Nice cool morning. The start of a good thing. Planned to get into my stand about 2hrs before legal light, but as I was about to get into the forest (the last leg to my stand) I stopped to give a listen. Sure enough I could hear deer walking about between me and my treestand. So I waited for some light before making my way in, still hunting to my stand. Didn't see anything. About 30 minutes into my sit I heard a branch crack a ways off, so what the heck I grunted a couple of times. A couple minutes later I hear the footsteps getting closer. I can see some movement thirty yards off. A deer, followed by another. I could see the lead deer was a small buck. They head down the trail right towards my stand. As they are getting closer I can see the other deer is also a buck. The one in the lead being a fork-horn and the trailer a single-sided spiker.
I already had my bow raised and was training my scope on the lead buck. waiting for him to get at the right angle. A couple more steps. Perfect!! At five yards, I invisioned the arrow going through the top of the left lung through the heart and out through the bottom right lung. But I didn't shoot.
Wow. I've never been able to do that before. That is my first "catch and release" buck. I'm holding out for someone I met last year. However if a doe were to walk past she would be in dire straits
.
I would say that my first whole-hearted attempt to sit in a tree for deer was a very good experience.
Can't wait for Sunday morning to do it all again. Don't you just love hunting?
You can take the man out of the woods but you can't take the woods out of the man.
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