After a good night’s sleep I awoke at 4 a.m. feeling rested
and recuperated.Since none of the big
bucks showed their antlers at the first farm, I decided that a change of
scenery was in order.With a gut feeling
and quite a bit of deliberation on my part, I opted to hunt another piece of
property 15 miles to the east.Why I
chose that farm instead of the other three areas is still a mystery, but I’m
glad that I did.Sometimes gut feelings
do pay off.
Arriving a full hour and a half before first light, I
started to make my way to my tree in the dark.I inched my way along the edge of the field until I reached the point
where I had to enter the woods.I had a
90-yard trek through broken timber to reach my stand, which made things a
little tricky.I didn’t want to spook
any deer on my walk in so I was being extra careful not to snap twigs or create
any alarming noises along the way.
Mission
accomplished!It was 6:15 a.m. when I
reached my stand.I would perform this
cat-like, tiptoe act two more times before it was all said and done.
The stand sat on the southeastern, outside edge of a strip
of timber that ran down the center of a horseshoe-shaped hayfield.The clearing that my stand overlooked was
long and narrow, measuring approximately 40 yards wide by 400 yards long.As mentioned previously, numerous scrapes
littered the field from one end to the other.It was classic rut sign; the type of sign that every bowhunter dreams of
discovering.Little did I know then just
how large a role those scrapes would play in the outcome of my success.
The weather was going to be perfect.The forecast called for daytime highs to
reach the upper 50s with a cloudless sky and steady winds blowing in from the
north.As the morning light slowly began
to filter through the woods, I noticed that several of the scrapes had been
worked over.Hopefully one of the big
bucks that were frequenting the area would come back for more.It wasn’t long before an answer to my silent
wish suddenly materialized.
At 8:00 a.m. a flash of light some 400 yards away caught my
eye.As I brought my Pentax binoculars
up, I pointed them northward and dialed in on the object.I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.There, standing in the wide open during broad
daylight, was one of the biggest whitetail bucks I have ever seen in the
wild.What a sight!What a monster!He was another basic frame 10-pointer with
tall tines and extremely long main beams.His rack was bone-white with heavy, eye-popping mass.I conservatively estimated that he would
score somewhere in the high 160s.
I watched in awe as he calmly raked his antlers through the
limbs of an overhanging branch and worked a scrape.The only problem with the situation was the
400 yards that separated my broadhead from reaching his boiler room.I tried to draw him closer by reproducing the
sounds of a rutting buck with my grunt tube.At one point I did get his attention, but he generally ignored my
pleas.He then disappeared into the
woods to the north just as quickly as he appeared.
I sat for the rest of the day in the same spot in hopes of
him returning, but the big boy remained elusive.However, I did enjoy a steady flow of deer
activity throughout the day, which made for a pleasant sit.I was even fortunate enough to observe a
skulking bobcat dangling a freshly killed squirrel from its mouth during
midday.So all things considered, it was
a good day to be a bowhunter.I lowered
my bow and climbed down from my stand at 7:15 p.m.Time on stand: 13 hours.
