So I get up this morning to a light rain at the house. I checked the radar and it looked like the rain will be gone by the time I get to the stand, so I head out. My son and I saw a nice eight point working a scrape this past Saturday so I decided to bring a climber and set up on the scrape this morning. When I got to the property the rain had stopped so I started the long walk in the dark to the scrape carrying my climber, bow, and my camera gear. I had already prepared a tree so I was able to get up the tree, hook up my safety harness, and set up my camera arm pretty quietly. I pulled up my bow, nocked an arrow, hung it on a limb in front of me, and sat down to wait for daylight. I was just starting to get comfortable when one of the straps that holds the seat on the climber frame snapped. Almost simultaneously the flood gates open up and it starts pouring rain. My harness kept me from falling all the way through so I began trying to fix the seat strap, while getting soaked. I soon realized that if I was going to hunt I was going to have to stand the whole time. I was in a good spot and really wanted to be there when the rain stopped so I decided to stick it out. Did I mention that I left my rain jacket in the truck? My beanie and jacket soon started to get heavy with water and I had to have something to cover my head from the rain because I was starting to shiver. All I had was my back pack so I got it and balanced it on top of my head to keep some of the rain off of me. So here I am leaning against the tree, 25' in the air, in the dark, backpack on my head, rain still coming down. I stood this way for about 10 minutes until the rain finally slowed to a drizzle. It is starting to get daylight when I reach up to move the backpack and hear a deer blow directly under me. I freeze, tilt my head, and can just barely make out the shape of a deer looking up at me. We have a standoff for a few minutes, backpack still on my head, deer still blowing, until I just can't take the blowing anymore. I wave my arms and she takes off. I finally take the bag off my head and get it put away. I stand there for the next hour with no activity. I managed to get semi comfortable by leaning out and putting my weight on my harness. At about 8:30 I see a young buck coming my way. He follows the trail I am on and walks right under my stand. I am starting to feel like the morning is picking up! At 8:45 I see another buck about 150 yards out walking parallel to me. I get my camera on him and see that it is the buck I am after. He is walking pretty fast across an open clearcut and is getting farther away by the second. I reach down to grab my grunt call out of my backpack, but it's not there?! I made a mental note to tell my son to not get my things out of my hunting bag. The buck is getting close to a line of trees where I would lose sight of him so I decided to try and make a grunt noise. Uuuurgh... nothing, UUUurgh.... nothing, UUUURGH!!! He stops and turns facing me. He stands there for about a minute but turns and keeps going away. I tried a few more grunts but nothing. He was almost to the trees so I threw a hailmary. I've seen it done by the pros on tv so maybe it will work.... I snort wheezed at him. He instantly stopped and looked my direction, stood there a few seconds, put his tail up, and hauled *** in the opposite direction. I was videoing all this, I thought. When I pushed the button to pause the recording, it started recording. I had not gotten any of it on film. At this point I was so mad at myself for doing the stupid snort wheeze thing and frustrated that I didn't even get him on film, that I decided to leave. It's not over yet... I start lowering my bow and while trying to navigate my bow around a limb below me I somehow lose hold of the rope. I watched helpless as my bow fell the remaining 15' and stuck in the mud. I got down to assess the damage and while digging my bow out of the mud I see my grunt call underneath it. I guess it had fallen out of my backpack when I had it on my head. Oh well, the bow is fine and I have a pretty funny story to tell.[emoji16]
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