Fast forward to this morning. I was walking down a tree line along the edge of a farmers field, to where my stand is located. It was darker than heck, and as I moved along, I heard a noise on the other side of the tree line. I stopped, listening – and heard a deer about 40 yards away sneaking through the bush ahead of me. It stopped too….after a minute or two, I took another step, and the deer began to move off again towards my stand – when all of a sudden the woods illuminated with the flash of my trail cam….I smirked, thinking if anything else, I got a pic of this deer! I pussy-footed into the stand, grabbing my SD card along the way, and climbed up my stand as quickly and quietly as possible. I pulled out my digital camera and fired in the SD card to have a peek…imagine my surprise when this is what I saw….
I grabbed the doe bleat, grunt tube, and rattle bag trying to do anything to get this guy curious enough to come back. I couldn’t hear anything, and didn’t really think he’d be back, but getting this late into the season, I’d take anything that came by.
After about an hour, I heard something in front of me – but wasn’t sure if it was a deer….then all of a sudden I saw movement in the thick bushes in front of me – it was a deer and he was on a steady trot…he was about 20 yards out and showed no interest in slowing down, so I let out a quick “bah” – and it worked! He froze in one of my shooting lanes, but I still had the crossbow on my lap (hadn’t even had time to shoulder it!). I slowly raised the Vortex with this buck looking in my direction, placed the crosshairs on the vitals, and let loose with the Boo string pushing one of Big John’s arrows carrying the 100 gr Slick Trick with a Luminok trailing…..
He only went about 50 yards, leaving a blood trail that was very easy to follow. He’s not the buck from the trail cam pic this morning, but might be his younger brother. Imagine how nice that buck will be next season….I’m already counting down the days until Oct 1 2012!
I brought the boys out to be involved in the recovery. The little guy (Lukas) really loves it - and it won't be long before he will be the one doing all of the shooting, and I'll be the one doing the dragging!
Merry Christmas to all….and good luck filling those remaining tags in this final week of the Ontario deer season.
Korey
