Well there's 3 week's left and I'm depressed ,where the heck are all the deer,the snow is hampering my hunting ,making thing's very tough to get in and out of my hunting spot's and I just don't know how much more hiking through snow up to my waste I can take,I haven't seen a deer in almost a month since the end of the last shotgun hunt and I'm beginning to think, is this all worth it ?.I have had this particular hunting spot for 3 years now and the my friend Rob [landowner] has consistantly told me that it's a real good spot to hunt ,but after checking out the field early last spring I was unimpressed and didn't bother to hunt it ,but now the snow is on the ground and as I said I'm running out of option's and this is my last .I went in about 3 week's to go in the season and when I got to the back The corn is still standing and the sign was rediculous ,the deer and turkey';s had path's 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep and hard as a sidewalk. Now that's what i was looking for ,all the hard work may just pay off at last ,I need to get in here and hunt this ,but hey! what am i gonna do if i get a deer down? I'll worry about that when i cross that path,as most good hunters would do . I did hunt it a couple times before the last week and seeing 2 buck's a couple does,so it was well worth my effort's , unfortunately i had a close encounter with a 8 point buck only a couple yards from me standing and feeding in the corn,but unfortunately he seen me before i had seen him and he went bounding through the corn,a few step's later i had another close encounter with a pair of does ,but I'm not interested in a doe at this point.
A week later it's Sat morning and I'm a little late getting in to my spot ,as I near my tree ,i see a deer cominmg out of the corn about 40yrds away,OH  it's a 12 point and darnit ,I can't get a shot too many branch's in the way,in range ,but too much to risk at this point ,just maybe I'll see this guy at a later date.
I went in and checked out the other sidfe of the standing corn and WOW! I couldn't believe what I was seeing ,there was so much deer sign here ,that I had no choice but to remove my stand from the other side a replace it on the far side of the corn,the deer were coming out of the Hemlocks and pines at an alarming number ,that i knew I wasn't going to be eating any tag's this season. All I could think of in my mind was wow! I have finally found the spot ,finally found what all hunters search all season for ,a spot that's going to give me the opportunity to choose the deer "I"want to take ,not the 1 that give's me a good shot ,this will be my choice ,i can't wait.
 My friend Steve Capko and I had been trying to work out a chance for us to get together ,but for some reason we just hadn't connected ,but now we were both on holiday's and if he could get out ,I was going to get him out with me, We had 2 day's , Steve and i finally got out the day before New Years and I put Steve on 1 side as I went to my stand on the other ,after seeing a minimum of 30 deer ,it was now too dark ,so i went and met with Steve, I askled him how many deer he seen and he replied none,but i could hear them in the corn, so we palnned on hitting this spot again hard tomorrow ,it's our last day and it's now do or die. The morning began snowing ,blowing and real cold ,but regardless of the weather i still senn deer ,but only 1 close enough ,and i was only going to take what I wanted  ,so it would have to be tonight.
Well now it's tonight and I put Steve in a spot where I had continuously see der coming up the hill beside a pine.That night Steve seen everything ,100 deer and all he could do is watch them come up the hill inside the Hemlock cover and stage in the corner of the field in front of me. Slowly they appear 1 by 1 out of the corner in between Steve and I , Steve got to watch and i got the action,I had so many deer coming and going in the field it was hard to decide which deer to take ,finally i had a 8 point come into the field on my bad side and he was about to cross a small creek and walk across in front of me ,but a few deer walked out of the Hemlocks and the buck decided that he would pay his attention to them instead. As I watchede I could see deer after deer staging in the hemlock's ,so i knew there was definately going to be some action today and if we played our cards ri8ght we would be walking or dragging more than 1 deer out of here tonight.Finally the first buck come's into the standing corn and walk's across in front of me ,I came to full draw and lowered my 20yrd pin low and re4leased my arrow ,I seen the arrow cleaning slip undernieth the standing buck,I waqs sure I had it right ,but obviously I was wrong . After watching the buck dissappear into the corn I waited about 15 minutes and curiosity got the best of me ,I just had to get down and see for sure what had happened ,i found my arrow and it was for sure a low miss and I was thankful that it was a clear miss.As I climbed back up into my treestand I was only about bhalf way ,when i turned to see 3 der standing at the fence readying themselve to enter the standing coern ,whether i was there or not.I watched 3 does and 2 fawn's enter the field and walk right across ion front of me ,all of a sudden they came to an ebrupt stop ,aseeing that they were about to cross my scent stream and were now downwind of me ,abruptly they decided to retreat back to the other side of the fence ,but i had already come to full draw and had picked the biggest doe of the group to take ,i wasn't eating no tag this season ,so as i got a clear shot I released my arrow and it hit it's mark ,the deer jumped right up into the air and ran clearly straight down to my buddy Steve and dropped right in front of him.. I was so happy to see it drop ,because I had to make up for my first miss  that I was sure Steve had seen a few minutes earlier. Not 5 mintues later as I was determining what I was about to do and wait it out so steve could fill his tag ,I looked down and I couldn't believe my eye's ,there were a minimum of 8 deer standing at the fence, it was simply a unbelievable night . Finally I climbed down out of the tree and as I did so ,I met another 5 or 6 deer coming to the field. The weather was absolutely horrible on this night, snowing heavy at times heavy winds and just plain very cold at times I was unable to see Steve's stand only about 100yrds away , as I remembered Steves parting words as we headed to our stand's ,don't expect too much tonight ,this weather is going to put these deer into serious cover. I thought just how wrong Steve was and he was there to see it all.

As i walked down as it was about to get dark ,Steve yelled out of his treestand to me ,John!  "Great shot bud"  that 1 hell of a doe you got ,as i looked aty the deer it was all covered with about1" of snow ,i said thank's Steve and Yes! it is a real big doe ,I walked over and wiped the snow off the head ,because i just had a funny feeling this was waaaaay too big of a deer to be a doe ,As I wiped thwe snow off i seen the holes in it's head where this deer had dropped it's horn's ,this brought me back to remember the 12point I seen only a couple week's previous to this ,I sure hope this is noty that buck ,but hey! this season was not the best season I have ever had ,deer sighting's weren't as I was expecting ,but hey I got the job done finallypersistance paid off. Finally it was dark and Steve and I dragged the deer abiout 50yrds and realized ,we either got to take all our geear to the truck and come back or we need help .I called my friend and farm owner on the phone and he brought out his ATV ,I was a little sceptical about the bike making it in in the deep snow and poor visibility ,but he got there and saved me a ton of work dragging. Man do i ever appreciate these guy's ,sure glad to have them as my friends..


nubo  






 



 

--Last edited by nubo on 2009-01-24 17:18:57 --

Great story nubo, thanks for sharing and  congrats on the buck.

Yes thanks for the story congrats on a nice deer.

Real interesting story Nubo.  Nice deer and it was a good thing the farmer could get his quad in or it would have been a real tough slug.