Well, it was one of those afternoons where I thought about going hunting, and then I thought it was too warm, then I thought the wind was wrong for the farm I “had” to hunt tonight, and then I thought about it some more.
Finally, I ended the debacle by being 20 foot up above a pond, 20 yards from a set of logging roads, and within spitting distance of my 3/4 acre winter plot. The pond was dried up, but there were several scrapes on the logging road going in, along with the food plot being hit hard. Long story short, I busted a monster buck getting to my stand. He was bedded on a flat about 40 yards from my stand!
I was pretty dejected at this point, but I was going to sit it out regardless.
A friend of mine who hunts with me in MN was hunting his land in WI tonight, so we kept each other updated via texts to pass the time.
The deer started pouring into my area at about 5:30, which I thought was pretty unusual given the weather/wind on my farm. All in all, I saw 18 deer, with shots at about 15 of them! I saw several small 6 and 8 pointers, with one goofy looking young 8 that was already palmating! I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I slick-tricked my second big doe of the year at 28 yards. This was right before dark, and about a minute before my buddy texted me saying that he scored on a 10!
We do what we can to shoot mature bucks, and he was a little disappointed in his judgment by shooting a younger buck. There is always the “what would happen next year?” or “I wonder how big he would have been in two years?”. None of that matters once you make the decision, just hope for a clean shot and a recovery. He did both, and scored on his first deer of the year.
Happy Trails!
October 9, 2011 at 4:30 am
#202710
