for me to man up and talk about the debaucle that I experienced on November 5th. Most of you probably didn’t notice but I pretty much dropped off of the map about that time as I’ve had a really hard time being mentally in the hunting game since that day. Here’s the play by play of a day in the stand that I’ll never forget.
I had a slow morning with just two does that bedded down about 45 yards in front of me. It wasn’t until after 11:00 that I heard brush breaking and seen a large 9 point dogging a doe right towards me. He looked to be 4 ½ but on a dead run and my mind trying to wrap around which buck this was I didn’t get enough time to judge him. I came to full draw as he stopped in a wide open lane at 30 yards, centered my pin, then proceeded to stare at his rack unable to identify him from a side view. I seriously considered dumping the string but opted to hold off. Then I heard more crashing coming from behind, as I turned I seen six does pile onto the point that I was sitting on. I watched to see if any bucks were following but nothing else showed. I’m assuming these deer were chased off of the neighboring property by a hunter leaving his stand.
I turned back around to see a doe bed down at 30 yards facing directly at me. The 9 point that was dogging her was just starting to lay down at 45 yards. I couldn’t see him from my stand very well as my view was blocked by trees. After all the does bedded down I started to slowly slide to my left to get a look at the buck. I had to finagle my way out to the edge of my stand all the while trying to keep the bedded does from pegging me. I managed to get far enough out to get a look at the buck head on, instantly I knew it was TK “Oh shiiiiiiiii p! I just passed a slam dunk shot on a shooter” was the first thing through my head. So at this point I was stuck standing and holding my bow as the doe in front of me was burning holes clear through me.
After an hour and a half of the stare down I was beginning to wonder how long it would take for something to happen, fingers were cold and I seemed to be going through surges of buck fever. I would calm down for a bit then the shaking would take over again. I caught movement to my left and seen my old buddy “picket fence” coming down the ridgeline, this has to be the most visible buck I’ve ever encountered(I’m guessing that I’ve had him in bow range at least 15 times in 6 sits). TK sees him moving in on his doe and gets up to push the 2 y.o. off. I didn’t have great shooting lanes in this direction but I did have some nice holes to work with. As he moves from right to left I start to draw only to have my release arm butt against the tree I’m sitting in. I let down, step out from the trunk and try to draw again….now I can’t budge the darn string at all….things are unraveling pretty fast at this point, I’m basically a wreck. The third attempt at sliding the string back goes smooth and I anchor in. TK is at what I figure to be 40 yards and is starting to move back towards his doe, he pauses for a moment, I settle the pin and proceed to zip the arrow right underneath him. Another young buck shows up and chaos ensues as he runs him off of the point. The hot doe is up but doesn’t take long to bed back down in the same spot and TK follows suit shortly after.
He doesn’t bed down long before he gets up and starts to move into where I would have a good clear shot at 30 yards….I draw back and wait for him to turn broadside. As he turns he steps up the hill and now has a 18” tree covering his vitals….I’m holding and waiting for him to make a move when my knees buckle, I let the bow down in a panic and lunge for the tree to avoid testing my safety harness out. The nerves at this point have taken over and I’m losing fricken control of my body…what next. Fortunately both deer were oblivious to my meltdown a mere thirty yards away. TK then beds down again at 40 yards.
Another 30 minutes goes by when I see TK get up to stretch, he tilts his head back and scratches his hind end with his G2’s….a sight to behold and one that I won’t soon forget. He moves in on the doe and bumps her from her bed. I draw and wait for him to turn broadside, with one twig in between us I had to calculate my arrows trajectory and I figured that my arrow would clear the twig allowing it to get into his lungs….nope it didn’t and the arrow smacked a maple standing about 3 yards behind him. He then nudged the doe down the point, while I proceded to throw up in my mouth but managed to somehow avoid projectile vomiting.
Ten minutes goes by and I see him and the doe pop back onto the secondary point to the west of me. They lay down for about an hour and then dropped off of the point. I had 4 or 5 immature bucks cruise by throughout the afternoon but nothing to write home about.
Around 3:00pm I believe another hunter on the property was probably moving into his stand that he has in the draw below me. The herd of six does were the first to get skittish and come up the ridge towards me followed by the hot doe and TK. The does were passing by at 10 yards while TK stepped onto the logging road at 20 yards quartering towards me. I had the pin on the front of his onside shoulder and almost let it go but decided to wait for a broadside shot. When he started to follow the does he took off on a full on run. “blaat blaaat BLAAAAT BLAAAAAAT” the last one slowed him to a walk and I settled the pin. I was following him and as I dumped the string my bow arm hit the trunk of the tree that I was set up in causing me to flinch and shank it a good 3-4 feet in front of him.
What can I say…I’ve waited a long time for the opportunity that I had and I just plain fell apart. You win some and you lose some I guess and I’m just thankful that all of my misses were clean. I guess I learned a few lessons from this one and hopefully they will help me avoid days like this one in the future.
Lessons learned:
1. Use your pole saw bonehead! I’m notoriously lazy about cutting thorough shooting lanes.
2. Get some decent sleep! I work nights and when it’s the rut I sacrifice sleep for tree time….4 hours of shuteye in a 48+ hour period apparently isn’t enough.
3. Find a way to get back on the horse….I really never recovered from this series of screwups and it led to a lackluster rest of my season.
Sorry for making such a long post but I really needed to get this off of my chest….I think they say the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem(or had a whole series of problems while in your bowstand 
)
Here’s a few pictures of the bucks involved in the story. First one is “picket fence” a great looking young buck. Second is of a shed from TK last spring and lastly a trail cam pic of him from early this past fall.
This might be my favorite post! 
