I didn’t expect my season to last only 6 days. Like many of you, I am restricted to only one deer in my area this year. I went into the season fairly discouraged because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hunt as much as I had in the previous years. I graduated from my master’s program in August, so this is the first fall that I haven’t had to worry about school, homework, etc. To say that I feel weird about not having to worry about my education while sitting in the stand would be an understatement.
I see clients and their families in the evenings now that school is back in session, so I wasn’t able to hunt weekday evenings, except for Fridays. However, I blessed to be able to kill one of the bucks that I had pictures of, but it’s very bittersweet since my season is over.
Opening night
With the south wind forecasted on opening night, I decided to hunt the “Killing Tree”. If some of you remember, Killing Tree is the stand where I first saw “Tank” last year. This year, my camera showed a decent amount of deer movement in the early evening, and I assumed that the deer were traveling from bedding to feeding on the acorns (this was the pattern last year).
At 6 pm, a doe and fawn stepped out and fed on the clover/grass field to the right (north) of me. At 6:30, another doe stepped out about 125 yards to the north. After watching them for about 10 minutes, I noticed another deer standing on the edge of the woods. When it finally stepped out, it was a big 8 point that I had no history or pictures of. As he made his way towards me, the first doe got down wind of me and became skittish. However, she never busted me. Behind the 8 point was three different 2.5 year old bucks. While watching them, I noticed a big bodied deer approximately 230 yards to the north of me working its way from the field to the pines. When I got my binoculars up, I saw that it was a wide buck, but couldn’t exactly see how big he was because he vanished into the pines. After a few minutes, the 4 bucks and does made their way to the north across the field. In the 4 years that I’ve hunted this property, the deer have NEVER had this pattern, so I was completely dumbfounded when I watched them work away from me. At 6:45 pm, the field was empty. I ended up seeing about 4-5 more deer come out of the woods and work their way to the north like the other deer.
When I got back to the truck, I decided to drive to where the deer were going and see what they were eating. I knew there was a big bean field in that direction, but since they were mostly yellow, I figured they weren’t eating them. However, I noticed that there was an alfalfa field planted that had not been planted in the past few years. But, I can’t conclude that they were feeding on it because I couldn’t see them from the road. When I got back home, I looked at topo maps to figure out where I could hang a stand. I knew that my window of opportunity was closing before the mature bucks would become nocturnal, so I had to move quickly.
Sunday 9-14
I decided to sleep in Sunday morning instead of hunting the Killing Tree because I feared that I would bump the deer coming back from the fields. Instead, I went out at 10:30am to hang a stand in group of pine trees approximately 230 yards to the north of the Killing Tree- really close to where the deer were traveling. I hung a stand in a tall pine tree, cut my shooting lanes, and got out of there.
The wind was ideal to hunt the pines that evening, and like clockwork, the does came out at the exact same spot at 6pm. At 6:45, the same 8 pointer came out, followed by 5 more bucks. One of them was a nice 135” 10 pointer whom I didn’t recognize either. All the bucks took turns sparring with each other about 4-5 times; and began working their way towards me. For some reason, however, all the deer decided to cut the field in half instead of following the same pattern like they did on Saturday. The does were about 150 yards from me, and ended up getting downwind. I never heard a snort or saw a deer acting skittishly, but one doe decided to run back to where she came from, and the rest of the deer followed her.
For the next few days, I checked my cameras at different properties and anxiously waited for the next time that I’d be able to hunt. The cameras showed no bucks, so I decided to concentrate my efforts on the Killing Tree and pine stand. However, I couldn’t hunt the Killing Tree in the mornings because the wind was wrong, and I also decided not to risk bumping deer.
Wednesday 9-17
My clients cancelled their appointments on Wednesday evening, so I decided to hunt the pines. The wind was terrible, but I decided to reactivate my clothes, spray the heck out of them, and use a lot of Nose Jammer. I felt that I had to take a risk since I was seeing so many mature bucks. At 6:30pm, the does came out at 175 yards to the south of me. They ended up coming down the field just like opening night, and fed underneath my stand on buckthorn leaves. At 6:42, (6 minutes before the end of shooting time) I watched a nice buck come out by the Killing Tree. I couldn’t tell how big he was, but he started walking towards me-so I got ready. Once I grabbed my bow, I heard footsteps 10 yards from my stand. The deer were coming up the draw-an unanticipated direction. I couldn’t really see what it was since it was pretty dark, but when it put its head down, it was a wide and heavy buck. Another buck followed him, and both fed on the buckthorn leaves at less than 10 yards. At this point, I knew the wide buck was a shooter, but I was also focusing on the buck working his way to me. From my shifting in the stand, the buck noticed that something wasn’t right, and turned around and left. The first buck that I saw ended up walking by at 50 yards and was a 2.5 year old 9 point that I had seen two other times.
On my way home, I thought about all the close encounters that I had in the last week. I had seen 3-4 different shooters every night that I hunted that area. I couldn’t stop thinking about hunting, mature bucks, and what the deer were doing when I wasn’t there. I couldn’t hunt Thursday because the wind was wrong and I had appointments. I had a birthday party to attend on Saturday, so my next opportunity was Friday. I convinced my fiancé to let me hunt instead of visiting her in northern WI. She knows about my passion for hunting, but doesn’t understand WHY.
Friday 9-19
The weather wasn’t great with the humidity and heat, but I knew I had to hunt the pines with the way the deer were moving. The wind was forecasted for SSW, but of course it was terrible. At 6:30 pm, 3 does and a fawn stepped out of the woods 55 yards in front of me. They were 100% downwind of me and ended up coming to 10 yards and fed on the buckthorn leaves. While watching them, I heard bucks sparring in front of me. However, I couldn’t see them because trees were obstructing my view. The sparring got more and more intense as it sounded more like fighting than sparring. After a few minutes of listening, I finally saw a buck at 25 yards walking towards me. When he got closer, I noticed his G4’s and immediately thought, “That’s Sebastian!” I slowly began turning my body and preparing for the shot. Just to the right of Sebastian was the 8 point that I had seen two other times. He was tall, but I think a little too young. This buck ended up walking right underneath my stand, and as you guessed it, fed on the buckthorn leaves. From my knees shaking and shifting in my stand, Sebastian caught my movement and looked at me. He did the classic lowering of the head followed by a foot stomp. At this point, I thought to myself, “I’m dead, he’s going to snort”. Luckily, he took a step backwards, and worked his way to my right. Before getting into my shooting lane, he stopped to listen. One of the 2.5 year old bucks approached him and they sparred for about 2 seconds at 20 yards. When he took one more step, I drew my bow. I tried to stop him, but he didn’t hear me. I had a split-second decision to shoot because if he had made one more step, pine branches would’ve blocked his vitals. I shot him while he was walking at 20 yards, and either my shot was pulled high or he ducked, but I clipped his spine. He dropped like a brick, and I had to get down and put another arrow in him (he broke both of my arrows so that’s why they’re short). Sebastian gross scores 129 1/8”, making him the second P&Y buck two years in a row.
And just like that, my season was over. I couldn’t believe that I was able to seal the deal, let alone much earlier than expected. Though I’m grateful for having the chance to harvest another great buck, I’m a little sad because I can’t shoot any more deer this year. I’ll probably sit in my stands the rest of the fall to just watch as the season progresses. I might even buy a fall turkey tag since I’ve been seeing a lot of turkeys.
Good luck to the rest of you who still have a tag to fill!
