Let me start off by saying that I hate typing, and would much rather tell every single one of you the story in person rather then taking an hour to type it.:smiley_crocodile:
With that said, here is my story.
It has been another really slow year for me. By really slow, I mean close to 150 hours in the stand with only about 15 different deer spotted. I keep close stats of my hunts and will figure out the exact number of hours hunted and deer seen later this winter, but for now the numbers I gave are pretty accurate. It started out slow with a 5 day trip to Vinton county and not seeing a single deer the whole trip, and it pretty much stayed that way the entire season. Many long sits in the stand only watching leaves blow, in areas that in the not too distant past use to keep me pretty entertained with deer. There is a lot more I could fill in here, but for the sake of me not liking to type, I will fast forward to Monday evening.
After a frustrating morning hunt, I moved to another property. This property had been my honey hole in years past, but this year the well had seemingly run dry. The weekend of youth gun, I realized why when I drove by and saw that two hunters had taken up solid residence sitting directly on the property line bordering the CRP field that I had been hunting. In the past, nobody ever had permission to hunt this property and it was a sanctuary of sorts for the deer. When I drove by on Monday, once again the same truck was there and the same two guys were perched on the property line. Frustrated, I debated cutting wood right on the property line. I finally calmed down and decided to just sneak over to my stand, and hope for the best. As frustrating as it was, they have permission from the landowner to be there, and there is nothing I could do about it. I didn't want to risk walking through the CRP to cut wood and scaring something out to them. I was settled into my stand later then hoped for, around 2 pm. At 2 30 I noticed a doe bedded 250 yards away directly behind someones back yard. Soon after, I see a buck stand, milling around right behind these people yard! It was a highly unusual place to see a deer, yet highly expected. This is how these deer survive. This buck had the doe locked down tight in an area that would easily be overlooked by even the most keen hunter. I watched the two of them stand up and lay back down for about an hour. Around 3 30 I see the buck take off running towards me, and quickly noticed that the doe is in front of him. It wasn't long until he began grunting and dogging her pretty hard. I turned in my stand, and prepared for the shot as I watched the deer approaching the 100 yard mark. I zoomed in my scope for the highest magnification, and placed the cross hairs on the bucks chest. I was sitting down, and had my arm rested on my leg to steady the gun. It soon occurred to me however, that my leg was shaking so badly, there was no way I could steady for a shot!! I have never shook that bad in my life. There was no way I was going to shoot free hand at 100 yards, so all I could do was calm myself and hope they would come closer.
With that said, here is my story.
It has been another really slow year for me. By really slow, I mean close to 150 hours in the stand with only about 15 different deer spotted. I keep close stats of my hunts and will figure out the exact number of hours hunted and deer seen later this winter, but for now the numbers I gave are pretty accurate. It started out slow with a 5 day trip to Vinton county and not seeing a single deer the whole trip, and it pretty much stayed that way the entire season. Many long sits in the stand only watching leaves blow, in areas that in the not too distant past use to keep me pretty entertained with deer. There is a lot more I could fill in here, but for the sake of me not liking to type, I will fast forward to Monday evening.
After a frustrating morning hunt, I moved to another property. This property had been my honey hole in years past, but this year the well had seemingly run dry. The weekend of youth gun, I realized why when I drove by and saw that two hunters had taken up solid residence sitting directly on the property line bordering the CRP field that I had been hunting. In the past, nobody ever had permission to hunt this property and it was a sanctuary of sorts for the deer. When I drove by on Monday, once again the same truck was there and the same two guys were perched on the property line. Frustrated, I debated cutting wood right on the property line. I finally calmed down and decided to just sneak over to my stand, and hope for the best. As frustrating as it was, they have permission from the landowner to be there, and there is nothing I could do about it. I didn't want to risk walking through the CRP to cut wood and scaring something out to them. I was settled into my stand later then hoped for, around 2 pm. At 2 30 I noticed a doe bedded 250 yards away directly behind someones back yard. Soon after, I see a buck stand, milling around right behind these people yard! It was a highly unusual place to see a deer, yet highly expected. This is how these deer survive. This buck had the doe locked down tight in an area that would easily be overlooked by even the most keen hunter. I watched the two of them stand up and lay back down for about an hour. Around 3 30 I see the buck take off running towards me, and quickly noticed that the doe is in front of him. It wasn't long until he began grunting and dogging her pretty hard. I turned in my stand, and prepared for the shot as I watched the deer approaching the 100 yard mark. I zoomed in my scope for the highest magnification, and placed the cross hairs on the bucks chest. I was sitting down, and had my arm rested on my leg to steady the gun. It soon occurred to me however, that my leg was shaking so badly, there was no way I could steady for a shot!! I have never shook that bad in my life. There was no way I was going to shoot free hand at 100 yards, so all I could do was calm myself and hope they would come closer.
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