On November 5, I climbed into my stand with the belief that there was a strong likelihood that I would see deer. As fate would have at approximately 5pm a big mass 4PT buck rolled in from the south. It appeared that he was going to come right down the funnel in front of me and present a 25 YD broadside shot. At 40YDS he turned slightly up the hill (At this point I would have had a wide open shot had I prepared myself). He slowly walked across the hillside at about 40YDS. I prepared myself for a shot and picked my lane (which appeared to be open). He came across the hillside almost level with my stand at what I estimated to be 40YDS. I let my arrow fly. He went about 50 YDS then began to look back. I though I hit him. I grunted twice and he walked up this steep hill out of sight. A few min latter I made a phone call (which the deer must of heard) and I watched him bound up over the top of the hill. A few min later I climbed down. I found my arrow and no blood. I tracked the deer up the hill about 75YDS but found no blood. The event left me with a knot in my stomach. Based on what I saw I believe the shot was low.I am unsure whether I hit a branch, the shot was further than I thought, or I just blew it.
On Nov 06, 2010 I woke up at 4am thinking about the night before. Knowing without a doubt that I would be headed for the same stand shortly after my shift ended at 3PM. I was in stand a little after 330. It was getting late and getting a little hard to see when I herd what sounded like deer to the south. For the first time all day I stood up and watched in that direction for about ten minutes. As a went to turn back around a deer was standing ten yards to my north he startled and bounded out to about 45YDS. I was surprisingly calm and relaxed. I could not tell if this was a buck or a doe. I let out a couple of soft bleats. I could see this deer relax and within ten seconds it slowly began walking directly toward me. At about 20 yards it turned east toward a little knob were it came to a stop. Its head was behind a small hemlock and it body in full view. At this point I had a 20YD broadside shot. Unfortunately It was a shot I couldn't take. Due to the light condition I could not be 100% certain this was a buck. I think I saw some horns but just couldn't be sure. I trued a couple of soft grunts but couldn't get him to budge and the daylight continued to fade. After about 15-20 long minutes this deer walked away heading SW. He stopped at about 60YDS and looked back for another min or two before walking off out of sight. At this point it was getting dark and I was glad to have him away from my stand so I could climb down without spooking him any further. Time to give this stand a cool down.
Overall these were both great encounters and encounters I came away from learning many lessons. I'm trying to keep telling myself that today didn't happen so tomorrow could( maybe that big 8 will roll through).
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