Saturday Morning

The alarm sounded at 4:40 this morning.  We heard rain when we awoke.  Truth be told, if we weren't doing a Live Hunt, I might just not have gotten out of bed this morning!  But, we all dressed and then headed out to the park, where we had left the trailer with all our gear.  It seemed safer at the park, where the ranger station is manned around the clock, than leaving it here at our luxurious hotel!  Dressed in rain gear, we all headed to our respective stand locations, except Casey, who opted to sit with me in the comfort of my ICE Blind rather than exposed to the elements in his Swivel Limb.  We weren't sure what to expect when we reached the ICE Blind, as there had been a steady downpour for most of the night, and I wasn't sure how the ICE Blind would hold up to the rains.  Casey and I entered the blind, and were delighted to see that other than three inches of water on the ground below, the chair in the blind and the inside of the blind itself were dry! 

As we situated our gear, we actually became quite warm, protected from the rain and the wind.  We sat in comfort for the entire morning, without even the slightest discomfort in spite of the nasty conditions outside!

We sat in darkness for about 30 minutes before it became light enough to see outside.  We quietly lowered the windows and began our vigil in search of deer.  Somehow, a deer managed to slip in right in front of us without us seeing it approaching!  It was 18 yards away, right in our shooting lane, looking right at us and we had never seen it come in!  Satisfied that we posed no danger, the deer began to feed in front of us.  I positioned for a shot, and just as the deer began to turn broadside, I prepared to draw.  Casey, observing through his binoculars in the low light conditions told me not to shoot, that it was a button buck! 

"Are you sure?" I inquired as I motioned for him to hand me the binoculars.  Looking again through the binoculars, I could see small "humps" on the top of the "doe's" head.  Oh man, it was tempting to shoot and claim ignorance!  I don't think the antlers had broken the skin, though Casey seemed to think otherwise.  Either way, I didn't shoot the buck, and we watched him in front of us for several minutes.  I decided I would attempt to draw back on the buck to see if he could hear any noise.  My cable slide has been making noise, but I managed to draw undetected, and placed my 20 yard pin over the deer's heart, careful to maintain pressure with my index finger on the back of the trigger of my Scott Mongoose release.  After muttering "you're dead" a couple of times, I let down and we continued to watch the deer until it ventured off. 

We later saw a small spike on the other side of the fence.  He came right to the corner of the fence, but never crossed.  I hesitated to pull my camera from the plastic, waterproof bag, but did so just long enough to take a few pictures of the spike. 

We saw several doe within about 80 yards, but all of them stayed on the other side of the fence, which is on another property.  As we watched, we could see the does become nervous.  Finally, one of the does darted off toward the fence.  I knew a buck would be following. Sure enough, I saw a big bodied buck following closely behind.  I could see that it had a decent rack.  Casey, watching through his binoculars, told me to get the camera.  He indicated it was a very nice buck.  I got the camera, but the buck had disappeared in the brush and we weren't able to get any footage.

When we left our blind, we decided to walk back down the road to the north fence.  As we walked, we saw at least a dozen deer run off into the brush that had been bedded within 100 yards of the blind!  I don't think they detected us in the blind or as we left, as they didn't run away until we were walking down the road, well away from the blind.

We made our way back to Glenn's pickup, and as we waited for Don and Glenn, we watched 8 or 10 deer cross the road at various locations.  I attempted to stalk one doe by circling around though the brush to get into position.  I managed to work my way around the deer, but as I closed to within 50 yards, there was no way to get into position due to the standing water that splashed loudly with each step. 

Glenn saw several deer from his PT200 ICE Blind, but was not able to get a shot.  Don watched a small six point from the comfort of his GH500 ICE Blind, but didn't see any does. 

I am even more impressed with the ICE Blind after this morning's hunt.  Sitting outside in a treestand exposed to the stiff wind, rain and cold would have been unbearable, especially without adequate rainwear.  However, in our ICE Blinds, we could have continued to sit in comfort for hours!

We're going to grab a quick bite to eat and rest for a little while, and then we'll go back out this afternoon to try to connect again.  The weather has let up a little, but it promises to be cold and damp for the entire weekend.  Check back tonight for this afternoon's update.