two, when I heard a rustle. And that’s when he stepped out. The buck was supposed to come from the other side of the field. That was the plan. Instead he came from the woods behind me, slowly walking into my window from left to right before stopping 15 metres from me to scan the field for the "deer" he'd heard.
He was young but I’d already decided I’d take him. As soon as he turned his head away my Big John arrow was in flight. I don’t remember raising my Exocet to my shoulder or switching off the safety, but I do remember my crosshairs on his ribs and the “thoonk” sound of an arrow in the right place.
I watched him bolt through the soybeans towards the opposite woods and I wondered if he’d make it to the trees and how much tracking I’d have to do. I remembered something that I’d once seen on one of those Saturday morning hunting shows. So I grabbed my call, made a loud grunt and watched the buck suddenly stop. He actually stopped! Holy smokes, that trick really does work! A few seconds later he tipped over among the beans and didn’t get up. That’s when I heard something I’d never heard before; the sound of his final breath leaving his lungs. I knew there’d be no waiting 30 minutes this time.
The dead buck turned out to be surprisingly difficult to spot among the soybeans in the rapidly dimming light, but I found him just as the local coyotes began to howl.
I quickly field dressed the deer and left my jacket laying across his rump to (hopefully) deter the coyotes while I went to get some helpers. The jacket trick worked, although I must say that it is much more effective on coyotes than it is on beagles!
Just think, if he would have come from behind you while you were in the tree he might have smelled you. I do think the blinds help keep the scent down.
