Big Bucks don't get big for no reason! Part 2

This AM hunt took place on Thursday 10/28/10.

I started this hunt out on the same piece of property as the hunt that took place on 10/26/10. I was running a little late, and started my ascent up the hill to where the treestand was. In no less than 8 min, I was resting comfortably in my stand letting my eyes become accustom to the sunlight creeping over the trees. After a few minutes, I noticed a dimly lit, blaze orange beanie, bobbing through the trail. It stopped parallel with my stand, and turned towards my direction. I couldn't imagine who it would be? As the stranger approached my stand I asked, "Is this Jeff or mike?," hoping it was a distance relative also hunting the property. "Jeff," he called out, I was relieved. I said, "Are you wanting to hunt this stand?"
"Yeah, I was planning on it," Jeff whispered. So, reluctantly I climb out of the stand, not wanting to ruffle any feathers, and quietly made my way down the trail to the next stand's location.

Stand #2, lies on the edge of a field, where winter wheat has been sown. At about 7:15, I reached the stand and settled in for good....I hoped. It was much colder Thursday, and I didn't dress for the weather. My phone read 31 degrees, and I believed it. As light made its approach over the field, I began to question my move. "Maybe I should have told him to go on down the road." Or "hey man, better get here on time or don't expect to set in a tree stand." They were just thoughts. As 7:40am came, I saw part of a doe peering through the thick woods into the field. I began to get excited, she was only 35yrds away. Fixing my gaze on the doe, a second doe popped out, and then a nice eight point buck. The deer slowly worked the edge of the tree line as they grazed on green grass. I shouldered my rifle waiting for the buck to give me a nice "look." BUT the deer never made it out to the tree line! Something detoured them and they quickly walked back into the trees, never giving me a comfortable clear shot. I often wonder about a Big Bucks intuition. There must me something genetic that senses danger, or maybe they have learned behaviors from past episodes. Possibly, a few hunters have flung arrows, missing their mark by a hair, teaching bucks to avoid similar situations. It could be, that other mature bucks teach these once younger deer the crafty ticks of their trade. I'm quite sure I'll never be certain, but what I do know is "Big Bucks don't get big for no reason!"

Big Bucks don't get big for no reason!

This week I got the opportunity to hunt Tuesday and Thursday morning. Man! It was great to be outside, we had some cold fronts sweep through the area which really got things moving. I saw some fresh rubs and have seen more non-nocturnal buck activity recently. Tuesday morning I headed to my stand on the east side of the 120  acres I hunt on my families property, and boy is it thick! The leaves are still on the trees and I only had a few shooting lanes available. At about 7:00a, a nice 10-pt buck walked into the clearing. I froze, not wanting him to spook of movement, and slowly reached for my gun resting on the side of the stand.

A quick gear recap: I was using a Traditions Muzzleloader E-bolt 209. The gun is "ok" for a midline black powder rifle, but I have had some problems with small parts breaking on it.

It seemed like every inch my hand drew closer to the muzzleloader, the the buck stepped closer to the edge of the shooting lane. As I swiftly shoulder the rifle the buck walked out of the lane and away from my stand. He slowly meandered throughout the trees searching for acorns as I remained silently frustrated. As the buck reached farther from my view, I began to replay all the mistakes I had made. First, my gun was hanging from the tree on  a screw-in gear hook. Secondly, I was briefly reading the newspaper from my iPhone. I began to convince myself that if I had been more careful, that buck would be on my wall and not searching for hot does.

A thought creep'd into my head just as the deer left my sight. "What if I get out of the stand, gun in hand, and slowly stalk this buck?" I knew if I didn't make a decision now, I would regret my choice the rest of the week. SO WHAT DID I DO?!  At this point I had somehow convinced my mind that I was able to perform such a stalking method and put this 10-pt in his coffin! After all, I had done this same technique last year on a last-day-of-the-season hunt out of the same stand. The results had yielded deer meat, and a ugly spike buck thinned from the herd. It was a fools errand, and I walked back to my stand after 30min of getting my scent everywhere and no buck to be seen. I stayed in the stand for several more hours, but finally headed to the truck after no more deer sightings.

I will go ahead and post my adventure from Thursday tomorrow.