The morning set was uneventful, Mitchell and I setup to film our hunt for Iowa Whitetail Pursuit but ended up being skunked. Seems all the deer had better places to be.
After sitting in my office at work for most of the rest of the day I couldn't help but feel like I needed to get back out to the woods. Since we knew the deer were feeding at night I though it might be a good idea to hunt a watering hole in the evening, attempting to catch one on its way out to the fields. The location I had picked out presented some difficulties, there were no good trees close enough to the watering hole to put up a stand and I had neglected to build a natural blind, looks like I was going to have to just sneak in and be real still.
I setup on a bank above the watering hole with a decent amount of cover around me, it was not long before a little fork buck showed up 30 yards to my right. I was not expecting him and he noticed me move and took off slowly the other direction, not too spooked. A short time after that I spotted another small buck about 150 yards down the mostly dried creek bed from me. This deer never had intentions of coming my way but it was nice to see some more action.
Roughly an hour later, after no more deer coming through a doe snuck in behind me and spotted me once she was 5 yards away, she snorted a couple of times and bounded off in to the timber. I was starting to think I was not going to get a chance, it seems the deer were either sneaking in behind me or were crossing far off.
Admittedly I got a little bored and with about 15 minutes of shooting light left I just happened to glance through a split in the tree I was sitting next to, over to a bit of water that was 30 yards away. Standing there, was a beastly buck, I never heard him come in and he seemed to have no idea I was there. He was standing perfectly broadside and not paying me any mind I thought I could never be so lucky. I went to turn on my video camera and he must of heard some of my movements because he turned my way, this is when I saw that he was a rather unique buck, he was loaded with mass, super tall but he was no wider than his ears, maybe not even that wide!
After judging him a little bit more and getting a better look at him I decided that if he presented another shot I would take it. Here I am sitting on my knees behind one half of this large split tree and as my luck would have it, he decides to wander even closer. 25 yards. 20 yards. Stop. eat, no shot presented. 15 yards. Drink. Eat. turn broadside.
Holy Crap! Here is my chance. I have watched him much closer now and it clear he is a shooter, he as stickers and mass and is a beauty of an 11 pointer - I would estimate 150 inches. The problem is the light is starting to fade and I need to shoot or get of the pot. I decide that from my kneeling position I will take the next shot. I draw back, still covered by the massive trunk in front of me and start leaning backwards towards the vee in the tree.. He is presenting a beautiful 15 yard broadside shot!
I bring my pin to rest on the deers heart and then everything goes blank ----- I forget all of my fundamentals and do not come fully set, I shoot and WHIZ there goes my arrow harmlessly brushing some dust off the bucks back. He spooks a little, stands at 30 yards but never presents another shot.
I would love to have that moment back but that is why it is called hunting and not shooting. Just as a teaser, here is a picture of the buck, I did at least get to shoot a little video of him.
No comments:
Post a Comment