Took my first buck this morning, with my new "smoke pole". We where going to hunt an area that we have gone to several times before during bow season with little succes, at the last minute my buddy said that he had permission to hunt another area that was very close by, we had not scouted and would have to hunt from the ground (already had climber on my tree on the other area), but said what the heck...lets try it.
Got in the woods and started looking around, could not figure out where to go in the dark, ended up walking up hill to a littlte flat plateau, found a little clearing with a nice stand of hardwoods in the middle that looked right out of feild and stream and hunkered down against a tree to see what might walk by.
Never real comfortable hunting on the ground, just doesn't feel right, too exposed, but have only hunted bow before this year so do not have a lot of experience to go by.
I have let several smaller bucks walk this year, I took 3 does with a bow last year and a nice big doe a couple of weeks ago...but let 2 - 4 points and a big spike walk by me this weekend on a lease that I am part of near the savage gulf area - pretty hard to watch them walk when there are no horns in my past!
Anyway - after sitting there for about an hour, a deer materializes in the edge of the clearing exactly where I had thought one should be...I saw horns, but did not focus on them - to be honest I was going to shoot no matter what - no size limit on this property...and I had to get the monkey off of my back. The buck was about 70 yards away, quartering towards me...when I moved to get in position he caught the movement and stopped...but then resumed walking, crosshairs on shoulder, BOOM, deer runs away down the hill.????? I thought they were supposed to die and lay down when shot with a gun?? and since I have little confidence in my abilities (even though the gun is sighted dead on) I though somehow I had missed my golden opportunity.
I walked to the area I thought he was standing and started looking for blood - found none....
While looking on the ground I heard a noise (death rattle) from about 25 yards away...I was so focussed on the ground I had not even bothered to look around!
Walked to the deer and saw 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 points (to be honest the 2 brow tines are just an inch long, but pointy!) Not a big mature deer (120 lbs), and I am sure that "He would have been a good one next year" yada yada yada .... but he was a GREAT one for me today. I am thrilled to finally harvest a real buck. Now I will look for a bigger one!
Will try and post a pic - not really sure how
Got in the woods and started looking around, could not figure out where to go in the dark, ended up walking up hill to a littlte flat plateau, found a little clearing with a nice stand of hardwoods in the middle that looked right out of feild and stream and hunkered down against a tree to see what might walk by.
Never real comfortable hunting on the ground, just doesn't feel right, too exposed, but have only hunted bow before this year so do not have a lot of experience to go by.
I have let several smaller bucks walk this year, I took 3 does with a bow last year and a nice big doe a couple of weeks ago...but let 2 - 4 points and a big spike walk by me this weekend on a lease that I am part of near the savage gulf area - pretty hard to watch them walk when there are no horns in my past!
Anyway - after sitting there for about an hour, a deer materializes in the edge of the clearing exactly where I had thought one should be...I saw horns, but did not focus on them - to be honest I was going to shoot no matter what - no size limit on this property...and I had to get the monkey off of my back. The buck was about 70 yards away, quartering towards me...when I moved to get in position he caught the movement and stopped...but then resumed walking, crosshairs on shoulder, BOOM, deer runs away down the hill.????? I thought they were supposed to die and lay down when shot with a gun?? and since I have little confidence in my abilities (even though the gun is sighted dead on) I though somehow I had missed my golden opportunity.
I walked to the area I thought he was standing and started looking for blood - found none....
While looking on the ground I heard a noise (death rattle) from about 25 yards away...I was so focussed on the ground I had not even bothered to look around!
Walked to the deer and saw 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 points (to be honest the 2 brow tines are just an inch long, but pointy!) Not a big mature deer (120 lbs), and I am sure that "He would have been a good one next year" yada yada yada .... but he was a GREAT one for me today. I am thrilled to finally harvest a real buck. Now I will look for a bigger one!
Will try and post a pic - not really sure how
