A Buck is Worth a Lot
Deer season is over and ice fishing is upon me. I did not harvest a deer this year, but season was successful all the same.
I saw the monster buck that has been eluding me for two years and he is a magnificent animal. Ten points and a large body.
He came in opening morning without affording me a shot. I anticipated his pattern and I was right. He walked the old logging road past two scrapes heading for his third scrape and large rub in front of my ground blind around 10 a.m.
I had moved in well before daylight and had shifted my position slightly to alleviate the cramping in my rump when I noticed movement off my left shoulder. He was rubbing his antlers on some red pine boughs swishing the feathery needles on the young tree through his tines and over his face back and forth. He had no clue I was there even though I was moving into a good shooting position anticipating his movement to his next scrape.
He was facing my left shoulder, but moved broadside to make a new scrape under the tree. His kill zone was behind a large tree, his head and his butt visible. He rotated to reverse his butt and head facing toward the river bottoms below the road.
He quickly slipped from behind the tree down the hill into the heavy cover of the hillside and I never saw him again. He ignored his massive rub and scrape and changed his routine that day.
I thought for sure he heard my heart thumping against my lungs and chest cavity echoing out my ears. The adrenaline rush was as good as a successful shot. When I relaxed my tense muscles, I played back my mind's movie of the dream-like encounter.
He was a royal male who owned that forest, moving confidently, silently on his way to an encounter with a female worthy of propagation. The main beams of his rack arched outside his thick head and curved back perfectly towards each other forming a bowl of tines. He wore his polished crown fashionably.
The next day it snowed and his tracks told me he walked past my stand well before daylight. The third day the heavens dumped the foot of snow that ended my UP hunting trip. I'll be back for him next year.
I saw the monster buck that has been eluding me for two years and he is a magnificent animal. Ten points and a large body.
He came in opening morning without affording me a shot. I anticipated his pattern and I was right. He walked the old logging road past two scrapes heading for his third scrape and large rub in front of my ground blind around 10 a.m.
I had moved in well before daylight and had shifted my position slightly to alleviate the cramping in my rump when I noticed movement off my left shoulder. He was rubbing his antlers on some red pine boughs swishing the feathery needles on the young tree through his tines and over his face back and forth. He had no clue I was there even though I was moving into a good shooting position anticipating his movement to his next scrape.
He was facing my left shoulder, but moved broadside to make a new scrape under the tree. His kill zone was behind a large tree, his head and his butt visible. He rotated to reverse his butt and head facing toward the river bottoms below the road.
He quickly slipped from behind the tree down the hill into the heavy cover of the hillside and I never saw him again. He ignored his massive rub and scrape and changed his routine that day.
I thought for sure he heard my heart thumping against my lungs and chest cavity echoing out my ears. The adrenaline rush was as good as a successful shot. When I relaxed my tense muscles, I played back my mind's movie of the dream-like encounter.
He was a royal male who owned that forest, moving confidently, silently on his way to an encounter with a female worthy of propagation. The main beams of his rack arched outside his thick head and curved back perfectly towards each other forming a bowl of tines. He wore his polished crown fashionably.
The next day it snowed and his tracks told me he walked past my stand well before daylight. The third day the heavens dumped the foot of snow that ended my UP hunting trip. I'll be back for him next year.
posted by Oakley at 3:56 PM
0 comments
