All spring/summer i got pictures of a nice 14 point that i had on a schedule(the buck in my avatar).. about a month before the season began he dissappeared never to be seen again. Until this morning...
i decided to try rattling today and proceeded to do a 30 second sequence every 20 minutes or so starting when i could see my pins. At nine o clock im about 5 seconds into my sequence and i hear "crunch crunch" behind me. Knowing that a squirrel had been there all morning i thought it was a little to loud to be the squirrel... i was right, and i was unprepared.. the buck i hadnt seen since summer made an appearence and he was less than thrilled. he meandered his way to ten yards away, but i havent had a chance to get up, because i never had a chance to put the antlers away!:smiley_confused_vra as my mind is racing to figure out what to do with the antlers he takes his time slowly walking around behind me out of view. when he appears to my side hes staring right at me. after about 2 minutes of staring he shrugs me off and makes his way away from me. Running out of time i stand up, shove one antler in my muck boot, and squeeze the other one between my legs. The buck bounds over a downed tree and turns right into a shooting window at 30 yards! perfect! i release and the deer takes two bounds with his tail down, looks my way and casually walks away as if our encounter never happened.. upon review of my shot i probably rushed being excited.. and when i found my arrow it appears that my "shooting window" actually had a decent amount of vines that i couldnt see through adrenaline fueled excitement. definately crushed my morale this morning. went home and shot a broadhead at 30 yards boom, bullseye..
Ive been hunting deer for 10 years and as of yet ive always killed does/small bucks. I love the meat(and it takes less skill..), but this year i decided now that i have a private place to hunt and i put the time in to micro manage it this summer im going to hold out for my first big buck. im gonna give it a go this afternoon, and the next two weeks should be exciting. just gotta get over this miss.
Hope everyone else's season is going good! just wanted to share!
i decided to try rattling today and proceeded to do a 30 second sequence every 20 minutes or so starting when i could see my pins. At nine o clock im about 5 seconds into my sequence and i hear "crunch crunch" behind me. Knowing that a squirrel had been there all morning i thought it was a little to loud to be the squirrel... i was right, and i was unprepared.. the buck i hadnt seen since summer made an appearence and he was less than thrilled. he meandered his way to ten yards away, but i havent had a chance to get up, because i never had a chance to put the antlers away!:smiley_confused_vra as my mind is racing to figure out what to do with the antlers he takes his time slowly walking around behind me out of view. when he appears to my side hes staring right at me. after about 2 minutes of staring he shrugs me off and makes his way away from me. Running out of time i stand up, shove one antler in my muck boot, and squeeze the other one between my legs. The buck bounds over a downed tree and turns right into a shooting window at 30 yards! perfect! i release and the deer takes two bounds with his tail down, looks my way and casually walks away as if our encounter never happened.. upon review of my shot i probably rushed being excited.. and when i found my arrow it appears that my "shooting window" actually had a decent amount of vines that i couldnt see through adrenaline fueled excitement. definately crushed my morale this morning. went home and shot a broadhead at 30 yards boom, bullseye..
Ive been hunting deer for 10 years and as of yet ive always killed does/small bucks. I love the meat(and it takes less skill..), but this year i decided now that i have a private place to hunt and i put the time in to micro manage it this summer im going to hold out for my first big buck. im gonna give it a go this afternoon, and the next two weeks should be exciting. just gotta get over this miss.
Hope everyone else's season is going good! just wanted to share!