At 4:00pm this afternoon I was surprised by a button buck that came out of the clearcut area into the Oak flat 75 yards straight in front of me....he had no more got my attention when I noticed moverment out of the corner of my right eye, 40-50 yards off through the trees...it was a big racked buck...8/10/12 pointer...no way to tell with all the trees & branches between us...walking lengthways through the narrow oak flat from the far end towards my end...I had a light breeze from him to me and was down low in full camo...life was good.
When he saw the button buck he stopped and they looked at each other a minute, but mossy horns was behind a screen of trees/blowdown limbs and at a 45* angle to my right...I'm right handed, sitting on the ground, ladder stand ladder is in my way on my right, woods are dead quiet, leaves are corn flakes, so all I could do was sit there and wait but no sweat, the line he was walking would bring him into a shooting lane in another few body lengths.
I just needed to pivot myself a little to cut down the angle some so I could get ready and take him when he hit the opening...I'm locked onto this buck now with 100% concentration...I don't move as long as I can see his head...every time he takes some steps and his head goes behind a tree I do something like slip off the hammer stall, get rid of a glove, set the set trigger, uncross my legs, start inching my body around to the right a little...the buck steps and stops...steps and stops...his head goes behind another tree and I'm finally in position for the shooting lane...next set of steps will put his heart in view for a direct broadside shot at 40-50 yards.
He steps behind the last tree so I make my move and raise the rifle to get all lined up.....but had completely forgotten about the button buck.....this time he sees me move and darts off snorting.....the big buck hesitated about 100 milliseconds and exploded back the way he came. I was seconds away from tripping the sear on a very fine shooter in good light and in those same seconds he was just gone.
The good news is bucks are starting to cruise again and for anybody who can hunt this coming week there ought to be some good movement...
When he saw the button buck he stopped and they looked at each other a minute, but mossy horns was behind a screen of trees/blowdown limbs and at a 45* angle to my right...I'm right handed, sitting on the ground, ladder stand ladder is in my way on my right, woods are dead quiet, leaves are corn flakes, so all I could do was sit there and wait but no sweat, the line he was walking would bring him into a shooting lane in another few body lengths.
I just needed to pivot myself a little to cut down the angle some so I could get ready and take him when he hit the opening...I'm locked onto this buck now with 100% concentration...I don't move as long as I can see his head...every time he takes some steps and his head goes behind a tree I do something like slip off the hammer stall, get rid of a glove, set the set trigger, uncross my legs, start inching my body around to the right a little...the buck steps and stops...steps and stops...his head goes behind another tree and I'm finally in position for the shooting lane...next set of steps will put his heart in view for a direct broadside shot at 40-50 yards.
He steps behind the last tree so I make my move and raise the rifle to get all lined up.....but had completely forgotten about the button buck.....this time he sees me move and darts off snorting.....the big buck hesitated about 100 milliseconds and exploded back the way he came. I was seconds away from tripping the sear on a very fine shooter in good light and in those same seconds he was just gone.
The good news is bucks are starting to cruise again and for anybody who can hunt this coming week there ought to be some good movement...
