Hunting Stories

My First Real
Adventure.

Nothing But Bad Luck

•  The Halloween Buck
•      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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•  My First Real Adventure
    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.
 

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