I love the 5th of November. Killed a lot of deer on this date. I've done enough observing and scouting to this point in the trip, its time to hunt!
Woke up at 4am and hiked a mile and a half back into a east facing ridge where a funnel intersects it. A west wind was forecast with light rain all morning. Scouted the area a couple days before and it looked fishy. Found a tree and was set up by first light. At 730am a small buck chased a doe by me. At 745 it started raining. A light rain, but steady. At 9 I added a layer. It was cold November rain, and the guns and Rose's song played in my head on repeat. I ate a couple pop tarts and a fruit roll up at 930. I was sitting in my stand kind of hunched over to keep my face out of the wind. Every 30 seconds or so I'd survey the area around me. Which wasnt often enough.
At 1030 I scanned to the right and at the end of my scan, a deer was in the corner of my eye. I turned my head farther to see what it was and saw horns, big horns. I reached for my bow, clipped my release in and looked the other way thinking the deer was walking behind me. It wasnt there. I looked back to where I originally saw it. It wasnt there. I looked further away and he had ran backwards, now standing at 30yds. He must have saw me move when I looked at him or to grab my bow. I drew, told myself to go through my shot sequence, put my 20yd pin on his vitals and shot. As the arrow flew my heart sank. I didnt use the right pin and immediately knew it. The arrow stuck in the ground underneath him and he bolted.
I didnt feel the adrenaline until I was about to get down from my stand to inspect the arrow. I calmed myself down and placed off where he was when I originally saw him...9 yards. 9 freaking yards! He was an amazing deer, big tall pearl white tines. Lots of mass. I saw one split brow. Probably the biggest deer I've laid eyes on from a treestand. It stopped raining 5 minutes later.
I packed up. My head wasnt right and I had to put that behind me. Still 7 more days to hunt down here. Made some coffee at the car, ate some peanut butter and jelly and a cup of pudding.
Drove to another spot for the evening sit. There was a truck from west Virginia there with three guys walking into the woods. They stopped and I asked them where they were headed. Two were going the way I wanted to, but not nearly as far back. I asked if they minded if I walked past them on the way to where I wanted to go, and they were cool with it.
Saw a really big bodied buck at this spot observing a couple evenings prior. It's in a bottom where three ravines dump into a crp field. There is a creek running out of one. There are scrapes everywhere. As I got to the top if it and looked down I heard a deer running. Then I hear a grunt. There is a big chocolate racked buck pushing a doe out of the ravine the creek comes out of. There are three ways they could go, they skipped the first, now there is a 50/50 chance they could head my way. I drop my pack, grab my release out and put it on, nock and arrow and jump off to the side of the trail. I wait 5min, nothing. I throw my pack on and start walking down the hill, 50yds later the buck blows at me and storms off. He must have lost the doe and was coming back at me.
I get to where I want to be and hang my stand. It was a beautiful place to watch the woods. 10 minutes after I was set up, another buck is pushing a doe behind me but never in range. I heard him grunt a few times but never got a good look at him. I hate hunting bottoms, never see anything in range it feels like, but man, how do you ignore them? Definitely my guilty pleasure.
That was it for the night. Had pork loin, redskin potatoes and corn for dinner.
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