Getting closer all the time...

[Wes/Tex]

Another day of "up a tree"and one finally got close enough! I related about the first few times where bobcats and Blackbucks was all that's showing. Last couple times the deer have shown up but always out of my comfort zone for a smoothbore...when I'm in the stand, they're out in the powerline easement; when I find a hidey-hole out in the easement, they're over under the tree stand! Yesterday nobody showed so I finally gave up and headed for the car. About 25 yards form it a 4-point steps out from behind the car! Are you freaking kidding me!!?? I try the slow-as-molasses-in-winter routine and get it from hung over the left shoulder to just about up to the right shoulder...Bambi does the his version of roadrunner...Beep, beep... zip!, and using the car as cover it's up with the white flag and gone! manure!! I'm starting to get a complex!

Today one wanders in to about 35 yards and stands still but behind a very young oak about 3&1/2 feet tall and still covered with dead leaves. I waited for what seemed like an hour but he's glued to the ground there. Since the leaves only cover up to about within 6 inches of his back, I finally convince myself a .600" ball will go through a few dead leaves and twigs...see where this is going? BOOM! Couple small branches drop from baby oak and an awful lot of debris flies up around Bambi, he jumps straight up and bolts...flag up and taking downed trees like a Morgan!

I watched him out of sight. I've seen solidly hit deer jump like that before, so I'm hopeful he's just out of sight and down. Wait a while and do my patented "reload up a tree" and decide to start looking from the baby oak to where he's down. Sure enough, one very small twig with a leaf or two on it down, but(and but me no buts)there's also a little finger sized branch cut as well...and behind the little oak it's easy to see where all four hooves were on the ground before he jumped and dug in, and there between them is a big hole! You guessed it, ball deflected nearly 60 degrees down from the second clipped branch. Bambi got a belly pelted with mud and leaf debris and not a single hair or blood drop for nearly 250 yards along the line he'd taken, and with it as muddy as it was today, the tracks were easy to follow. Is it possible to deflect a heavy ball? Either yes or the Lord is jerking my chain this year!! Maybe I should take up knitting!

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Skier karma, There are all these dang Texans here in Colorado with there dang ski rack that makes you think it's a cop car behind you, so your driving 5 under for 20 miles. Then you stop at a light & they pull up and ask "Can ya'll tell us which way to aszbeen (Aspen).

And you want to tell them to go.......... But it's the wife that's asking, and she has that Texas :grin: & she called me ya'll. So I smile & say "Why yes, your almost there now, it's just another 40 miles down this road, the light changes & they take off....and I'm stuck because another Taxes car is double parked while his wife runs into starbucks to ask if this is the way to aszbeen

Yep sure enough, that limb was pure Texas Skier Karma,

 

[Wes/Tex]

Sounds like the corollary to the one about the Alaskan commenting on the Texan headed south with an Okie under each arm! :rotf:

 

[Britsmoothy]

Your doin' just fine sir. Your out there and it is great to be out there. It'll happen.

B :thumbsup:

 

[Spikebuck]

Some years just go that way. Keep at it...your reward will come!

BTW...there are a couple of "hunter's laws" you've experienced. 1) If you don't see any shootable deer on stand, there will be one standing right by your vehicle, 2) If a branch is nearby, it will jump into the path of your bullet! :wink:

 

[Sean Gadhar]

You'll get there, and that story will be that much better with that branch in it.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Ill have to see if I can find it next time I'm out...ought to have it bronzed! Oh, I'll never give up but this has certainly been a year of weird!

 

[Wes/Tex]

Had to take a day off to see the ophthalmologist and visit the big city. What a mistake...now I got the sniffles, sore throat and low grade fever. You kidding me? Just had to "go down to the flats where all the pilgrims is"! Did I say I'm an idiot!!??

 

[silly goose]

These are all the little things that make it worthwhile. If it was all bang flop, what fun would it be? Embrace it, enjoy it, you will overcome and it will all be that much sweeter.

I'll tell you. I hunt a pretty weird area. Lots of deer, but the huntable land is all cut up with many areas closed to hunting, wether it be private land or village limits. Couple that with a lot of competition, and the deer hunting around here is tough.

I've killed appx 30 deer, give or take, and I can only think of one that was a gimme. The rest I have had to make happen in one way or another. Trust me, I've lost my share of opportunities, thats why its called hunting. Wouldn't have it any other way, though it can be frustrating at times. It's gotten easier with age. :grin: :wink:

This was my first year hunting deer with flint. I've been using it for small game for a couple years. Now don't laugh, but here's something I learned this year. I pack light, just what I think is essential. Imagine my surprise to climb into a stand before dark and then ponder how to pick my vent and prime in the dark. Couldn't go by feel because of numb fingertips, both cold and a little nerve damage. Made me think about the whole going out early thing. This is just one of the little things I had to put together to make this deer season successful. I went in the woods early on Wed. Fresh couple inches of powder, beautiful. Snow still on the trees. Loving it. As soon as the sun came up, the wind started to blow a bit, and blew snow from overhead right onto my lock. I felt like Jeremiah Johnson trying to make a fire. :grin:

My rifle was frozen so it didn't melt. I blew most of it out of the lock area and then wondered about if my rifle was going to go off. At 1:30 in the afternoon she went off and I took a nice doe. It all came together. Good luck and enjoy.

Sorry for being so longwinded, I'm a typing fool this morning.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Hey, love typing foolishness! Can't say I've a lot of experience with snow at all but ice and blowing cold & wet we got lots of. Had to laugh at the doctor today...after hearing my story the remark was, "You should have stayed out in the fresh, clean air!"...that'll teach me to be around sneezin', wheezin' pilgrims! :haha: