The weather forecast was way off this morning. We woke up to some pretty nasty winds and freezing rain. It was plain ol’ miserable outside. I felt very comfortable in the tent, but I also know I’ve killed some really good bucks in the crappy weather over the years. Last night I showed dad some of the video I was able to take of the bucks I saw. It got him pretty pumped up, so he decided to sit out by me in hopes of seeing one of these good bucks.
At daylight he saw a nice buck cruising the field. Deer walked by him the entire time he was getting settled into his stand. At 8:30 he got a glance at a buck headed toward him. He could tell it was wide and had some good tines on one side. With all the images from my video in his mind he got pretty excited, settled the pin behind the shoulder when the buck stopped, and let him have it. The buck bounded away and stood there looking around. After a couple seconds he started teetering and suddenly fell over. Dad’s first Kansas buck was on the ground.
When I went over to help him with the tree I could see the utter dismay in his face and through his actions. He was angry with himself and very disappointed. He let the excitement get the best of him and lost his head. The buck was nowhere near what he thought it was. He had passed a handful of deer already that were larger than this buck. On top of that it had broken tines. It just wasn’t a good situation. He felt like he let everyone down and I felt his pain. I knew he was a little embarrassed because of how big he thought the deer was. In the end we got some incredible tasting venison out of the buck, so I was pretty excited about that because there’s nothing better than a few tasty steaks, burgers and snack sticks to much on throughout the year.
This evening I hunted in the plot where I killed my buck last year. The weather never let up. The freezing rain continued. After getting in the stand I realized I had a problem. The stand had turned to ice, which made moving treacherous. As I tried figuring out a way to get to the ground without getting injured I spotted a shooter buck chasing a doe across the pasture. There were also a doe and two fawns hanging around as well as two other bucks. When I tried to draw my bow the cams and cable guard were frozen solid. I could’t draw the bow at all. After the deer disappeared I tugged on it as hard as I could and the ice started crackling and popping as the cams set free. I’m pretty sure this could only happen to me. Hopefully I have a little better luck in the next few days.
