My Opening Day...


HarvDog

Recommended Posts

I got in my ladder stand about 5:45am on Saturday. The temperature was about 45 degrees. I was so psyched!!! I didn’t see any deer all morning until around 10:30am. A buck came cruising by about 40 yards away in some thick brush. He looked like he was about 6 points from the side. As he headed farther away from me, I grunted at him. When he stopped and looked back, I could see that his rack was much wider than I first thought. Unfortunately, he turned and kept going up the hill and out of sight. I got down around 11:30am for lunch.

I headed back into the woods around 1:00pm since this would be my first time with my new Summit climbing stand. I was setup a little past 1:30pm in a nice tree right along a dried creek bed and facing a path about 15 yards away. Madhuntinpastor joined me for the evening hunt and got setup in his stand about 100 yards away around 2:30pm. However, it was very slow with not much activity in the woods. I did see a red fox about 80 yards out in front of me and later a doe past behind me a little over 50 yards away.

Around 7pm, I saw a deer passing in front of me about 40 yards away. I couldn’t tell if it was a buck or doe since it was walking in some brush and low pines. I stood up and grabbed my bow. When it started to cross the path, I could see antlers but it looked like a 4 point with two forks. As he got across the path, I realized he was at least a 6 pointer. Once he crossed the path, he stopped in some heavy thicket directly to my right at about 20 yards. I grunted at him and he turned. That’s when I realized that he was the buck from earlier that morning with the wider rack. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a shot due to the brush. He lifted his head up to sniff so I thought he was definitely going to wind me. Instead, he turned and started walking slowly right towards my tree. I guess my scent control was pretty good. By this time, I was shaking so bad I couldn’t stand it. He walked right up to my tree and started down into the creek bed behind me. I couldn’t get a shot because he was SO close and the arm rests of my stand were sort of in the way. This buck stopped 4-5 feet...not yards…from my tree directly behind me. He was SO close! I could have almost jumped out of the stand onto his back. Anyway, I spun around to try a shot from the other side. Again, no shot! UGH! He slowly headed up out of the creek bed directly behind me. I grunted at him again and he stopped but he never turned back.

I was definitely bummed that I didn’t get a shot on this deer. However, I was very excited because this was the biggest and closest buck I’ve experienced…thus far! Oh my goodness!!! I can’t wait to go back out… grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: My Opening Day...

Great day there Harv! I seen two eight pointers the first day! I real nice one, the other was soooo small of a rack it made me use the binos to really check it! I counted eight points though! He was 25 yards and gave me a great broadside view. I left him walk, maybe Ill see the bigger one again, I hope!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.