This morning I wanted to puke. Not because I was literally sick, but because I missed the opportunity to close the deal on a 2 year quest.
Last year I picked up a 35 acre suburban property in November and immediately got cameras and bait piles out. It wasn’t long before I had deer on camera, and two bucks in particular that really peaked my interest. I decided for the rest of the season I would hunt them without very high hopes of success. My main goal was to put in time and run cameras as much as I could to dial in on their core area. If it happened it happened, if it didn’t, I wasn’t worried about it. I know it can take a lot of time to home in on a mature East Texas buck. The season ends with only night pictures.
Fast forward to this summer and I get things geared up to locate this one buck in particular. I did not have a buck on camera until mid-October and low and behold, it was him. But again, middle of the night. This left me dissatisfied and hungry.
This particular property is landlocked, so I have a first name basis with the owner of the property I have to pass through to get there. I finally work up the courage to ask for his permission to hunt his property, 18 acres. If anything to get bait and cameras out. I explained to him I was trying to locate a specific buck. To my excitement, he told me go right on ahead. He said he wasn’t mad at’em anymore!
I have now shifted my focus to his property that borders my other property and I have two weeks before the rut hits. Within 3 days of my first bait pile, he shows up, very early morning, around 5AM. This is the first picture I had of him in this time frame and boy did it get me excited. A week goes by and no daylight pictures. Once the corn was gone, I moved my bait pile about 200 yards. Suddenly I begin receiving pictures of multiple bucks and does and he is one of them. Finally end of October he makes his first ever day time appearance and I am stoked!
Fast forward several weeks and I receive multiple pictures of him but is extremely inconsistent. In my mind, I am not close enough still so I make two more piles. I shift one about 75 yards to the east and another roughly 300 yards to the south.
Work got busy and I didn’t hunt for a couple of weeks, but I finally checked my camera and boom. The pile I shifted to the south had him and the others all over it. I knew this was where it was going to happen.
I hunted 2 evening sits and he didn’t show, but his running buddy, an older tighter framed buck was clock work.
I decided last night I was going to make a sit this morning. I had to work, but I’m on my own time right now, so I had time to hunt. As the alarm went off this morning, the long hunting season, peak season of work, and life in general was getting the best of me. I hit snooze a couple of times and finally I looked at the time and decided I could make it to the tree right at or just before legal light, so I get up get dressed and head out.
I park the truck with 15 minutes to legal with about a 10 minute walk. I gear up and head in with a power walk through the field. As I enter the woods, the leaves are damp and quiet which was excellent for my entry. I get to my tree which already has a pre-set up for my saddle. Tie my bow off and up I go. As soon as I step onto my platform from my last stick, I catch movement below me. My eyes got big as saucers as I laid my eyes on him with my pants down (figuratively speaking of course). He was at 20 yards and closing. My very first encounter with him and my frickin bow is 20’ below me!!
At this point I still hadn’t even clipped into my saddle and my tether was in my pouch. As he eased into the corn pile at 15 yards, I was able to get my tether out, get it around the tree and get clipped in. Luckily he was slightly quartered away facing away from me. At this point all I had to do was get my bow up and with my bow being on the ground and opposite side of the tree as him, I thought I might actually have a chance. I start easing my bow up in what seemed like slow motion. I had it up 5-8’ and suddenly he perks up. He’s looking away from me up an old 2 track, starts bobbing his head. Looks left, looks right, stomps, blows, and he is gone as fast as he came in.
As I watched his tail disappear though the thicket, I couldn’t help but feel one of the sickest moments I have ever had when in a tree. Literally 1-2 minutes earlier and I would have already had my bow up and in my hand as he presented me with a 15 yard broadside shot for several minutes.
At this point I still do not know if the wind swirled or if he caught my bow movement, but nonetheless, he is still out there and I will be back in the morning.
And that my friends, is how Sleepy’s season is going.
Last year I picked up a 35 acre suburban property in November and immediately got cameras and bait piles out. It wasn’t long before I had deer on camera, and two bucks in particular that really peaked my interest. I decided for the rest of the season I would hunt them without very high hopes of success. My main goal was to put in time and run cameras as much as I could to dial in on their core area. If it happened it happened, if it didn’t, I wasn’t worried about it. I know it can take a lot of time to home in on a mature East Texas buck. The season ends with only night pictures.
Fast forward to this summer and I get things geared up to locate this one buck in particular. I did not have a buck on camera until mid-October and low and behold, it was him. But again, middle of the night. This left me dissatisfied and hungry.
This particular property is landlocked, so I have a first name basis with the owner of the property I have to pass through to get there. I finally work up the courage to ask for his permission to hunt his property, 18 acres. If anything to get bait and cameras out. I explained to him I was trying to locate a specific buck. To my excitement, he told me go right on ahead. He said he wasn’t mad at’em anymore!
I have now shifted my focus to his property that borders my other property and I have two weeks before the rut hits. Within 3 days of my first bait pile, he shows up, very early morning, around 5AM. This is the first picture I had of him in this time frame and boy did it get me excited. A week goes by and no daylight pictures. Once the corn was gone, I moved my bait pile about 200 yards. Suddenly I begin receiving pictures of multiple bucks and does and he is one of them. Finally end of October he makes his first ever day time appearance and I am stoked!
Fast forward several weeks and I receive multiple pictures of him but is extremely inconsistent. In my mind, I am not close enough still so I make two more piles. I shift one about 75 yards to the east and another roughly 300 yards to the south.
Work got busy and I didn’t hunt for a couple of weeks, but I finally checked my camera and boom. The pile I shifted to the south had him and the others all over it. I knew this was where it was going to happen.
I hunted 2 evening sits and he didn’t show, but his running buddy, an older tighter framed buck was clock work.
I decided last night I was going to make a sit this morning. I had to work, but I’m on my own time right now, so I had time to hunt. As the alarm went off this morning, the long hunting season, peak season of work, and life in general was getting the best of me. I hit snooze a couple of times and finally I looked at the time and decided I could make it to the tree right at or just before legal light, so I get up get dressed and head out.
I park the truck with 15 minutes to legal with about a 10 minute walk. I gear up and head in with a power walk through the field. As I enter the woods, the leaves are damp and quiet which was excellent for my entry. I get to my tree which already has a pre-set up for my saddle. Tie my bow off and up I go. As soon as I step onto my platform from my last stick, I catch movement below me. My eyes got big as saucers as I laid my eyes on him with my pants down (figuratively speaking of course). He was at 20 yards and closing. My very first encounter with him and my frickin bow is 20’ below me!!
At this point I still hadn’t even clipped into my saddle and my tether was in my pouch. As he eased into the corn pile at 15 yards, I was able to get my tether out, get it around the tree and get clipped in. Luckily he was slightly quartered away facing away from me. At this point all I had to do was get my bow up and with my bow being on the ground and opposite side of the tree as him, I thought I might actually have a chance. I start easing my bow up in what seemed like slow motion. I had it up 5-8’ and suddenly he perks up. He’s looking away from me up an old 2 track, starts bobbing his head. Looks left, looks right, stomps, blows, and he is gone as fast as he came in.
As I watched his tail disappear though the thicket, I couldn’t help but feel one of the sickest moments I have ever had when in a tree. Literally 1-2 minutes earlier and I would have already had my bow up and in my hand as he presented me with a 15 yard broadside shot for several minutes.
At this point I still do not know if the wind swirled or if he caught my bow movement, but nonetheless, he is still out there and I will be back in the morning.
And that my friends, is how Sleepy’s season is going.
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