Missed...

GC

GC

Well-known member
Guess it was time, I haven't missed a deer in a good while. I did yesterday. I've passed a few shots so far this season that I wasn't comfortable with. Yesterday morning at grey dawn I was sitting 14' up a tree in my climber on a brushy saddle between two huge hollows. The saddle is on an oak ridge that saddles over to a big round knob which is a grown up thicket that deer bed up in. On each side is a several mile long timbered hollow. This is close to 3/4 mile from a gravel conservation trail.

The temperature was 39* at daylight. Walking in there were Screech Owls carrying on, a Great Horned doing his thing and turkeys yelping on both sides of the main ridge. It was sunny and the wind came up to about ten mph about 9:30. A bazillion squirrels kept me constantly scanning. It's close and tight here with only one place to shoot over twenty yards. After standing in my climber all morning I decided to take a break and have a couple slices of deer sausage and a swig of water. Sure enough...

Five minutes after sitting down I listened to yet another squirrel straight behind my tree rustling the leaves. I peeked around the tree just in case ya know, and sure enough I saw a big old fat square headed doe walking in a line that would take her about 5 yards beside me. I got stood up in my stand, dumped my sausage into my seat just as the doe hit my scent trail where I walked in. She stopped at 6 yards, nostrils flaring and I could see and hear her sucking air in. She carefully looked around, took a step to the side where I had stepped over a log and gave it a good smelling over. Looking around she spotted my pull up rope swinging in the breeze. That caused her to jump sideways, stop, then begin a stiff legged fast walk in a semi-circle around me. Other than standing up I hadn't moved when she was so close and spooky. Now I grabbed my bow off the hanger and came to full draw. The button hook she was traveling was taking her on a broadside path out further from me around some brush. I had ranged a downed log there at 34 yards earlier and she was several yards closer in the one clear area for a shot this far. My HHA single pin was set for 25 yards, thinking she was about 32 yards I knew my drop should be about 7" or 8". I bleated, she stopped, and I did something dumb by holding the pin just over her back. She was downhill and I wanted a higher entrance for an expected low exit. I made a smooth shot and watched the arrow skim clearly just over her back. After she trotted off I ranged where she had been standing and now think she was only about 27 - 28 yards. I held off fur and that's exactly where the arrow went. Clean miss!

At noon I collected my misguided arrow and packed up my gear to move out on to a spur ridge where bucks have a recently opened up scrape line. At 4:15 a small buck cruised the downwind side of the scrape line. I passed him. About 6:00 a lone doe came in directly downwind and at 42 yards caught my scent and hightailed it. At dark I descended the tree, gathered up my gear and packed out to the truck as coyotes howled in three different directions around me. What a great day in the Ozark public land timber!!!

 
Great story GC. At least your getting opportunities. My season sucks so far. Lots of tracks and sign but not the critters making them. Got a few does on the trail camera but haven't got to "meat" them yet.
 
I've seen 23 deer in three hunts. Not bad for the rocky big timber Ozark public ground I hunt. I've passed on a couple other deer and maybe that's why I shot at this one. I broke one of my rules, I've always felt if I had to hold off hair I shouldn't be shooting. And I shouldn't, I trashed the blades on my broadhead. Gonna head out Friday again. We need some more colder temperatures, it's going to be in the mid-70's again this weekend. The first really good cold snap we get its gonna explode in my stomping grounds.

Sorry for your lack of sightings. Hopefully that kicks into gear for you soon!
 
I was thankful for a clean miss. For an instant I thought I was going to spine her, super glad that didn't happen. No, she didn't duck the shot at all. I'm way back in the big timber in a sparsely populated county which is nearly all public land. These deer aren't buggered. I might only hunt the same place twice in a four month long season. I'll sit all day without hearing a man made sound. Gun season is different, there's more pressure, more traffic on the gravel roads, camps strung out here and there. After gun season ends the area is completely abandoned. Even more so than before as the few other bow hunters scattered around have either tagged out or quit. Makes for great predator hunting in the late season!
 
Same day as my miss, my son had an awesome experience. My son had dropped off the left side of this ridge I was telling about above and worked his way down into the holler below. This ridge is called "GC Ridge" by us because I found it back in about 1993 with a topo map and began scouting the area and hunting it off and on since. It's been good to us and we favor the area. The left holler is called the "Super Bowl" by us right under the ridge for its bowl like shape there. There are a half dozen spur ridges that tail out into the Super Bowl. There's lots of deer movement down in there but it's a big area with many places the deer move about.

My son was getting set up in the Super Bowl on a little point and just had his Lone Wolf climber bottom section locked around a tree when he saw a buck walking up the spur ridge toward him. His bow was laying on the ground about 4' away on the left, arrows on his pack the other side of him 3' away, release zipped in the pack. No way was he going to get a shot so he hugged up tight to the tree and waited to see what was going to happen. He knows this buck, it's now 3.5 years old and is a huge spike. My son has passed on this buck the last couple years watching the spikes just get bigger and bigger. The bucks spikes are thick and heavy, curve outward like a normal main beam might and are about 12" long now. The buck walked literally right beside the tree my son was snugged up against, stopped and looked, stuck his nose to within a foot of my sons camo painted face, then stepped over his bow and walked away. Never broke into even a fast walk, just meandered along up the point toward the ridge top. Cool experience!
 
Yeah, my sons regret was that he didn't get his phone out and take video of his encounter. He knew the deer was going to get close but surely didn't expect it to get so close he could smell it's breath! His worry right then was that it would step on his bow string or cables and mess them up. A once in a lifetime event. I asked him if he thought he would shoot the buck given a future opportunity and he said he didn't think so now.
smile.gif
 
Back
Top