Today was all about deer hunting. I got a message from my buddy telling me that there were 3 new rubs at one of his stands that I had not hunted in for a long time & if I wanted to I could hunt it in the morning. Absolutely !! I Said, I mean come one I have only one small doe in the freezer for the year this far. Certainly not enough to feed us for the year.
That morning I get dressed and travel to the stand, it was cold but beautiful. I sat there from about 6:AM – 9:PM on the only thing I saw was a pile of corn. NOTHING alive, no birds, no squirrels not even dropping leaves. An absolute bust of a morning.
That evening I decide to go back out to my stand and sit from 3:PM until dark. Still carrying my grandmother’s Marlin 30-30 I was really hoping for my 1st gun kill. See when my grand mother passed she knew I was starting to get into deer hunting & she left me that rifle. The very next season I shot my 1st NC Deer, a magnificent 8 point buck, that we had mounted & still hangs on the wall in my living room. That year I made a promise that as long as I have her rifle I will use it to harvest my 1st Rifle shot deer of every season and THIS year would be no different.
As I made my way back into the woods I still saw no indication that the deer were frequenting this location & I was thinking about bringing my climbing stand out the next time. Once in the stand I got comfortable as I assumed it was going to be another long evening. I got out my tablet and started to read & make notes about TU & other stuff that had to be done. Surfed Facebook and Instagram for a little while then about 4:00 I heard this sound from behind me. To my surprise it was a gorgeous older 8pt buck walking out of the woods to the corn pile. I slowly raised my rifle and played the move & freeze game as he would look at me then dip his head. Finally as I could sense that he was getting really nervous & was going to bolt at any second I super quietly pulled the hammer back, squeeze the trigger and let it rip. DANG, a bad shot I thought as it did not drop in its tracks. Upon fist glance from the stand I could not see any blood, I knew that I hit it, I hear him crash around as a wounded deer sounds like, and was not too far away from me. I sent a text message to my buddy, “Just Shot at a Buck, don’t think it was a good shot”
I sat nervously in the stand for as long as I could take it…..a whole 20 min then decided to get down and see if I could find any blood. To my surprise I found more than I was hoping for. Drop after drop I started track my possibly wounded deer. I was even MORE surprised when I found this stunning buck lying in the woods not 30 yards from where I shot him. I loaded him up in the truck and off the skinning pole I went. The remainder of the night was filled with skinning, quartering and dressing deer meat. Exhausted I stopped for Ice & made it to the house for the night. Shower & bed were the only things I wanted. TU…….has to wait one more night!
Today’s post is going to be a short one as it comes to you from the RV “Base Station”.