My son, Lucas, and I had two weeks of vacation before the Thanksgiving week to do some serious deer hunting. We hadn’t been too excited about it before then due to where we hunt the crops were still in the field and the weather had been very warm.
We weren’t seeing many deer in the places we usually do and it was like this both weeks right through the first firearms season which was Nov. 21, 22, and 23. On Monday of the second week I got into one of my ladder stands well before first light and hung my bow up beside me on the tree to wait till closer to light before I held it. It was a calm morning just below freezing. It was moonlight enough I could make out the trees around me but not enough to see the pins on my bow.
I had been there awhile when I heard that faint little sound of a deer walking toward me. It was still too dark to shoot so I just sat there and watched a trail 11 yards behind me. Sometimes animals don’t read the script, they were supposed to use the trail down in front of me at 18 yards.
I sat and watched two doe and three fawns come slowly down the trail and as they came by my stand they decided to stop and browse around. One of the doe saw me in the stand but never did get nervous. They all milled around for a while and by the time they moved on it was light enough I could have taken a shot if I could have without spooking the deer. They all looked at me but didn’t seem too interested in the lump sitting on the side of a tree.
I watched as they worked their way to the edge of the woods and crossed the field road. Slowly it started getting light and one of the doe and a fawn came back across the roadway and started coming toward me down the same trail they were on before. I stood up very slowly and got my bow at the ready for a shot should it present itself. The doe and fawn walked right back to my stand and started browsing around again. This time the doe did a lot of looking at me but eventually didn’t pay much attention too me.
There is no cover between the deer and me except air and 11 yards. I felt like the deer were going to hear me breathing, if not that then my heart pounding. I knew one little move and they would be gone. This went on for what seemed like several minutes but probably didn’t last more than five or six.
The fawned had worked its way to within 6 feet of the ladder and the doe was now less than six yards from the ladder. I’m standing 12’ above them and I must admit that of the 45 plus years I’ve deer hunted, this was one of the most intense hunts I’ve experienced.
The fawn got closer to the stand and must have caught my scent because it bolted and ran over about 20’ and the doe took off too. As she was running I drew my bow hoping she would stop and she did at 17 yards to look back at the fawn. I put the pin on her and let the arrow go. I heard the distinct whack of the arrow hitting and as she took off I could see the arrow sticking out of her side which looked like it was right behind the shoulder.
Doe was standing here when I shot.
I watched the deer run over the hill and knocked another arrow just in case another deer might come along. I was in no hurry and stayed in the stand for another hour and forty five minutes to let things calm down including me. I got down and slowly walked over to pick up a blood trail and see if I could find the doe.
I looked and looked and finally found a little red speck of blood on a corn shuck. I kept looking and finally found a small smear of blood on a weed. This wasn’t looking good but I kept looking and the blood trail picked up. I shot her at 7:20 and shortly after 12 noon I lost all signs of a blood trail.
Fast forward to Friday morning, opening day of the first firearms season. It was calm but the thermometer on my truck showed 17 degrees with a high for the day of freezing. I left the truck about an hour before sunrise and didn’t get back to it until after dark. With this being the first day of season, I like to stay out hunting all day due to all the other hunters around keeping the deer stirred up.
I set up along a creek where I could watch a corn field we usually see deer in and there are other hunters on the adjoining properties that do a lot of moving around. Just as it was starting to get light I heard a deer snorting at the south end of the field and then in a minute or two I saw a deer walking up the middle of the field. It was a buck but I couldn’t tell how big due to the low light. By the time I could see its antlers it was too far for a shot. It was the 8 pt. I had seen before out here.
About 20 minutes later I had a little fork horn come up my side of the field and cross the creek about 35 yards to my left. There were very few shots to be heard that morning and the last shot I heard was around 10:00 am. Not a typical first morning. I didn’t hear another shot till shortly after 3 pm. I didn’t see another deer all day till just before dark a doe came out in a field across the creek but too far for a shot.
Along mid morning I worked my way across the creek and up along a ridge that has bedding areas on both sides. I though I would spend the middle of the day there hoping to see some movement since the rut was still going strong. I had worked my way to the end of the ridge when I saw something red looking about 2/3rds of the way down toward the bottom of the slope. I looked through the binoculars and saw what looked like a rib cage. I wondered if it could be the doe I shot earlier in the week. I worked my way closer and looked again only this time I saw part of an arrow sticking out. It was the doe I shot and she had gone over 400 yards before she lay down beside a tree and died. The coyotes had found her and there wasn’t much left of her.
The arrow penetrated the shoulder and the rib cage with the broad head just inside. It appeared the broad head had punctured one lung.
Lucas had spent the day hunting down at his place and saw some doe and passed on a small 8 pt. buck hoping something bigger would come along.
The next morning I went to the draw I shot the doe in with the bow. The wind was wrong for getting in the stand so I opted to stand by a big end post on the opposite side of the draw. Just as it was getting light enough to see, I heard some leaves crunch to my right. I turned my head slowly and saw a buck standing less than 14 yards to my right, upwind.
The buck stood there looking around for a few seconds and then turned around and started walking back up the hill to my right. I could see by his antlers that he was not one you would want in the gene pool and considering the lack of seeing deer I decided I would shoot him. As he walked away I pulled up on him and shot him as he was quartering away at 31 yards. He dropped like a rock and didn’t move.
I stood there for another hour in case anything else came through the draw but nothing did. I made my way over to check him out. As you can see in the picture, he had his main beam on the right with no sign of a brow tine and only one other tine. The left side looked a little deformed. We figured he was a 4½ year old. He field dressed at 165 lbs. I loaded him up and went home to see how Lucas did.
Lucas didn’t see anything he wanted to shoot so we decided to go to another farm we hunt on. I went up in the woods and sat on the side of a hill where three draws merge into one and go down between two fields. I didn’t see anything all afternoon and heard very few shots. Just as the sun was setting, Lucas called me on the radio and said there was a deer coming down the second field over and said I might want to work my way down to the edge of the field and be ready.
I worked my way down but didn’t see anything. A few minutes later I saw a deer about 350 yards away working its way south. There were some round bales in the first field between me and the deer. When the deer got behind one of them I ran about 200 yards and sneaked up behind one of the bales. When I looked over the bale, the doe was about 60 yards away and there were two other deer farther behind her. I eased the gun up over the bale and dropped her.
I went out with Lucas the next day with the video camera and it wasn’t much better, hardly any shots around and no deer. I found out later that our county was over 400 deer short of what was killed on last years first season.
Fast forward again to this morning, 12/4. Today is the first of four days for our last part of the firearms season. Here in IL. if you have a muzzle loader only permit you can use them in the second firearms season. I have two of them so I headed out in the 17 degree morning and about a 1/2 inch of snow on the ground. I didn’t see a thing and only heard eight shots in the distance. I’m going out again this afternoon and maybe with the weather front past us I’ll have some luck. Later.
