| I made my way again to
the comfort of the Gametamer while Glenn and Casey
each hunted their new respective setups.
About an hour after I arrived, I heard footsteps
in the brush behind me. I turned slowly and
saw a deer approaching from the dry pond.
The doe unexpectedly turned toward the fence which
was now to my right as I faced the deer.
While she crossed and then paralleled the fence
line toward me, a second doe continued on the
trail and walked directly under my stand. I
quickly and quietly positioned the camera where I
hoped the doe would stop and offer a shot
opportunity. The doe stopped before she made
it into the view of the camera. As she stood
at 14 yards, I debated whether to attempt the shot
without capturing it on video, wait to see if she
would continue forward until she reached the
camera, or attempt to adjust the camera and try to
get her where she was. As I moved the
camera, she continued to the previous are and then
crossed the fence. Both does fed along the
fence, in and out of various shooting lanes, while
a small spike continued to feed in front, just
outside of a shooting lane. The does
approached the fence several times, giving
indication that they were going to cross back to
the area where I had the camera focused and
recording, but would back away each time. I
decided to direct my attention toward the spike,
and had to reposition both my bow and the camera,
which I was able to do successfully. I kept
an eye on the does behind while I waited for the
buck to feed into the shooting lane in
front. Suddenly, for whatever reason while I
was watching the does behind, the spike spooked
and headed back toward the dry pond, while the
does ran a short distance into the brush. I
thought my chance had ended, but moments later I
saw the does walking back toward the fence.
I repositioned the camera, pressed record and
raised my bow just as the lead doe arrived at the
fence. She jumped the fence, just beyond
where I had the camera positioned. I
expected her to walk back to the corn, less than
five feet from where she was now walking, but she
continued on down into the creek, followed by the
second and then joined by the spike who had
circled around the other side, and then they all
disappeared into the creek away from
me.
It was still fairly early in the evening, and I
hoped that since the deer had discovered the corn
that they might return just before dark to get
another taste, but it was not to be.
Glenn and Casey each saw several does, but none
within range. Glenn had a group feeding on
the corn that he had spread a ways down the road
in hopes of turning anything that crossed away
from his stand and redirecting him to his shooting
lane. It worked as planned, except that he
ran out of daylight before the deer arrived.
He also called in a pair of bobcats but was unable
to get a shot. |
Introduction
