I had today off, so I made the most of it and headed to one of my old haunts. The temperature hovered around 35 for most of the morning. It was a little windy, but still a great morning to be in a tree. Shortly after daylight I could hear a buck chasing a doe down below me, but I couldn’t see them. I’ve heard the noise enough over the years so it was easy to identify. When they stopped for a moment I turned over the can call in my pocket. My heart accelerated when I could hear the leaves crunching. It sounded like the deer was headed right toward me. Seconds later the commotion began again and within minutes the woods were quiet as the deer went down the hill. I’ll always be guessing what they were, but I’ll never know. That’s all a part of hunting. I was close, but no cigar.
About 8 o’clock I could hear something below me walking through the leaves. A doe and a fawn appeared in front of me a few minutes later as they headed up the mountain. It was cool to have them within 10 yards and never know I was there. There’s nothing quite like that feeling. An hour later I caught some movement in the brush on the hill above me. I could see antlers shining in the sun. Not sure what it had for a rack I rested my gun on a branch and waited. When he stepped out from behind the tree I could see it was a really nice 6-pointer with great potential. I eased my finger of the trigger and decided to let him pass. He wasn’t something I wanted to put my tag on. If it was 20 years ago I probably would have pulled the trigger.
I spent the morning on the same watch where I killed my first buck almost 30 years ago……………where does time go? Although it seems like a lifetime ago, it also seems like yesterday. It’s hard to grasp how many things have happened since that day and how time got away from me so fast. I’d like to stop the minute hand on the clock, but that’s impossible, so I take it day by day. It felt awesome to be in that place again. I can’t complain because there’s a lot of sign and some good buck sign. It’s also a place that I know has absolutely no human interference. What a great day to be in the woods. I jumped a deer this evening and I checked a camera. I was surprised to find the deer I passed in the morning on my camera. It’s the first picture I got of him and the picture was taken 1.2 miles from where I passed him. Here he is.
