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Now, I know this isn't the most impressive 9 point rack you've ever seen on a buck, but I must've bagged a bruiser. This was my first buck and I was so excited! You see, I started hunting when I was about 15 and only hunted for about 3 yrs with one of my uncles before I got a job that took me on the road alot. So I just quit hunting all together. And in that 3 yrs I only shot 1 doe. Not sure why, maybe the lack of experience, interest or just not getting the time in to hunt.
So last season (2006), I decided to get back into it. Well, last season was a bust, no kill. I thought no big deal there's next season. We have 12 days here in PA. Both buck and doe combined. I tried to hunt everyday after work as much as I could. But by the 11th day I'm thinking no kill again this year. Now I'm starting to think bad thoughts. Why am I doing this? Is this really worth it? It was the last day of the season and I was hunting an area that I wasn't familiar with but heard good things about it. I had no idea what to expect.
When I entered the woods that morning I came across alot of deer tracks in the freshly laid snow from the night before and two heavily traveled trails in the snow and thought this might be good. The first half of the day was gone with no activity so I left the woods about 10:30 to grab a bite to eat. I was about to leave to go somewhere else but decided to stick it out here where I was a bit longer. So I headed back into the woods at around 11:00 a.m. after eating lunch. After walking in at about 150 yds I found a large, flat rock that sat about 6 ft off the ground with a huge tree butt right up against it. I thought this would be a good spot since a heavily traveled trail went right past it about 30 yds away. Needless to say, it turned out to be a great spot! After safely climbing the rock I leaned my gun against the tree, turned to face the direction of the wind and there they were, three deer walking in from the same direction that I just came. My first thought were doe, since there were three of
them, until I saw antlers on one of the deer. Now I'm thinking, a buck running with two doe. I slowly reached around behind me to grab my Springfield 30-06. Just then, they turned to their left and started heading up to my right about 50 yds out. They managed to duck in behind some thicket to elude me. I took aim just past the thicket hoping to get a shot. As soon as I saw this buck step out, I fired. At first I thought I had missed, so I reloaed and fired off another shot. A split second before I fired the second shot though, the deer fell. (I was later able to determine that my first shot was a bullseye due to the 20 yrd trail of blood left behind.) Just then I saw a deer out of the corner of my eye... a buck! At first I thought a doe stepped out in front of this buck and I shot her instead so I hurried to fire off another shot at this buck. Fortunately, I missed. It turns out that these two bucks were together and I had shot the first buck. I have no idea what the third deer was. It just vanished!
Well, that's my story. I hope you enjoyed it because I sure did. It was a great experience for me. Happy hunting and good luck next season.
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