Deer Year

It's funny how the deer season works out.  On an early October evening I had a really good 7-pointer step out of the woods and into the corn field I was sitting over.  By the time he followed the ditch bank to where I was waiting it was well past legal shooting light and I passed on the 12-yard shot opportunity.

After that I moved tree stands around, hunted hard, and watched helplessly as the corn was picked and the big 7-pointer became a memory. 

For a few weeks I hunted this farm and others, but never had a sighting of even a decent buck.  Then on October 23rd I hunted a great farm I've seen numerous good bucks on, but never taken one from.  I snuck through a multiflora rose/honeysuckle thicket, down a path I'd cleared in August, to a new stand that I'd never been in.  Before I even had an arrow on my bow I had a buck trail a doe into the thicket in the pre-dawn.  Luckily, that buck stuck around until legal light, and I shot him inside of 10 yards before I even had time to get settled.

Just over a week later I had good friend Sean Collins up from Tennessee to hunt for a few days.  On our first afternoon out we immediately started seeing bucks, and in just over an hour had an encounter with a decent 2.5-year old 8-pointer.  Not 15 minutes later we spotted an even better buck headed our way, and I immediately recognized it at the big 7 I'd seen a month before.  Long story condensed, Sean shot that buck at 25 yards after I grunted and snort-wheezed him in.  It was awesome!

So I got to be part of not only my own bowkill this year, but played a role in Sean's success on the big 7-pointer that I'd spent so many hours thinking about.  Like I said, it's funny how deer season works out.



My October 23 bowkill, taken just after legal light on the first sit in a new stand.





Sean Collins with his November 2 bowkill.  Now that's a big 7-pointer!