Been waiting since October 1st for the weather and my work schedule to synch up.
Can only hunt weekends and for some reason since the season opened in Ok on Oct 1 every weekend we've had N or NE winds.
That just won't work with where I set up my bow stand.
FINALLY got a break and yesterday AM the wind switched to SE so off I went.
Got to my stand and bumped a buck and doe out at 6:15 as I was getting in.
Had forgotten my headlamp so I climbed up in the dark and got settled in.
Wasn't 5 minutes later I heard a deer walking around under me.
Saw a deer jump into back corner of the feeder pen around 6:20.
I heard another deer walking up to the feeder, looked down and it was right at the base of my ladder stand looking at the deer in the feeder pen.
It jumped and and I could see their outlines moving around and hear corn crunching.
Next thing I know, I hear antlers rattling together ; they are sparring with one another so knew I had two bucks in the pen, but no idea if they were shooters.
At 6:40 I thought I heard another deer coming in from my right. I slowly turned my head and looked and there was a doe standing 10 feet from the ladder looking at the bucks under the feeder. She jumps in the pen and in about 2 secs later jumps out and trots away.
As I was watching her exit I happened to look where she was headed and saw another deer's face about 200 yards NNW of me .
Still too dark to get a positive ID but I knew I was a deer. This deer was directly downwind of me and I never dreamed it would make it all the way to the stand without smelling me, so I kinda half way ignored it. But I couldn't completely for I kept expecting it to blow, stomp it's hooves and alert the bucks in the feeder pen. Looks like a doe in the dim light though.
Fast forward, 7:05 AM.
The two bucks are still in the feeder.
The third deer is now 40 yards away with it's head down.
It steps into view as it raises it's head. Nope not a doe. It's one of the deer on the list of shooters.
He comes up to the feeder and starts raking the daylights out of a Bois d'arc tree with his antlers.
Finally he jumps into the feeder pen.
At 7:10 I shot him.
Broadside at 16 yards.
He jumped at the string and ran off about 30 yards then stopped and started wagging his tail like a dog.
I'm horrified thinking " How the hell did you miss that shot ? "
He just calmly walked away, pausing a couple of time to wag his tail.
At about 60 yards I see him wag his tail and then lay down .
I thought WTH ?
The longest 20 minutes of my life later I found out I had double lunged him.
October is off to a great start.
Can only hunt weekends and for some reason since the season opened in Ok on Oct 1 every weekend we've had N or NE winds.
That just won't work with where I set up my bow stand.
FINALLY got a break and yesterday AM the wind switched to SE so off I went.
Got to my stand and bumped a buck and doe out at 6:15 as I was getting in.
Had forgotten my headlamp so I climbed up in the dark and got settled in.
Wasn't 5 minutes later I heard a deer walking around under me.
Saw a deer jump into back corner of the feeder pen around 6:20.
I heard another deer walking up to the feeder, looked down and it was right at the base of my ladder stand looking at the deer in the feeder pen.
It jumped and and I could see their outlines moving around and hear corn crunching.
Next thing I know, I hear antlers rattling together ; they are sparring with one another so knew I had two bucks in the pen, but no idea if they were shooters.
At 6:40 I thought I heard another deer coming in from my right. I slowly turned my head and looked and there was a doe standing 10 feet from the ladder looking at the bucks under the feeder. She jumps in the pen and in about 2 secs later jumps out and trots away.
As I was watching her exit I happened to look where she was headed and saw another deer's face about 200 yards NNW of me .
Still too dark to get a positive ID but I knew I was a deer. This deer was directly downwind of me and I never dreamed it would make it all the way to the stand without smelling me, so I kinda half way ignored it. But I couldn't completely for I kept expecting it to blow, stomp it's hooves and alert the bucks in the feeder pen. Looks like a doe in the dim light though.
Fast forward, 7:05 AM.
The two bucks are still in the feeder.
The third deer is now 40 yards away with it's head down.
It steps into view as it raises it's head. Nope not a doe. It's one of the deer on the list of shooters.
He comes up to the feeder and starts raking the daylights out of a Bois d'arc tree with his antlers.
Finally he jumps into the feeder pen.
At 7:10 I shot him.
Broadside at 16 yards.
He jumped at the string and ran off about 30 yards then stopped and started wagging his tail like a dog.
I'm horrified thinking " How the hell did you miss that shot ? "
He just calmly walked away, pausing a couple of time to wag his tail.
At about 60 yards I see him wag his tail and then lay down .
I thought WTH ?
The longest 20 minutes of my life later I found out I had double lunged him.
October is off to a great start.
