Getting out there is the first layer. Putting ourselves in the woods amongst the critters is a great feeling, as is pitting ourselves against ever-wary wildlife. Actually seeing deer adds much to the experience, adding another stratum of satisfaction. Seeing legal deer heaps another layer atop it all, and actually taking a deer adds several, often building up to a peak of enjoyment and accomplishment that's very hard to match.
Such was my experience on this particular hunt. I'd headed to a friend's hunting property in Georgia, along with Dad and some friends. After getting unpacked, I hustled to the woods to hunt for the last hour before dark. In that hour, I saw a button buck warily walking along, and what was probably a big doe feeding right at dusk. I wasn't 100% sure that she was a she, however, so I held my fire. We were hunting for does or big bucks.
The next morning dawned icy and clear, with the temperature in the low twenties. I'd headed for the woods well before light, and was in the stand in plenty of time... and I didn't have to wait long.
Buck Stop
About an hour after daylight, I heard something in the thick woods behind the stand, where squirrels run rampant. I wrote it off as a squirrel and stayed still in my seat. Then I heard some hoofbeats from the same area. "If that's a squirrel," I thought, "I want it!" Such was the odd thought that went through my head. (I get strange ideas when I sit alone in a deer stand.)
I stood and turned, watching the almost-impenetrable brushy woods. After a while I had the urge to sit down and forget about it. So I checked my watch and decided to give it another five minutes, because many's the time I've written something off too early.
Not long after that, I saw something moving right-to-left through a small hole in the leaves. It was a shadow! I tried to connect the shadow with whatever was casting it, but no dice, the brush was just too thick. A few seconds later, however, the shadow-caster walked into view - or perhaps I should say semi-view. I caught a glimpse of antlers on the whitetail deer as it passed by a couple more holes in the brush.
I could tell the buck was angling towards a wide trail that I could see well from the stand, so I got ready for him. It seemed like thirty minutes I waited, but it was more likely thirty seconds, if that. As the buck walked across the trail, I spoke to him. What I said in a low voice was, "Maaa."
He stopped and turned his head my way, and I could see that he was a legal buck, with eight points. Not long ago, this alone would have been enough for me to make him mine. But the antlers weren't very large and in fact were a bit on the skinny side, with short tines, and the spread was well inside the ears. The land owners up there prefer to take only big bucks, so I held my fire. He gazed in my direction for a while, and then looked the other way down the trail for even longer. He then walked placidly away, into the woods.
I have very little experience in letting legal bucks walk away, but that's what I did that morning, the first morning of my hunt. It was exciting, exhilirating, and odd.
A while later I looked down the same trail and saw the rear end of a big deer just disappearing into the woods. Disappointing to be sure, but it was better than having missed seeing it entirely. And here I was, hadn't been on the property for more than 24 hours and had seen four deer with one of them being a legal buck. Life was good.
(Continued)
