After a slow couple hunts in the opening week, the first weekend of Illinois bow season met with cooler than average temperatures and perfect winds for me to slide into a stand I affectionately call the "hurt locker" due to a number of injuries that occurred to myself and my son while setting the stand in August.
Despite being skunked on 2 of my first 3 hunts the clear sky, 37 degree temp and steady west/nw winds had me optimistic. As shooting time arrived and nothing was happening in the deer woods, my optimism began to wane a bit, but by 7:00 A.M. I had spotted my first movement. A doe group moved across in front of me 100 yards out or so before turning and crossing the field I was set up on just out of range. That opened the flood gates, as no more than 20 minutes went by at any one time without a deer sighting. I had deer at all points of the compass around the stand, with a majority of antlerless deer being constantly harrassed by three smaller bucks that were chasing them all over the timber. On three occasions I came close to a shot but it just seemed like the deer wanted to cross into the timber just out of range. This action continued through 10 a.m. when doe and a very large button buck came in and bedded within 35 yards of the stand. I watched them for 30 minutes before a doe I had not spotted walked in behind me and busted me moving, sounding the alarm they exited the area and I climbed down and snuck out in time to make a soccer game in town. All tallied I had seen 30+ antlerless deer and 3 different bucks (some several times over the morning).
On the way out I scouted a sight closer to the days action for a climber and made a plan for the following morning.
October 7, 2012: The saving grace of a doe...
I enjoy every moment from first spotting a deer to watching that arrow disappear behind the shoulder and it matters not if it were a buck or a doe. I set goals for myself of harvesting mature deer and not by score. I consider myself an equal oppurtunity bowhunter, and I relish for the chance to kill those does for my freezer that my family enjoys so much throughout the year. So this summer/early fall, I have monitored trail cameras heavily and on my in-laws farm where I spend most of my time, I have seen an alarming rate of almost 80 to 20 doe to buck percentage...that's 4-1 for those counting. So with little or no mature bucks to speak of on camera or spotted, I set my heart on taking a mature doe with my new bow.
Climber in tow and another uncharacteristic 38 degree october morning, I settled in about 20 feet up in the tree I had scouted in the previous days hunt. Unlike yesterday, the morning winds were non existent for the first hour, it was dead calm and relatively nothing was moving. I finally spotted some does and a small buck from yesterday in the far end of the field. This is the part I love about deer hunting. It had been an hour since I saw or heard a thing and I was in the process of planning an early departure when I glanced up to see a doe headed directly at me on the field edge. Perched above a dry slough 20 yards off the field edge, all I needed to do was stand up and wait. My heart rate jumped up and my breathing coincided (doe fever I guess), as she closed the distance and stopped as I came to full draw. The arrow found its mark and she crashed down just a 60 yards away. Just like that the first deer of the year was down and the season was up and running with a great first week!
 |
| 1st deer of 2012 |
No comments:
Post a Comment