Thursday, November 14, 2019

  I got up at 3:30 this morning to make sure I got to the new place without any problems. I figured I could remember how to get there, but being in the dark and having only been there one time, I was unsure.  Jeff decided to go with me, and we go to the spot in plenty of time.  Amazingly, a truck was parked in the pull-off. Looking at the snow, I could see that he had walked in the opposite direction of  where I was headed., which made me glad. 

  I got to the tree where I left my stand last night, cut a few limbs with my Hooyman’s saw and climbed in. As I waited for daylight, I imagined what might transpire for everyone over the course of the next few hours, with three of us in incredible spots with a lot of recent sign. 

  At 7:25, I heard a stick crack on the hill behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I could see a big-racked buck making its way down the hill toward me. Reaching for my bow, I didn’t know which way to turn, but the decision was quickly made for me.  He was going to come on my left side, where it was wide-open hardwoods. I quickly drew my bow, and he stopped next to a tree. I knew I was going to have to thread the needle and decided to give it a whirl. I had made shots like that a zillion times and figured this time was no different.

  I started executing and the release fired, surprising me when the arrow went into flight. I saw the red lighted nock hit the deer at the top of the lungs. He bolted down the hill and across the hardwoods, crossing a stream and turning to go down another ridge. Within seconds, he went into a stream bed and had a difficult time getting out. It was the first time since the arrow struck him that I knew he was hit hard. He barely made it up the stream bank, then began doing the circular weeble walk. He looked like he was going to go down but disappeared behind a group of four trees.  The last look I got at him, he looked like he was walking with a pole jammed up his butt. I knew he was going to die but didn’t know where or when. I kept my binoculars pinned on the group of four trees and never saw him come out the other side. I quickly got Jeff on the radio and told him to text Brian or my Dad. He did that, and then went to get Brian to help us. 

  When Brian got there, we started following the deer’s tracks in the snow, but we couldn’t find a drop of blood, so I went to the spot I last saw him behind the trees. Still, we couldn’t find any blood. Looking in the direction where I last saw him, I spotted him on the ground. He had tipped over and expired in the last place I saw him. I was ecstatic. 

  I also learned that Dad killed a dandy in the place where I had told him to sit. We got that deer on camera three times in the daylight since I put the camera there less than 24 hours earlier. This was a fantastic day in the woods. In 40 years, it was the first time that Dad and I killed deer on the same day. He ended up with a 12-pointer. It was a basic 10 with two flyers. Mine was an 11-pointer, a main-frame 10 with a forked G-3.

  We are headed home to give it a whirl in the Adirondacks. This will be the first time since 2006 that I’ve hunted in the Adirondacks during the week before Thanksgiving.  I used to always save that week as a vacation week, but after going to the Midwest, I began using my time doing that instead. I’m looking forward to the time in the mountains. 

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