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Had a great hunt yesterday evening. I debated on whether to hunt or not, and just said what the heck, I will go and sit at least and watch the sun go down. I felt like the weather was perfect but didn’t know if the moon had them moving at night or not. . So about 1:45 pm I packed the truck up and headed out. I got a stand next to a slough and the wind was perfect for that stand, so I headed for it. I got to the slough and it was froze over and that was good, I felt like the deer would funnel around it somewhat. I got in stand about 2:30 and right off the bat, I caught movement behind me headed my way on the other side of the slough. I put my binocs on it and it was a coyote. I thought, if he gives me a shoot I am gonna take it, but he never came on my side. The next hour and 45 minutes was uneventful. I watched the squirrels play around me. At 4:15 I caught movement to my left. It was a deer about 50 yards out headed my way. I put my binocs on it and it was a buck, looked like a 4 pter but wasn’t sure. He walked my way another 20 yards in some thick stuff and I could tell he was a six pointer. I eased up in position, and decided I was gonna attempt to take him. But he stopped and turned sideways and looked behind him. I thought, oh boy maybe he is leading another buck. Sure enough I caught movement in the thicket behind him. So now the 6 pter is about 20 yards and headed straight for my tree and now I can see the other buck and his antler’s were shining through the briars and thicket. The wind was perfect, but the stand was not as high as I would like it to be. I like to get at least 25 ft in these open type woods and it was around 18 ft. I decided to hang it back awaya from the thicket. So I am waiting to see what happens, I am ready to pull back at any moment. So this little buck comes right up to my tree and looks me square into my eyes. I am breathing out the side of my mouth cause you could see my breath as cold as it was. He looks at me, and he is about 15 steps from the tree. I try not to blink but its so cold. He nods his head a few times and doesn’t seem to be alarmed. And then he moves to the left and starts looking for acorns in the leaves. By now I relax somewhat, and move my attention to the bigger deer. He is coming my way, and by now three more bucks are behind him. I could see antlers on all three and two were as big as the one thats about to be in shooting distance. I debate and try to look best I can to make sure there wasn’t a bigger deer behind these two, but I came to the conclusion that it didn't matter and would be to risky to let these first bucks get down wind of my tree. So I decided to shoot the second buck. He came up about 15 steps beside the 6 pter and started looking for acorns. Both of them had there heads down and that was my chance so I let it fly. I could tell I made I good lung shot but saw I still had some arrow sticking out. So I didn’t get a exit hole. He ran across a narrow part of the slough on ice and I found him about 100 yards. I found a few specks of blood but with the mud not being totally frozen, I could almost trail him just from his tracks from the other deer that went with him. He was clipping it along in huge strides for a good distance and then he piled up. A couple of the other bucks hung around for a few minutes and then they walked off. I would have to say, it was a awesome hunt. Finally to to get the ole blood pumping, nothing like it in the world to have that feeling. Its been a while to connect on a decent buck with my bow, so I will cherish this moment for a while. I always feel its by the grace of god to connect on a good buck with a bow anyways and he sure blessed me yesterday.
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