It's been a long tough season for me starting back in the 1st week of Oct. I passed up a nice loner doe opening morning of archery at 7:05 and a doe with a fawn the next afternoon. It was downhill from there. No more deer sighting until last week of Oct.
Let me explain...I'm from Vermont and hunt in the woods not agricultural areas. When mast crops are good, so is the hunting, although trying to figure out where the only 4 deer in the 500 acreas are going to show up is still hit or miss. When mast is off and the deer are just on browse, well it's downright difficult to figure where they'll end up and that was the case this season. At the end of Oct the bucks started leaving sign so things were looking up. I set a treestand near a buck's hangout and he showed up the 3rd day, no shot and again the 5th day. I let him get too close (16 ft straight down) and hit the cam of my bow on the tree when I shot. He was amused and stuck around browsing for another 10 mins, unfortunately my string jumped the cam and I could only watch. Next day at 10:00 am he busted me lowering my bow from the stand. Stay with me, it gets even better.
Two nights later he comes back in right at sunset and poses broadside in my lane at 22 yds. He knows me well and is looking at me when i release and jumps the string. I put the arrow high in his shoulderblade, no blood, hardly a limp and spend the rest of my season (3 days) looking for a wounded deer . I still have 4+ weeks of vacation to hunt so go to northern NH to ML hunt for a week and their deer population got hammered by a harsh winter and I only saw 1 nice buck but couldn't get a shot. I go home, wash my clothes and off to Ontario for another week. The weather is super warm and I pass up a small buck, no one in our camp connects. Back to Vermont rifle season now. I let a 4 pt walk on the 3rd day of a 16 day season and don't see another deer for 10 days. I'm back to hunting my bow buck who I nicknamed 'Lucky' at this point. Thirteenth day at 7:15 am it's 10 degrees and I'm on the ground a few yards from my tree when I see him coming on the shelf below me. Not even limping but unquestionably the same buck. Bad set up, I'll get a shot at 40 yds through a window about 5 yds wide. He steps in and stops with his shoulder behind a tree but plenty of rib showing so I hold midchest and squeeze off the .270. He bucks and jumps over the edge out of sight. Yes! I got him, or so it seemed. I stand up and take off my coat, get the cleaning kit out and am trying to think of the best way to drag him out of the ravine. Crunch, almost behind me another deer is coming in. I look over with my pack in my hand and 30 yds away in some low hemlocks is a deer looking at me. I reach over and pick up my .270 so I can check it out through the scope and can see the base of his antlers but not the rack. When it rains it pours, 2 bucks in 5 mins but I already have mine...He watches me for a while then walks away. Now to recover my buck, I go to where he disappeared thinking he'll be just over the ledge. Nothing but there's an inch of snow so I get on the track. He should have been bleeding pretty good by then and I get a sick feeling. No hair where he was standing when I shot either. I shoot weekly and don't expect to miss at 40 yds sitting against a tree and off my knees. Put the hat where he stood and go to my spot - crap there's a while mark in a maple half way to the deer. I dig out the bullet - my momento. So now I'm even sicker because I could have dropped the other buck if I had only known. I follow 'Lucky's' track and you guessed it, he circled and came in on my scent drag and it was him watching me. That reaction to the shot was because he had a bad shoulder from the arrow. So 'Lucky' lives on.
You probably think my kill yesterday was the end of his story. Not so, I had a ML doe permit for a different zone. I took the weeklong season off and have been dark to dark trying to get a deer to walk by me since last saturday. Ten am yesterday and still only 12 degrees out a deer shows itself through mixed softwoods. It's alone and I watch it for 3-4 minutes as it browses away from me. I rest my Omega on a tree, crank up the scope for a good look and when it steps into a clear lane, squeeze the trigger. The 75 weighed grains of BH209 under the 245 Barnes Spitfire does exactly what they're supposed to and flops it in it's track from a high shoulder hit. It was a lasered 87 yds and weighed 83 lbs which is a long shot and a small deer for this area. I got some good venison and still have "Lucky" to think about. It's all about the hunt... :lol:
I hope you enjoyed the story, it's all 100% true and accurate (unlike my shooting). That is why I love deer hunting and constantly dismay my family and friends with the obsessive compulsive behavior I demonstrate for this sport.
Let me explain...I'm from Vermont and hunt in the woods not agricultural areas. When mast crops are good, so is the hunting, although trying to figure out where the only 4 deer in the 500 acreas are going to show up is still hit or miss. When mast is off and the deer are just on browse, well it's downright difficult to figure where they'll end up and that was the case this season. At the end of Oct the bucks started leaving sign so things were looking up. I set a treestand near a buck's hangout and he showed up the 3rd day, no shot and again the 5th day. I let him get too close (16 ft straight down) and hit the cam of my bow on the tree when I shot. He was amused and stuck around browsing for another 10 mins, unfortunately my string jumped the cam and I could only watch. Next day at 10:00 am he busted me lowering my bow from the stand. Stay with me, it gets even better.
Two nights later he comes back in right at sunset and poses broadside in my lane at 22 yds. He knows me well and is looking at me when i release and jumps the string. I put the arrow high in his shoulderblade, no blood, hardly a limp and spend the rest of my season (3 days) looking for a wounded deer . I still have 4+ weeks of vacation to hunt so go to northern NH to ML hunt for a week and their deer population got hammered by a harsh winter and I only saw 1 nice buck but couldn't get a shot. I go home, wash my clothes and off to Ontario for another week. The weather is super warm and I pass up a small buck, no one in our camp connects. Back to Vermont rifle season now. I let a 4 pt walk on the 3rd day of a 16 day season and don't see another deer for 10 days. I'm back to hunting my bow buck who I nicknamed 'Lucky' at this point. Thirteenth day at 7:15 am it's 10 degrees and I'm on the ground a few yards from my tree when I see him coming on the shelf below me. Not even limping but unquestionably the same buck. Bad set up, I'll get a shot at 40 yds through a window about 5 yds wide. He steps in and stops with his shoulder behind a tree but plenty of rib showing so I hold midchest and squeeze off the .270. He bucks and jumps over the edge out of sight. Yes! I got him, or so it seemed. I stand up and take off my coat, get the cleaning kit out and am trying to think of the best way to drag him out of the ravine. Crunch, almost behind me another deer is coming in. I look over with my pack in my hand and 30 yds away in some low hemlocks is a deer looking at me. I reach over and pick up my .270 so I can check it out through the scope and can see the base of his antlers but not the rack. When it rains it pours, 2 bucks in 5 mins but I already have mine...He watches me for a while then walks away. Now to recover my buck, I go to where he disappeared thinking he'll be just over the ledge. Nothing but there's an inch of snow so I get on the track. He should have been bleeding pretty good by then and I get a sick feeling. No hair where he was standing when I shot either. I shoot weekly and don't expect to miss at 40 yds sitting against a tree and off my knees. Put the hat where he stood and go to my spot - crap there's a while mark in a maple half way to the deer. I dig out the bullet - my momento. So now I'm even sicker because I could have dropped the other buck if I had only known. I follow 'Lucky's' track and you guessed it, he circled and came in on my scent drag and it was him watching me. That reaction to the shot was because he had a bad shoulder from the arrow. So 'Lucky' lives on.
You probably think my kill yesterday was the end of his story. Not so, I had a ML doe permit for a different zone. I took the weeklong season off and have been dark to dark trying to get a deer to walk by me since last saturday. Ten am yesterday and still only 12 degrees out a deer shows itself through mixed softwoods. It's alone and I watch it for 3-4 minutes as it browses away from me. I rest my Omega on a tree, crank up the scope for a good look and when it steps into a clear lane, squeeze the trigger. The 75 weighed grains of BH209 under the 245 Barnes Spitfire does exactly what they're supposed to and flops it in it's track from a high shoulder hit. It was a lasered 87 yds and weighed 83 lbs which is a long shot and a small deer for this area. I got some good venison and still have "Lucky" to think about. It's all about the hunt... :lol:
I hope you enjoyed the story, it's all 100% true and accurate (unlike my shooting). That is why I love deer hunting and constantly dismay my family and friends with the obsessive compulsive behavior I demonstrate for this sport.
