Traditionally this has been one of my best hunting days in my hunting career. I’ve killed a lot of deer in the Adirondacks on this day and a few big ones, too. I’ve also killed a deer or two in Ohio on this day over the years. I’m not sure why but the 13th just lights a fire beneath me.
It was 19 degrees this morning and zapped the life right out of me which created a few problems with my blood sugar. I lost my head for the better part of an hour, so it took away from the morning’s hunt. After I came around I still got to experience a few cool encounters with deer. A nice little spikehorn came down out of the pasture above me and fed across the oak flat I was sitting on around 8 o’clock. It was pretty dead after that, so around 10 o’clock I figured I would do a little rattling. After smashing the antlers together I sat back and waited. Since I was in a small piece of timber in the middle of some big pastures I figured it would take a few minutes before anything showed up if anything was around.
Sure enough my guess was right. About five minutes after rattling I could hear the leaves rustling below me. When I glanced over my shoulder I could see the same 8-pointer I saw the night before headed right toward me. Within seconds he winded me and went on his merry way.
A few minutes later I could hear a deer walking through the leaves off to my right. I could see a really big bodied deer heading up the hill in my direction. After a quick look I latched my release onto the string and readied myself for a shot. From what I could tell this buck was a shooter. When he got a little closer I saw that he had a very nice rack on one side. However, the other side had only a 7 inch spike. While the buck was unique he wasn’t quite what I wanted. I watched him for a few minutes before he made his way across the flat and disappeared over the bank on my far left. When he was gone I kind of wished I had shot him. The rack was really unique, he was a mature deer and after I thought about it I realized I probably have another chance to shoot a deer like him.
This evening I sat in the Locust Draw stand and saw a spikehorn running a group of does all over the two fields next to me. There were a couple of button bucks in the group, too. I’ve seen plenty of button bucks during this vacation. That’s probably a good sign for the next few years.
Dad sat in Buck Alley this morning. He saw 2 bucks, one shooter. He also saw a few good bucks tonight when he sat down in the lowland near the creek……We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I feel like I’m getting close.
