He took the Low Road...

October 13, 2007

It was good to be in the woods, it was the perfect place to reflect on the mornings events. The family and I spent the morning at a charity march for a support group for parents of newborn and infant deaths. I was holding my 3 month old son when they started reading the names of all the children who passed. I thought just how blessed I am to have healthy children and couldn’t imagine what these parents are going through... So it was relieving to take my mind from these thoughts and try and just enjoy a beautiful afternoon in the deer woods. There was a light breeze and its constant shifting worried me as it would occasionally shift towards the bedding area. This was my first afternoon hunt of the year and I didn’t know what to expect with the deer movement. All I could do was use my past years knowledge. The acorns were still falling and I expected the deer to slowly feed their way through the oaks towards the pasture land on the adjacent property. It took over an hour but that is exactly what the deer did. The first was a group of 6 does, they emerged from the thicket, one by one. Crossing the bridal path and they entered the oaks using a deer trail 20 yds away. They spent the next 40 minutes feeding on acorns until they finally crossed the gully and out of my life...For the next few hours I watched does leave the thicket and munch on the oaks droppings. Their patterns were the same, I would first get a glimpse of a leg or tail within the thicket. They would all cross the bridal path in the exact same location and take one of two trails past my stand. The more popular route passed my stand at 15 yards, the secondary trail was just over 20 yards but they both emptied into the oak flat between 20 and 30 yards away from my perch. There seemed to always be a feeding deer within 20 yards of my stand, which made it difficult to relax. Standing at attention, with bow at the ready can be tiring...

Like the others before, I first caught some movement in the thicket and I strained my eyes for a clearer view. I could see there was two deer following the typical path except this time I saw antlers. My heart went into overdrive, I told myself to calm down, breath deep, take control of the situation. I was finally able to calm as I identified the bucks as smaller deer. They exited the thicket and stopped in the middle of the bridal path, the lead buck was a high fork horn but the second buck was much bigger than I initially thought. He was a beautiful 8 pt with long tines; this was the same buck I saw in early September that I estimated as a 110 class buck. He was standing in the middle of the path, 10 yards from my stand, but with the 4 pt just as close, any movement on my part would have given away my position. I just needed the 8 pt to follow the smaller buck and all the previous deer take the trail and offer a 15 yard shot. But like all big bucks, he didn’t follow the herd, he fed behind my tree at one point he was less than 5 yards away crunching acorns. He eventually followed the bridal path, where I don’t have any shot opportunities, and faded out of sight, leaving only the 4 pt and a few does in the oaks. But I didn’t wait too long before I heard footsteps behind me. Maybe the buck is returng; I look over and see antlers but couldn’t tell if it was the same deer. He stood staring at the oak flat with his head obstructed by branches. My heart is racing again..Calm Down, Breath Deep…He makes a step and I see a nice high 6 pt...He follows the same trail as the others and feeds 20 yards away, occasionally poking the 4 pt with his rack...I hear more footsteps behind me, maybe the 8 pt, NO, it was a fox. He trotted past the deer with hardly a glance from the bucks. Five Minutes later, more footsteps, maybe the 8 pt, NO, another fox. He followed the same exact route as the first. A few minutes go by and I hear commotion in the gully. The fox are chasing each other…The deer all slowly exit the oak flat as the sun does the same…I saw 17 deer in all including 3 bucks and two fox…Another exciting day in the deer woods.