Hunting Sense

Rex over at Deer Camp Blog did a post recently about The Worst Mistake, and then started a Meme for others to share their experiences about the big one that got away. I had been meaning to do a post for it for some time now, but couldn’t decide on which time to do it on. After a very scientific method of pulling one from a hat, I have finally nailed it down and I’ll now share it with you.

I enjoy archery hunting much more than I do gun hunting, so I often hunt with my bow during rifle season. Because of that, I’m always on the lookout for a good spot to hunt while everyone else is out with their guns. One of the spots I found was a small piece of public land only open to bow and shotgun and surrounded by private land on three sides and a road on the fourth. Across the road was a larger tract of public land where rifle hunting wasn’t allowed either.

After doing some scouting, it was apparent the deer were being pushed onto the smaller tract of land from hunting pressure on the private land. They would then travel some well used trails, go down to the road, and then cross to the larger tract. The smaller spot seemed like a perfect place to set up, since it basically served as a funnel.

It was late in the evening the first time I hunted there, and since time was at a premium and there were plenty of cedar trees mixed in with the hardwoods, I chose to hunt from the ground. I found a nice cedar fairly close to a major trail leading from a low spot in the fence that formed the border to the private property and tied the branches back to make a natural blind. My shooting options were limited, but I felt that if anything would show itself that evening, it would be coming from that direction.

I had only been there for probably about twenty minutes when I heard a sound coming from the right. Peeking through the cedar branches, I made out patches of brown as a deer worked its way along through the woods in the direction I was facing. All my careful calculating based on the trail, the low spot in the fence, and the wind direction had failed me; the deer had come in from the wrong direction. All I could do was wait and hope that it would move into position for me to get a shot if it was a buck.

The deer milled around, browsing, for quite some time, and I was finally able to spot the rack through the limbs. It was no more than fifteen yards from me and sported a nice ten point rack, and I still didn’t have a shot. At last, he moved forward a little more and stopped to look toward the private property. With dark quickly coming, I decided that I would try to inch my way out to be able to get a shot, or else I may not get a chance.

Already on my knees, I began wiggling my way out from the cedar tree and prepared to turn my bow. As I moved around, the limb of my bow caught on one of the branches I had tied back. With a loud whooshing sound, the branch came loose and swung into me. All I saw was white tail as the buck turned and bolted down the hill toward the road. It would have been the nicest buck I had ever got, and my impatience to try out a good spot and banking on deer actually being predictable had caused me the chance to take him.

I learned from that mistake, and wish I could say I never missed another opportunity, but no matter what we learn, or what we do, there is always the chance for things to happen in a way other than the way we planned for. It was one more chapter to add to my ever growing book of lessons hard learned, though, and that at least counts for something, right?

hunting, deer stories, the one we missed, the one that got away, mistakes, lessons learned