When I awoke at 5 a.m. on Day 4, I had a renewed bounce in my step, despite being exhausted from all of the early morning wakeups and late night catchups with family members. I was going back to a stand where the action had been vigorous only hours before. On top of that, a front had moved through the area overnight. The wind had died down significantly, the temperature had dropped into the mid 40's, and there was a slight drizzle on the tail of heavy overnight rains. In other words, conditions were perfect.
As I laced up my boots and started down to the cook shack for coffee, I remembered what one of the campers had said to me the night before -- DON'T wait until your last day to take a shot. I didn't plan on it. Today was the perfect day, and I had every intention of shooting something -- a big doe, the 7-pointer my B-I-L had seen so many times, whatever. As I walked up to the guys gathered around drinking coffee, I told them today was the day I was going to shoot a deer.
As I drove into the GP 120 stand, the first thing I noticed is that it had REALLY rained overnight. In fact, I had to put the Pathfinder into 4 wheel drive to get through the mudholes and make my way back in. But I managed and was in the stand and ready to go well before daylight.
Just as it became light enough to see the end of the Front lane (which I had driven on only a half hour earlier), I saw 2 deer standing down at the very end, a good 275 yards away. One thing I forgot to mention earlier. That lane, which is also the road you drive in on, ends at 275 yards because there is a 90 degree right hand turn onto it. In other words, the deer were standing basically on the turn in the road. That said, if you were driving toward the deer (like you do when you leave to go back to camp) and didn't make the turn, you would drive directly into the woods where a small trail came onto the road. It might be big enough to drive an ATV down, but it mostly looks like a game trail. You can see (with the right optics) up that trail about 30 yards. This will become relevant shortly.
In any event, I'm watching the 2 does thinking that they are likely heading toward me, to the mound with corn where the others had stopped the day before. They did move closer, but veered of the road to my right at about 200 yards where they were nibbling on some kind of foliage. I looked to my left for a second and saw another deer on the Back lane, only about 75 yards out. This one was close enough that I could tell right away it was a small spike buck. He walked to within 50 yards, straight toward me. As he got closer, I could see he was the same spike I had seen the evening before. At the 50 yard mark, he left the Back lane and walked into the woods. I went back to watching the does. By this time, they had crossed back onto the road, and had veered off to my left side. This whole time, I'm texting with my B-I-L about the early activity I'd seen. I told him they appeared to have left the lane and went into the woods, and I suspected would pop up again in the Stump lane in front of me, but that they were so far out there it might take them a good 30 minutes to traverse the woods and emerge again.
I grabbed my field glasses and watched the end of the trail, hoping maybe they'd come back onto the road and drift down into the 125 yard range where I could determine if they were big enough to shoot. At this point, I was READY to shoot a decent doe. As I was looking down the road through the glasses, I happened to be lucky enough to be looking at that exact moment. On the little trail all the way beyond the corner, out of nowhere a big buck was trotting directly toward me. His rack was well outside of his ears and well off of his head, so I knew he was a good buck -- at least 8 points. I put my glasses down and grabbed my rifle. He trotted up the EXACT trail the does had taken, straight onto the corner portion of the lane about 250 yards out, in to about 225, then off to the right side, disappearing for a minute. I figured out pretty quickly that he was on their scent, following them step for step, so I wasn't surprised when he stepped back onto the road and crossed to the point where they had entered the woods. What I was surprised by, however, is how shaky I was trying to put the reticle on him at that distance and feel like I would make a good shot. I never felt like I could. In a few seconds, he was gone. In a flash, it seemed. In all, I'm going to say it was about 12 seconds from the time I first saw him until he was in the woods and gone. And during that entire time, he was trotting, while I was shaking.
I cursed beneath my breath and told myself I needed to calm down. I texted curse words to my B-I-L about missing out on a good buck. Less than a minute later, I looked to my left and standing no more than 50 yards from me in the back lane, walking straight away from me briskly, was the largest buck I have ever personally seen in the woods. His rack was enormous, as was his body. I quickly repositioned my chair, sand bag, and finally my rifle. By the time I found him in the scope, he was already over 100 yards away, and still walking directly away at a brisk pace. I thought I had been nervous before, but now the red dot on my VX-R reticle was bouncing all over the place. I kept whispering for him to turn, but he just kept walking straight away. I contemplated briefly trying to place a shot through the shoulder blades and into the neck, but he was far enough away (130 yards plus) that the angle didn't really present that shot anymore. I knew I didn't have long to decide. In only a few seconds, he was 170 yards away and angling to the woods where I knew he would disappear. Just as he reached the edge of the woods, out of desperation I whistled loudly, hoping he would turn and freeze just long enough for me to try to place one in the kill zone. He never even reacted. Two seconds later, the biggest buck I've ever seen walked into the woods and was gone.
For a moment, I think I actually put my head down. I couldn't believe I had not been able to get a shot on that buck. I looked at my hands and they were still trembling. I let out a big sigh, raised my head, and glanced to my right. Once again, at the end of the Front lane, I saw another deer. I saw antlers, which at that distance, was a good sign.
I quickly texted to my B-I-L, "I'm Surrounded!" I couldn't believe how many deer I had seen in a 30 minute window, and now, after failing to get a shot at two good bucks, a third likely shootable buck had presented himself. I grabbed my field glasses to investigate.
(To be continued in the next installment!)
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