|
man Deer Decoy
The fields were flooded and the corn was still standing so I was concerned about
how this hunt would pan out. Saturday was spent putting up a tree stand,
building a blind and scouting for buck sign. In the evening I glassed an area
next to a thick grove of pines and an adjacent cornfield to see if the deer were
moving between them. Not seeing anything by sunset I hustled to another spot
where the road is elevated and overlooks a wide expanse of grassland and cattail
swamps. In the last light I saw a nice buck freshening a scrape and harassing
some does.
Sunday morning I was in the tree stand well before dawn. At first light I could
see deer headed my way. There were deer all around me until about 9:30 AM
including an eight-point buck, a fork horn, a spike buck and several does and
fawns. Only the fork and a fawn came within range, both directly under my stand!
I left the stand at 10:30 and went to where I’d seen the buck make the scrape
the night before. There is a line of half a dozen small trees in the area and
each one had a scrape under it and rubs on the trunks and lower branches. As I
was trying to decide where to set up the blind, I saw a beautiful buck walking
out of the tall grass to the north. Of course my bow was back in the truck. I
hunkered down in the weeds and watched as he freshened the scrape at the last
tree in the line and then headed back northwest into the six to eight foot high
grass. I built the blind 20 yards down wind (south east) of the fresh scrape.
When I got back to the truck and looked at my printed weather forecast and
realized the wind would not be right for this blind again until Wednesday
evening. It was already 2:15 and sunset was at 5:00. I flew back to the motel,
took a shower, put on all fresh scent free clothing, and made a sandwich for the
drive back. I was headed back to the blind, dragging doe-in-heat scent by 3:30.
About 30 yards from the blind I stopped. There was a doe on the fence-line about
a hundred yards to my north. I crouched down and pulled out my binoculars. Sure
enough I was busted, she was staring right at me. And then I saw the head of the
buck above the weeds looking at me also. I was in the wide open with no cover
whatsoever. We stared at each other for about five minutes. Finally the doe
twitched her tail and put her head down to feed, but the buck continued to
stare.
After another five minutes I started crawling on my hands and knees to the
cattails to get the blind between us, all the time watching the fence-line for
the inevitable white flags. I was ten yards behind the blind when the buck
jumped the fence, toward me! He was coming my way fast. I duck walked / ran into
the blind, ripped off my pack, knocked an arrow and slipped the release onto my
right hand. By now he was only thirty yards away and circling slowly, strutting
stiff legged toward the down-wind side. I had a good crosswind and he’d have to
pass right through a shooting lane before getting a chance to pick up my scent.
In the lane at twenty-five yards but facing straight at me, I didn’t have a
shot. He took another step turning slightly and I drew the bow. The next step
put him broadside still quartering slightly toward me. The kill zone was smaller
then I like because of the angle but I put the pin right at the back edge of the
shoulder blade and took the shot. It looked like a perfect hit and the buck
bolted into the cattail swamp.
After finding bright bubbly blood indicating a lung hit, I walked back to the
truck to kill time and retrieve a cart to haul him out. After a short trailing
job I found my lifetime best buck. The arrow had passed through both lungs and
he'd died on the run after 70 yards.
I took this risky shot at a small kill zone because of the confidence that came
from a massive amount of shooting all summer while beta testing a new product
that I’ve developed for super fine bow tuning. (I’d also heart shot a buck in my
home state of Minnesota the week before.)
For more information about my product, eXact Archery, visit my website: http://www.XArchery.com
,
|
