This weekend was all hunting for me and it started Thursday. My co-worker (who happens to be a good fishing and hunting buddy) had the day off to go chase Bambi, and right at 9:00 I get a text from him saying, "I got one! Spike buck." I went to my boss and asked if I could leave for a few hours to help him drag the deer out. I got clearance and headed out. While driving in to go to the deer, we saw a solid 8-pt (low 100/high 90 class) spook up and run. My blood was immediately running hard and the pull of nature was too much to bear. After helping my buddy load up his buck I went back to work, put in for a half-day of time off and went hunting. My buddy joined me halfway through my sit and managed another deer, this time a small doe. Nothing for me.
Friday I got up early and beat the sun to my stand. Greeted by a beautiful fall sunrise and frost on the ground, I realized the high grass to my west was cut. A bit of a bummer as that was a solid spot for deer to walk through.
Squirrels were running amok getting ready for the winter, packing up their in-tree nests and gathering food. The birds were everywhere, chirping and singing while they foraged for little larvae in the bark of the trees around me. To the north, I could the coyotes yipping and yowling, telling each other whatever 'yotes tell each other. Saw a few does north and west of me, but once again, nothing came anywhere close to being within range of my bow. Called it quits for the day and then went back out for the evening hunt and saw easily 20 deer from my stand. None within range, which is clearly my luck. Watched a small basket rack chase around a doe and saw a few clusters of 6-8 deer walking around in the fields adjoining the property I hunt.
Friday night I hit the hay around 9:30, expecting to be up at 5:30 to hit my stand again. A few minutes after midnight my phone starts ringing: it's my neighbor. I click ignore, thinking he dialed me on accident. Immediately after I clicked ignore, it starts ringing again. I answer the phone and he's way too excited for a sober person at midnight. However, he's by no means excited as a result of the bar. His buddy finally shot the buck he's been tracking all year! This picture hardly does it justice, but rough scoring put it at 130 inches. This sucker was a brute. Luckily I was exhausted so falling asleep after being so excited was easy.
Saturday morning was a complete bust so I decided I needed to finally bow down and get some scents to put out. Since I was starting to get burned out sitting in the stand I decided to take a break and do some pheasant hunting with my other hunting buddy. We took his lab Carlos out just for fun, as he wasn't trained to hunt birds at all. He stayed close and sniffed around and kicked up several hens. Light was running out, so 10 minutes before we had to call it, Carlos suddenly lunges into the high grass. I didn't think much of it and turned to continue walking when a pheasant blows up out of the tall stuff. It kicked up at my 5 o'clock, but the ol' 870 was up and ready, poised for a kill shot. I yelled "Call it!" since the bird was in the sun and I couldn't tell if it was a hen or rooster. He responded "HEN!", so I shouldered my gun. Suddenly, he start throwing shots at it. Confused I ask him why he shot at a hen (completely missed it, by the way). He responds, "It was a rooster. Why didn't you take the shot?" *sigh* That's my buddy. I wasn't sore at him, but definitely sore from tromping through high grass for a couple hours.
I skipped deer hunting on Sunday morning to spend time with my girlfriend and her daughter. I took them to breakfast at IHOP and hung around a bit at home. A little after noon I headed back out. My buddy had already been hunting the spot in the morning so he punched out and I took the night shift. The owner of the adjoining field stopped by while I was packing up to head to the stand, so we talked for about 45 minutes. Nice enough guy, but apparently someone had been driving through his property. We explained our arrangement with the property owner and he was fine with it. I decided to hunt my buddy's stand with the prevailing wind out of the west, that way I could get a better scent dispersion with my Scent Bombs. Not a single deer, but had a nice, calm evening and a cool sunset to enjoy.
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