Charlie's Archery
Page
The Halloween
Buck.
My
First Real
Adventure.
Nothing But Bad Luck
-
The Halloween Buck
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We all have had crazy things
happen while hunting. Sometimes it's hard to get some people to believe
the stories you tell them. I have heard some far fetched stories and not
believe them myself, until now. It all started one cool late October
eve when the moon was dark and the wind was still. The rut was at it's
peek I was hunting along the edge of a ten acre field. Along about
three o'clock or so I made my way up to a brush pile that I was using for
a blind. The woods I was hunting in had been timbered in spots a few years
back and there were brush piles all around with lots of deer trails in
and out of the field. The smell of fresh fallen leaves filled the air and
the temp was a cool 40F. I was in full camo head to toe. After removing
a layer of leaves from my spot I settled down and listened to all of the
sounds. Darn squirrels, their at it again. The woods was full of
the bushy tailed things, mostly reds, the noisiest of all. I had noise
coming from all directions. After I pin pointed most of the sounds and
checked them off as squirrels I gave three nice short blows on my grunt
call. Nothing, I thought to myself.
From where I sat, the field was in
full view. It had lot's of new green growth from the last cutting of hay.
Bingo, two deer stepped out about 100 yards away. I slowly reached
for my compacts. Darn, it was only a Doe and her Yearling. I watched
the two deer feed along the fields edge for about an hour. In that hour
three more deer slipped into the field to feed. I could now feel the chill
of the October air around my neck. Looks like a frost tonight, I
thought. About then I let out another three blows on mt grunt call. I watched
the does in the field. Huh! didn't even look up. Listen, I could
hear thrashing down below me just over the little nole. What is that.
The thrashing was coming towards me at an angle. Must be another
hunter. The sound was just like a person walking through the woods
loudly. It stopped, where are they? They must have sit down, Darn squirrel
hunter, going to mess everything up. I was just about to leave when
I thought, it's getting late they will probably leave soon.
I didn't hear a sound after that. Most of the squirrels
had gone in for the night. The woods had that silent erie look to them,
a chill ran down my spine. I looked at the time. Got fifteen minutes
of day light left, I blew my grunt call again. The light
was getting very dim. I could see well in the field , but the woods was
getting very dark. Well time to go. My body was a little unwilling
to move after setting in one spot for over two hours. Huh! crash,
crack, pop. I wasn't worried about making noise now, the hunt was over
I thought. I took three steps out from my brush pile when suddenly I heard
the most bone chilling ruckus down below me. What in the, what is that,
a bear? I was about to find a tree to climb when it appeared. A nice
Seven point. What it he doing? Cant he see me? The buck thought
I was another deer, a male deer I think. There was another brush pile about
10 yards away and that buck was taking all of his frustrations out on it.
This was very weird I was standing in plain sight thrashing around making
noise and this deer didn't care. I pulled my bow back, bull crap,
too dark to see through my peep. At that point I didn't know what to do.
I looked for another tree close by. Just in case the buck wanted to take
his frustrations out on me. The air was as still as molasses. This deer
doesn't smell me. The next thing that came to mind was to yell, I didn't
dare want to provoke the deer. Get out of here, I yelled.
In a split second I thought I was dead meat.. The buck looked up
at me, took two steps towards me, then bolted off snorting. I could feel
every hair on my neck rise. This was my first close encounter with a rut
crazy deer. One thing I have learned from the above encounter is that Deer
can do some of the most unpredictable things. I have had other deer do
crazy things during the peak of the rut.
-
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Yep! It's been over 18 years. I
started hunting when I was about 15 years old. I can think of only a hand
full of times that I have had a chance to bag a real Wall Hanger. In that
hand full of times I can only think of one that I can say was really close
to the wall in my living room. I was say 25 years old then and had found
a prime scraping area just 50 yards off from the edge of a 10 acre field.
The bucks had this area about the size of a football field tore up. To
look at this place you would think that every buck in a ten mile area was
using this patch of woods for their play area. In fact you couldn't walk
through this area at any given time of day and not find a buck. In
that season alone I counted seven different bucks in that same area.
It all came about one day when a young ladd by the
name of J.J came to my door wanting to go hunting. Now J.J was about
12 years old at the time and lacked the many hunting skills needed to be
successful, like say keeping your voice down. or picking your feet up.
I liked J.J a lot, he was like a younger brother to me and I enjoyed his
company. The weather that day was very warm for a late October afternoon.
I was busy washing dishes. Yes I did do dishes back then when both me and
my wife worked. That's all changed now. Well somewhat anyway.
I didn't think we would see anything, so I grabbed
an old shirt, my bow and the grunt call. Never leave your grunt call at
home. Now J.J was fully dressed for the occasion. He was in camo from head
to toe. The little nick of woods with all the scrapes wasn't far from the
house. A ten minute walk at best. This patch of woods had an old logging
road cut down the middle of it and was the best way to sneak in. As we
started ever so slowly down the tram road I could hear J.J's foot steps
pounding the ground. Pick up your feet! We must be very quiet. As
we got closer to the the end of the scraping area, we saw it. A huge 8
point buck making it's way through the under brush traveling away from
us. At that point we both kneeled down on our knees. I had to think quick.
I blew the grunt call with three loud bursts. Bingo, he stopped.
The buck then turned and started circling back toward us. Still out a good
50 yards I blew the grunt call again. This time the buck homed in on the
sound and started coming right for us. The buck was walking very slow head
down and in full rut. As he got closer I drawed the bow and waited. When
the buck got to within 15 yards he raised his head and saw us. It was now
or never. The only shot I had was a brisket shot. I picked a spot and let
the arrow fly. Like slow motion I saw the arrow glance on a twig just three
feet in front of the bucks chest and veer away. At the sound of the arrow
cracking down through the woods the buck snorted and run off. In frustration
and disbelief we both walked back home in silence.
My hunting tactics have changed a lot. Now
I hunt from tree stands most of the time. I will not take a brisket
shot, or any other bad shot on a deer now. I am much older, heck a lot
older and a little wiser now. Still that day is fond in my memory.