THE HUNT
With the temps dropping and the October days getting shorter I found myself getting inpatient having to wait for the next weekend to get some hunting in. With work and family things going on I was just able to hunt some on the weekends. I had about 16 hours of hunting in up till this fateful Monday morning and even though its very hard for me to do I had this "gut" feeling I needed to hunt after I got off work Sunday night into Monday morning. After clocking out at work I went to Wallyworld and got groceries and picked up some energy supplements and drank it in the parking lot at 4 am. This is fuggin nuts! Then I drove around on a 40 minute deer patrol around my home just trying to kill time and stay up! Then I came on home and visited TOO on our PC till the alarms started waking up my family so I can jump in the shower. I kissed my wife and girls and beat it out the door to the garage and put on my freshly smoked up clothes and got into my smoked up truck and grabbed my bow and headed out to the farm. Left the truck at 6:43 and made my way to the stand which is a half mile walk from where I parked. I used a small flashlight pointing it straight down and cupped all the way to my tree. I was pumped and relieved I hadn't jumped anything along my way.
I got settled in at 7:10, strapped my safety harness in,knocked an arrow and sat down. I did chime in on TOO then sat down watching the dark sky to the east turn lighter as each minute went by. At around 7:45 I thought I heard something stirring behind me over my left shoulder so a glanced back there and didn't see anything. Another minute or so I heard it again and remember thinking that's not a squirrel or a nut falling! I turned and looked back again and saw a buck walking along this path and when I saw long tines and heavy mass....I said shooter! In one fluid motion I stood up turned to my left then lifted my bow off the hook and attached my release to the loop. I saw his right side that was facing me was a typical 4 point side. I knew the yardage was 30 so when he stopped to smell my entry smoke trail I buried the 30 pin right behind his shoulder and touched my trigger ever so slowly! Sounded like a shot through a hollowed our pumpkin! He mule kicked ran out about 75 yards headed right for that small hollow with a house I can see 150 yards across the hollow and he couldn't make it. He stopped and just piled up! It all happened so fast and I was so pumped I didn't know what to do. This was the earliest in the season and in the morning that I had ever killed a deer. I tried calling Ron and my wife but wouldn't you figure neither would answer there phone! I texted a few TOOZERS, " BBD BABY!!! A few seconds later my phone started to blow up! Lmao Before I climbed on down I sat there trying to visualize what the rack looked like and if I knew this buck. When I saw the long and heavy 4 point right side I knew there was a strong possibility it could be Character I had just shot.
These are a few pics I've edited in. This is the very first pic taken around 7:30 looking into the east and of the dawning of my incredible day that lay ahead.
This is a pic a few minutes after I loosed my arrow into Character. The chunk of a salt block in the center of the pic was placed there a month or so ago after I pulled the cam that snapped my one and only pic if him about a 120 yards down over and slightly to the left in this shot. I didn't want to leave it where it was once I noticed someone else moved in on me the weekend before season started so I placed in under that log out of view so another hunter would have to practically step on it to find it. It also was a nice 25 yard marker...lmao Character was standing just about 8 steps beyond it and came walking from the left to the right. The rim of the drop off can be seen in the backdrop.
This is around 8am after I climbed down and went to where he was standing with his head to the ground sniffing. It's not as dark as it appears though. You might be able to see my stand hanging in the pignut hickory on the left hand side.
I climbed down after calming myself down and started following the blood trail left by the ST magnum 100. It got heavier as I went and it was leading me right to where I saw him go down. The anticipation knowing your just about to see a stud buck over the next little rise is a feeling I could relive over and over and never tire of it!