Most of my season so far has been spent watching over corn piles trying to get my 9 year old son a shot at a nice buck. He did not feel like hunting yesterday afternoon so I decided to switch things up and go look for a new spot to sit for the afternoon. The White Oaks are still dropping like crazy at my house so I decided to go check on an old stand my dad used to hunt in the middle of a group of White Oak trees bordering a creek. This spot is a picture perfect bottleneck where the SMZ gets really narrow between the creek and a big stand of thinned pines.
As soon as I headed towards the stand I started seeing scrapes and rubs, when I reached the White Oaks the ground was torn up underneath them. I even found a big patch of deer hair and piece of broken tine where it looked like two bucks had a heck of a fight. I could still smell them, that rutting buck smell. I knew I was going to hunt there so I decided to sneak out as quickly and quietly as possible. I got back to my truck, changed clothes, grabbed my bow, and headed back in. On my way back I forgot that I hadn't even checked on the old ladder stand my dad had put there. No one had hunted it in several years and when I got there I saw that a dead tree had fallen on it. Luckily it was not damaged and I was able to tighten up the straps and secure it to the tree again. I climbed up and got settled in at around 4:00. I am not a fan of ladder stands, especially short ones like this 12' or so stand I am hunting, but there was so much cover around me from lack of trimming that I knew I wouldn't get picked off. The wind was perfect, and I was anxious to see what would show up to eat acorns. Just before 6:00, getting a little bored, I decided to rattle. I hit the horns together just a few times and immediately heard limbs breaking back behind me. I rushed to get the horns hung on a limb above me and grabbed my bow, while watching a set of antlers trotting towards me through the brush. I had one shooting lane which was under the White Oak trees and luckily that is exactly where he was headed. I drew back my bow and as soon as he hit the opening I grunted at him stopping him at 30 yards from me. I let the arrow fly and hit him perfectly. He took off and I listened for a crash but never heard it. I decided to give him a little bit of time just in case so I text my brother and asked him to meet me at dark. Everything had happened so fast that I wasn't even sure how many points he had, and I was hoping there wouldn't be any ground shrinkage when we found him. We took up the trail at dark and found him within 100 yards piled up in a briar patch. He was even better than I thought! We scored him this morning at 139 1/8 gross. He may not be the biggest deer I have ever killed but if the actual hunt itself had a score, he would be at the top!
As soon as I headed towards the stand I started seeing scrapes and rubs, when I reached the White Oaks the ground was torn up underneath them. I even found a big patch of deer hair and piece of broken tine where it looked like two bucks had a heck of a fight. I could still smell them, that rutting buck smell. I knew I was going to hunt there so I decided to sneak out as quickly and quietly as possible. I got back to my truck, changed clothes, grabbed my bow, and headed back in. On my way back I forgot that I hadn't even checked on the old ladder stand my dad had put there. No one had hunted it in several years and when I got there I saw that a dead tree had fallen on it. Luckily it was not damaged and I was able to tighten up the straps and secure it to the tree again. I climbed up and got settled in at around 4:00. I am not a fan of ladder stands, especially short ones like this 12' or so stand I am hunting, but there was so much cover around me from lack of trimming that I knew I wouldn't get picked off. The wind was perfect, and I was anxious to see what would show up to eat acorns. Just before 6:00, getting a little bored, I decided to rattle. I hit the horns together just a few times and immediately heard limbs breaking back behind me. I rushed to get the horns hung on a limb above me and grabbed my bow, while watching a set of antlers trotting towards me through the brush. I had one shooting lane which was under the White Oak trees and luckily that is exactly where he was headed. I drew back my bow and as soon as he hit the opening I grunted at him stopping him at 30 yards from me. I let the arrow fly and hit him perfectly. He took off and I listened for a crash but never heard it. I decided to give him a little bit of time just in case so I text my brother and asked him to meet me at dark. Everything had happened so fast that I wasn't even sure how many points he had, and I was hoping there wouldn't be any ground shrinkage when we found him. We took up the trail at dark and found him within 100 yards piled up in a briar patch. He was even better than I thought! We scored him this morning at 139 1/8 gross. He may not be the biggest deer I have ever killed but if the actual hunt itself had a score, he would be at the top!
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