Let me first start by stating this season has been anything but ordinary. To kick things off we discovered our hunting property would be undergoing a major shift in use from years past. The owner of the property decided the valley that stood as the main bedroom for just about every doe in the area, needed to be developed and turned into residential properties. We knew this would change some habits but not to the effect that it did. In years past September would show two maybe three residential studs on cams, this year NONE. I remained optimistic throughout late summer and early fall still without a decent buck on cam. Fast forward to mid October and my once optimistic attitude was slowly turning sour as my cams were still inactive. With a busy schedule behind the desk, I opted to play my cards right by using my vacation days during the last week of October. By late October, this area should be blowing up with sign…unfortunately for me nothing had changed from the last cam run. I put in a couple long sits with very little activity, but held on to the hope that the full moon on Tuesday (Oct 27) would turn things in my favor. Wednesday proved to be a bust as work somehow showed its ugly head and called me in. October 29th started out with rain but the forecast predicted the front to move through around 3 leaving an easy decision to hunt that afternoon. I climbed in with high hopes but the cam below shrunk those hopes showing not a single deer. As the rain died off and the wind began to subside, I knew if things were going to happen I would need to make it happen. I typically give it my all when calling during this phase of the rut, but going into it, I was determined to go the entire sit with a grunting/bleat call sequence. At 5:15 I caught a glimpse of movement 50 yards away. I grabbed the bow and stood in hopes that it was a shooter. Once I got a view of the rack, I told myself this isn’t shooter. I hit the grunt call and he did a B-line right to me, giving me a great view of the body. I quickly came to my senses and told myself, holly goodness this is a mature deer…he’s a shooter. He came in and stopped upwind 20 yards away making two scrapes and ripping apart several trees in the process. He stood for what seemed like forever looking for a fight and then decided to make the crucial mistake crossing perfectly at 15 yards giving me a chip shot. I placed the pin just behind the front shoulder and let it fly. He went 25 yards and tipped over. I was so jacked to see a mature deer let alone take one with the stick and string, I just sat for a moment soaking it all in. Seems like every season has its own challenges, so to get it done in these adverse conditions, I couldn’t be happier. Thank God for good friends who are willing to lay their plans down to help drag these big boys out of the woods with us. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it.
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