Third Annual Bow Hunt

Plans were made, dates were set. We’d meet at my property lease in Brunswick County, Va by noon Tuesday morning Oct 20^th. Our anticipation was high as the past two years have all been successful. Year one, I tagged a 7-pointer and during our second annual hunt together, it was George’s turn. He tagged his largest buck ever -- a very nice 10-pointer. So suffice to say, we were stoked and ready to roll!

After setting up camp, we were mulling over stand sites for the evening hunt. I had hunted the property a couple times leading up to this but had not seen much activity. I did however, have some areas picked out where white oak acorns were dropping, but in the end, George decided to do something different choosing a location with lots of shade in the bottom at the front of our property. His primary thought was one of keeping cool. Did I mention it was in the upper 70’s that day?

Me, well, I’m not so smart. As a matter of fact, I’m a little hardheaded. I had a real good feeling about a spot I’d scoped out last season. It’s a low area along the “edge” - I’m a big believer in hunting “edge”, especially this time of year. Confidence in a location, like confidence in your favorite gun or in a special fishing lure is 75 percent of the game. I knew I was going to see deer at this stand site on this particular evening; I just knew it.

So off we went, George to his cool bottom area in the front of the property and me to hunt the edge among the White Oak trees, while working on my tan. Nearly an hour slips buy when I catch movement in the adjacent woods. I can’t see if it’s a buck or a doe but it was clearly a Deer and it was moving at a very steady pace through the woods. He (she) had no interest in the sweet acorns dropping from above. Well, nothing I can do about it. Hope it returns once it finishes up with whatever it was heading off to do.

Another hour goes by when I catch movement on the trail I came in on. It was now 6 pm and my plan was coming together just as I knew it would. This deer is slowly making its way along the path, in my direction. After taking a look with my binoculars, I see it’s what we call a Cow-horn. A buck with two points of 8 inches or longer, one on each side. I also call these Devil Deer for obvious reason. He’s now turned and making his way into the adjacent property and off my lease. He’s standing broadside at about 20 yards, an easy clear shot should I choose to take it. Standing there 18 feet up in a tree, my Diamond Victory bow in hand, knocked with a 100 grain magnum Slick Trick broadhead tipped arrow, I decide to let him walk. I’m thinking there might be some good luck coming my way when I let the first shoot ‘able deer of the season “walk”. Besides, there’s still a good forty five minutes of shooting light left. Maybe there’ll be others.

Thirty minutes later and much nearer to the end of legal shooting light, the cow-horn reappears. This time, on the other side of my tree not 10 yards away …he’s standing there offering me a classic quartering away shot that, in the end, I just couldn’t refuse. Surely this still qualifies as letting the first one walk, Right?

When my 4-blade slick trick broadhead passed through, I thought that deer was going to jump clean out of his skin! He jumped and spun around in one quick motion towards the woods, then quickly ran sideways falling into a small group of saplings. What happened next was damn near comical. The saplings, after bending under the weight of the deer, repelled it back like a slingshot. The Cow-horn, feet and legs running while in midair, hit the ground running in the opposite direction just to hit another group of saplings 20 yards away. This time he stumbled. When he got back on his feet, he headed back, once again in the other direction, towards my tree. This time however, he only got about 5 yards when he piled up just 10 yards from my tree and 15 from where he was originally shot. I can't be more sold on these magnum Slick Trick broadheads. After meeting up with my buddy George, I learned that he also saw deer. Six I believe but the only shot he’d have, came well after legal light. So his chance was going to have to wait.

Wednesday was a bit slow for us. George saw a couple deer but neither of us had any shot opportunities. Still, we had another nice evening; drinking beer and dinning on fresh Venison tenderloin. Thursday morning we had a plan. I was sending him down to one of my favorite stand sites overlooking a group of White Oak trees that have been dropping acorns for a week or more. Me, I made a lousy choice for a backup site. I'll not go into it and just relay the events that took place for my friend George.

Around 9:15am he’s starting to get a little bored. He’s mind is starting to wonder when out of nowhere, a nice 8-pointer steps into the picture. He stood broadside at 30 or 35 yards but George decided to let him get a little closer. At about 20 yards, he settles his 20 yard pin on the bucks vitals, touches the trigger on his release and sends the arrow flying. The deer hauls ass into the cutover and George is watching him as the buck struggles to make his way through the thick overgrowth. Then, nothing -- The buck is down. Now George is sitting down trying to regain his composure and slow his heart rate back to something more normal. Fifteen minutes goes by when he sees what he believes might be a doe coming down the path. “Two deer down in one day, can it be?”

George quickly knocks another arrow and after a few more yards, sees that this isn't a doe at all, but instead, finds that it's a very large cat -- a Bobcat to be exact. So at about 20 yards, after making sure it wasn't someone’s house cat Fluffy, Ol Dead Eye George sends another arrow sailing. Whack! A perfect shot right through its plum sized heart.

After a quick recovery of both animals and a number of pictures, we packed them up and hauled them out. We were in a bit of a rush to get the deer dressed, quartered and on ice as it was another warm day. Once the work was complete, we spent the rest of the afternoon celebrating another successful hunt together. So that's it, a great and productive two and a half days of hunting, way too much eating, a little drinking and a bunch of just plain enjoying ourselves away from our day to day responsibilities. Until next year George! By-the-way, we need to get planning that archery wild Boar hunt!

Opening Day Blunders

Not opening day in the regulation sense, as I found it way too warm to sit in a tree last week on “Opening Day”. No, opening day as in -- this is the first time this season that I have headed out to hunt. However, as I walked to my truck at 4:15am Saturday morning, the second Saturday of the Virginia bow season, I was clearly questioning my decision as the outside temp gauge in my truck read a balmy 76 degrees. Well, I was already up and dressed, so I reasoned things might be a little cooler after the 2 hour drive West.

Now I don’t know about all of you, but for me, my first day in the field is usually a little on the comical side. Never is it smooth and practiced -- something always comes up. Maybe it’s fumbling with the tree stand in the dark, or dropping an important item on your way up the tree, and who hasn’t forgot something critical to your success for that day. Yeah, you all know what I’m talking about. For me, it’s often a combination of things. For this reason, I use my opening day to “work out the bugs”. This is the time to get back into the swing of things. This opening day was no different than those past.

I arrive at my club about when I expected, just before sun-up. The temp, a balmy 76 degrees! My plan; stop at the clubhouse to change into my scent-free hunting garb before heading to the stand that I decided on once the wind direction was confirmed as I stepped outside my truck. Dressed and ready to go, I head to the middle of our property to begin my trek to the tree I planned to climb. As I’m loading my portable tree stand on my back, I get this overwhelming urge to grab a good book, or in my case, a good hunting magazine, then run off to my reading room. So back in the truck and back to the clubhouse I rush.

So starts the Opening Day Blunders!

That taken care of, I head back to the middle of the property, load my stand and begin the walk. Unfortunately, now the sun’s coming up and it’s getting pretty light. The path I’m walking down is about a quarter mile long. At the end of the path is another path requiring a turn to either the right or the left. As I approach that turn, approximately 5 yards from it in fact, I come face to face with my quarry, a tall racked buck that I believe to be sporting 6 points. He’s minding his own business meandering his way along the path that I’m quickly coming to. Not a care in the world, afterall, it's been what? 9 months since he’s dealt with a critter like me on two legs? We both freeze at the same time. Now, with just a few branches from a shrub between him and me, we stand. Me? I have my bow in hand but no arrow is knocked and my release is comfortably in my pack. A good 40 seconds goes by before the buck remembers the potential danger associated with critters like me. So with a rather loud snort, actually a series of loud snorts, he turns and runs off.

And so the blundering continues.

A few minutes later I get to my tree which is in close proximity to a number of oak trees. After bumbling with my tree stand as normally happens on opening day, I get it set up and begin my ascent. Now comfortably in my perch 18 feet or so above the ground, I wait – arrow knocked, bow in hand and release at the ready.

Roughly an hour passes with nothing moving, no sign of life, not even a Squirrel. I’m thinking it might just be too warm for deer to be moving during daylight hours today. I’m situated in the tree, facing away from where I expect deer to show up, presumably to feed on White Oak Acorns. I decide to stand and draw my bow in that direction just to make sure nothing is in my way including my new safety harness. Yeah I know I should have checked that first thing. Well, as I said, this is my opening day. I stand, draw the bow and make sure all is clear. Satisfied, I let down the string and begin to sit on the rail of my climber. As I’m sitting, I notice movement about 50 yards in front of me under a group of oak trees. Could it be a deer? Yes, it’s a doe with a single yearling in tow.

Soon, like in a matter of a few short weeks, that yearling will be kicked out of the house so-to-speak. The rut is no place for a young doe to be hanging around. So I wait to see if momma doe will come within range of my arrow wondering all the while if I will take the shot or leave her be. I pull out my new range finder and it tells me she’s 55 yards out. Too far for me. She moves a little closer, turns and offers me a nice broadside shot but instead of raising my bow and putting the site on her, I hit her with the range finder once again. This time she’s 40 yards out. For me, still too far. I’m deadly inside 30 yards and while my Bowtech Victory bow is capable at 40 yards, I’m not. I don’t have the room to practice out that far so I’m not about to take such a long shot at a live animal. In the end, she never comes any closer and she, along with her young, feed off in the direction they came.

Now it’s about 10:30 in the morning. Time to get down, maybe do a little scouting then take a nap before a buddy of mine shows up for the evening hunt. 3:30am comes pretty early. I don’t normally nap, but I plan to drive home after the hunt this evening. Don’t want to be falling asleep at the wheel. At 2 in the afternoon after a couple hours sleep, my buddy shows up and we shoot the breeze, then take some practice shots with our bow’s while planning our evening hunt. He showed me a cool new trick shot while shooting at one of them small round throw targets. At about 30 yards, he missed it with an arrow equipped with a lighted knock and it skipped off the dirt and embeds itself into a distant pine tree. Looked pretty cool when he did it.

So around 4pm we head off for our evening hunt. I gave up my “good” stand to my friend as I choose to try out another section of the property that had a great deer-crossing highway noticed during Turkey season. Problem is, I didn’t take into account how much different it would look with all the leaves on the trees and bushes. Still, I beat my way down there so I decided to make the best of it. After all, what’s an opening day of blunders for? I get to the spot and the only good tree to climb is smack dab in the middle of the game trail (highway). What the heck, the wind was right. The worst that could happen is every deer that wonders buy, offers no shot as it crosses directly under me. At least I’d learn something, right?

Not to be! A couple hours later, with dark ascending upon me, I climb down and assemble my stand, load it onto my back and begin to make my way out. A couple hundred yards later as I make my way to the top of a trail, I damn near jump out of my skin, as once again I walk up on an unsuspecting Whitetail. Final Blunder of the day! This one had to be a Doe because she wasted no time deciding I was an undesirable element in her woods. She let out a God awful snort / wheeze, turned and ran back through the cutover, snorting loudly over and over again to let every deer in the county know that it’s not safe to enter this section of cutover anytime soon. Good thing they have another 7 days to forget all about it. As for me, these are memories I’ll keep with me for a good long time.