It was one of those days that I just wasn't feeling the hunting thing. That's RARE for me but this was one of those days. I had purchased a new Buck Stalker muzzle loader (first ever muzzle loader for me) earlier in the year and had taken EXTENSIVE time sighting it in. For some reason, on this last day of the muzzle loader season, I felt burnt out and just wasn't feeling like being in a cold deer stand for the day.
The wife was all but P**SSED at me giving me evil look after evil look and talking about how I had spent X amount of money on this new gun and now I wasn't even going to try and use it??? It is also really rare for her to push me out the door but that day was different for some reason... Needless to say, to keep peace in the family and insure the possibility of future firearm purchases, I went out that next morning.
My routine is washing (De-scenting) my clothing and spraying down the inside of my truck with scent killer gold, and charging the batteries on the Ozonics unit the night before, then shower in the morning, dressing in the garage, and off to the tree stand... Since I wasn't planning on going, I hadn't done any of the prep the night before and didn't get to bed until around 1:00 am... That makes for a pretty brutal awakening to a 4am alarm...But I did it....
So I am in the stand before sun up... (Same stand I use for archery). I had seen a few does and even bow killed one out of this stand. I know there is a REALLY nice 10 point in the area but had never seen him in daylight and all trail cam photos of him are during moonlight hours. So... I am sitting there about ½ asleep when out of no where this 9 point buck I had never seen before and had no pictures on any of my MULTIPLE trail cams, pops up rattling some leaves behind me. I was in TOTAL shock and was running through the "Don't make a mistake" checklist in my head. I SLOWLY picked up the muzzle loader being careful not to catch the sling on anything in the stand or make the stand itself make any noises... The Buck must have caught me out of the corner of his eye or heard something as he looked straight at me as I was midway up with the rifle... but... He put his head back down so I continued raising the rifle.. I had the scope on him and realized I had NO SHOT!!!!... AUGH!!!.... A tree was dead center of his vitals... I just knew he was going to scent me or hear me or ??? NO way he would take that last and final step... but then he took a full step forward, looked back at me one more time and BOOM!!!.... I had him.... I had a REALLY hard time texting the wife as the adrenaline had me shaking so bad I couldn't even type on my small IPhone... 7 different friends and texts later, I climbed down, walked over too him and put my tag on him...
I am Still waiting to get the mount back from the taxidermist but it is suffice to say that I had never been more excited while hunting in my life.... I know he's no monster but he's my biggest to date and I have to think the wife had to have had something to do with it... That's what I am telling her anyway..
The wife was all but P**SSED at me giving me evil look after evil look and talking about how I had spent X amount of money on this new gun and now I wasn't even going to try and use it??? It is also really rare for her to push me out the door but that day was different for some reason... Needless to say, to keep peace in the family and insure the possibility of future firearm purchases, I went out that next morning.
My routine is washing (De-scenting) my clothing and spraying down the inside of my truck with scent killer gold, and charging the batteries on the Ozonics unit the night before, then shower in the morning, dressing in the garage, and off to the tree stand... Since I wasn't planning on going, I hadn't done any of the prep the night before and didn't get to bed until around 1:00 am... That makes for a pretty brutal awakening to a 4am alarm...But I did it....
So I am in the stand before sun up... (Same stand I use for archery). I had seen a few does and even bow killed one out of this stand. I know there is a REALLY nice 10 point in the area but had never seen him in daylight and all trail cam photos of him are during moonlight hours. So... I am sitting there about ½ asleep when out of no where this 9 point buck I had never seen before and had no pictures on any of my MULTIPLE trail cams, pops up rattling some leaves behind me. I was in TOTAL shock and was running through the "Don't make a mistake" checklist in my head. I SLOWLY picked up the muzzle loader being careful not to catch the sling on anything in the stand or make the stand itself make any noises... The Buck must have caught me out of the corner of his eye or heard something as he looked straight at me as I was midway up with the rifle... but... He put his head back down so I continued raising the rifle.. I had the scope on him and realized I had NO SHOT!!!!... AUGH!!!.... A tree was dead center of his vitals... I just knew he was going to scent me or hear me or ??? NO way he would take that last and final step... but then he took a full step forward, looked back at me one more time and BOOM!!!.... I had him.... I had a REALLY hard time texting the wife as the adrenaline had me shaking so bad I couldn't even type on my small IPhone... 7 different friends and texts later, I climbed down, walked over too him and put my tag on him...
I am Still waiting to get the mount back from the taxidermist but it is suffice to say that I had never been more excited while hunting in my life.... I know he's no monster but he's my biggest to date and I have to think the wife had to have had something to do with it... That's what I am telling her anyway..
