To say this year has been frustrating would be an understatement. I’m hunting ground behind my new house after receiving permission from the neighbor to hunt his 38 acres and another 6 acre piece as well.
Being relatively open hardwoods without much thick cover, the deer that I am getting on camera have been extremely nocturnal even though there’s very little pressure on them and no one else is hunting the property. The daytime movement I have seen has been on days when I’m not there of course although I have passed a doe with two skippers a couple of times. I have lots of pictures of some beautiful rack bucks that definitely live in the area, but it seems when I zigged they would zag and up until this week I still have not seen them while in the stand. With only two weeks left in the season, I decided to stop holding out and hopefully put one in the freezer for the winter. If nothing else, I was hoping my stubbornness, perseverance and tenacity would pay off.
I was set up in my ladder stand at 2 o’clock, and unfortunately at 3 o’clock. The landowner showed up with a bobcat loaded onto a trailer and started coming up the ridge to do some work. I thought my night would be ruined, but he was merely dropping it off to work the following day. After he left the woods got quiet again and at 4 o’clock a deer came off of the steep ridge towards my stand. Surprisingly, it picked me off out of the tree, even though I wasn’t moving, so we played the game of head bobs, and soft foot stomping before it turned to leave. His mistake was stopping to look back and do a double check and that’s when I took my shot. He was about 35 yards away and was slightly quartering away from me when I released. At the shot he took off up the ridge and I could see him standing about 50 yards away, flicking his tail rapidly and then he took a few more steps over the crust of the ridge and I lost sight of him, but I liked what I saw. I climbed down and walked back to the house to retrieve my sled, and then went back up to see what I had to go on. After about 40 minutes since the shot, I started trailing the blood in the snow and found him about 60 yards away, laying under a pine tree. He’s only a three-point and I have several pictures of him since October but he’ll make many fine meals this winter and I’m thrilled to give him a sled ride down the ridge to the house and into the back of my truck. He is the first of what I hope will be many more over the years.
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