The Twenty Minute Buck
One of the ladder stands is only about five minutes from where I park my vehicle on an old tractor path. The stand over looks a small hardwoods cut over. I generally use the stand for rifle hunting. The stand is strapped to an oak tree nestled in a quarter acre patch of pines. Inside those pines is an old cemetery lot that dates back to the eighteen hundreds. For this reason the stand is known as the graveyard stand.
One day during the early part of bow season while at work, I had a strong feeling that I needed to be hunting that afternoon. So I decided that I would go straight from work. I always keep my hunting gear in my truck for just such an occasion.
I arrived at my property at 4:00pm, slipped my coveralls on, sprayed myself with cover scent, took my bow and ran up the tractor path to the graveyard stand. I arrived at the stand at 4:06pm. I pulled my bow up the tree, put my release on and nocked an arrow.
As I stood there looking across the cut over, I caught movement about seventy five yards out. I looked through my binoculars and found a beautiful eight pointer walking in my direction. The buck was at a steady walk and closing fast as if he had some where to be.
I slipped my binoculars inside my coveralls and placed my release on the bow string. The deer walked all the way up to a ditch about thirty five yards out and stopped. The deer looked around momentarily and then jumped the ditch. The deer then walked within ten yards directly facing me. The deer then turned and started walking to my right giving me a perfect quartering away shot.
I released the arrow and watched as the arrow made a perfect shot on the buck, entering on his right side, through both lungs and heart, and exiting on the left side. The buck followed a path about thirty yards and fell. The time was 4:20pm. The total time in the woods was twenty minutes. Lesson learned, always follow your instincts.
