Trials and Tribulations of Hunting

It's been a long modern fire arm deer season for as short as it is. It started at dawn on Oct 13th and ends at dark on Oct 31st. 18 19 short days to harvest. I have been out in that tree stand every night since opening day. We're talking a minimum of 48 hours sitting on a tiny folding stool, 20 feet up a tree, holding a 12 gauge shotgun. In the cold. In the rain more often than not. I've seen does, fawns, raccoons, birds, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, a pheasant, and even a coyote. I've seen one lone buck.

He came into my field last Thursday, at about 10 minutes until dark. He snuck in on me and I was not as prepared as I should have been, as I turned on my scope and clicked the safety off he walked behind a tree directly in front of me but instead of continuing in a straight line into my line of fire he made a hard left and walked away from me. No shot. He then popped out under the apple tree. I could see his head and neck enough to shoot through the canary grass blocking his body but I knew there had been a doe under there a few minutes earlier but I couldn't see her. Questionable shot to say the least so I didn't take it. I spotted him standing again on the side of the road 100 yards from my field on my way home last night.

It's cold and miserable up there especially when it's raining. But rainy ugly weather increases the odds that the deer will be up and moving before dark. Catch-22, anyone? sigh

Since we are creeping up on the rut I laid down a scent trail on Saturday (doe in estrus urine) crossing a known path where they like to cross the power line cut leading into my field. Hopefully even with the rain we've had it's still smellable to them and a mature buck will catch a whiff and come looking for that hot doe. Only it will be me greeting him with a 1 1/4 oz 12 gauge slug to his heart/lungs.

Here's the pic of my mount from last year as promised. He's on the left, I call him Toady McBuckington. Andy's buck from several years ago is on the right. Yes this is my living room wall. :)

Here's a couple of pics taken while up in the tree stand. :)

I have 3 more sits to make this happen. It sure is nice to have free range, organic, lean red meat in the freezer. Fear me.