The Hunt -- Day Three: Finally, Things Start Picking Up

I wish I could tell you that I went to my stand in the morning and the wind had died down and I found myself surrounded by deer. But it simply wasn't the case. Though the wind had gotten a little better, there was still no movement in my area. In fact, the corn was literally beginning to pile up beneath the feeder. I surmised that because my stand is out in the open, where the wind is not buffered by heavy trees, it was even more affected by windy conditions than stands being hunted by others. When I came back to camp and told my B-I-L that I had seen absolutely nothing, he replied, "ok, that's enough of that. This evening, you're hunting in my stand."

My B-I-L has been a member for 3 years so he has the maximum 3 different hunting areas. He had been sitting in a stand he calls the "GP-120" (which is because it's located on 120 acres leased from Georgia Pacific) since opening day, and had seen a number of deer. The GP-120 stand has three long shooting lanes -- A 275 yard lane that is the road you drive in on, which will be on your right shoulder at the 3 O'clock (the "front" lane), a 170 yard lane directly in front of you at the 12 O'clock (the "stump" lane), and a 300 yard lane on your left shoulder at the 9 O'clock (the "back" lane).

This photo looks down the back lane on your left shoulder.

As you can see, it's in a much more heavily wooded area with tall, mature soft and hard timber.

When my B-I-L sent me out in the afternoon, he told me that at about 4:30, I was going to see a large 7-point buck on the Back shooting lane, and I was going to shoot it. He had been watching this particular deer and several others for days, but is at the point in his hunting career where he's only interested in two things -- a bigger mountable deer than he already has (most likely 12 points or better) and filling the freezer with older does. At 4:10 p.m., I received a text from my B-I-L telling me to get ready. Within 5 minutes, I saw my first deer on the Front lane (which looks a lot like the Back lane, only slightly wider and resembling more of a road). It was a little spike at about 250 yards. He gradually made his way up to a mound where we had scattered corn, about 120 yards away. He eventully stepped off the lane and headed into the woods. In about 15 minutes, he emerged directly in front of me in the Stump lane, at about 60 yards. He slowly made his way to the end of the Stump lane and disappeared. In all, he was in sight about a half hour, which was by far the longest deer encounter I had to date.

Meanwhile, before he left the Stump lane, I noticed 2 more deer on the Front lane, once again near the very end of it at about 250 yards. With the field glasses, I was able to determine that these were two young does. They took the same path that the little spike followed, and gradually worked their way toward me until they settled on the area we scattered corn. I put the scope on both of them at various times and contemplated taking the larger of the two. In a few minutes, I decided I was going to hold out for a buck -- I still had the rest of the evening and 2 more days to hunt. Still, I practiced putting my Leupold VX-R red dot reticle on the kill zone and imagined squeezing off a solid, on-target shot. I was surprised by how calm I felt as I looked down the scope at my target.

The two does stayed in the Front lane well into darkness. I waited as long as I could, hoping they would leave before I climbed down and drove back down over the same lane on which they had stood the past hour plus. Eventually, I climbed down and got into my Pathfinder, which I had parked in the woods almost directly beneath the stand.

I came back to camp reinvigorated. I had neither seen nor shot the 7-point, but watching a handful of small deer for almost 2 hours really improved my psyche. My B-I-L was disappointed I had not shot anything, but I went to bed convinced that Day 4 would be my day -- I planned to head back to GP 120 in the morning and tag one.