Well happy new year everyone!
Some good news and some great news.
The good news first - I was invited out to a members private land and It was amazing how wonderful this invitation turned out to be. I meet some new friends from this invitation. Mr awesome is how I will refer to him, unless he says other wise he will remain anonymous. He taught some of the ropes of his property as well; as walked me out to his personal tree stand. This first day I got to his place as i was driving up i saw some rabbits running around so, I seen wild life and knew right then this place had animals. we talked for a few mins and then he walked me to the stand and with the excitement I had to use the rest room by the time we got to the stand so I walked back to use the out house, I left my bow at the bottom of the ladder next to the stand. as I was walking back I m about 20 feet from my bow when a nice large doe walks in front of me.. I tried to ninja walk my way to the bow..but with birch and pine trees around every step was a crack of a twig and spooked her off.
So I'm as giddy as a fat kid with cake; now that i seen a doe already, and this was just within the first few hours of getting there. He tells me of his property lines and how to follow along the fence, as I might sneak up on a few that like to heard around the area. so I stayed in the stand for a few hours before deciding on stalking for the later part of the day. nothing was showing up in the stand, and the trees are thick here. like Birch trees and pine trees kinda mixed with each other. I stalk for a few and spot 2 more doe's on the way they were running away as it was super difficult to stalk because of the twig breaks, and even walking ninja style you can't safely take a step with out making some noise.
2nd day I was in the stand early! like 7 am. about 7:45 am 2 large doe's come in and feast on some apples laid out, now as they came in they came in head first on the tree stand meaning if I moved they could see me. so as a bow hunter sitting down, I stood up , one doe noticed me right away and we just locked eyes for a min, then it ran pranced off, the 2nd didn't' move yet, and I was raising my bow to draw as I got 1/2 drawn it must have caught wind or my pulse jumping out of my chest because it ran off just as quick, and I didn't want to shoot her in the rear running away. so I waited again till noon and nothing more showed. I walked back to the house and felt a little defeated but Mr awesome welcomed me in to his home with a warm cup of tea. so we chatted away for a bit and he said " you know what? !, how about you get my quad and drive down a little ways to the 2nd Y in the road, (fork)" I was blown away because 1 this person hardly knows me and 2 he's trusting me with his im going to assume every expensive full sized quad. Reverse, 4 wd and everything. Very kind of him to help me even more with my hunting trip. So I hop on and drive down a while , this 2nd fork in the road felt like 2 or more miles down the dirt trails. So ttime now is middle of the day around 2 pm I get here.
I park the quad just as he said, "leave it there and walk down the trail your sure to jump right on top of some down there..." now I am in full camo, face mask , scent blocker, and sprayed down with everything. no orange at all. and because I just parked this Quad I was guessing it would have scared off any animal with in hearing range. I walk off the trail lightly and on the grass not to make to much noise.
as I start walking down the trail I hear some thing in the tree line, and then the noise stops, the something I hear is like branches being broken from being stepped on, I didn't think it was another hunter because i was told no one was out here but me so I just thought" OK cool its a deer". another doe perhaps. so I walk to the treeline and duck under the pine branches of this pine tree, there is fallen down trees EVERYWHERE, so you can hide behind a log or tree stump and they can't see you, as i lightly make my way threw I step into the opening of this birch tree area. I don't' see anything, I stay there for about 4 mins and wait, looking every place, because the trees are so thick I didn't want to move deeper in if I was already pushing the deer out. so I waited and did not hear any more movement..
a small video of just the tree's and how thick they are.
View My Video There are a few very large logs that have fallen in front of me (not in the video) from weather or what ever made them fall over and they are great cover , as I took my next step and i broke a twig , it made a large sound... this is when the earth started to move, and I had my arrow knocked, my arms went up to drawn, but as I looked to focus this large brown BEAR starts to run away from me, and when I say large this animal was moving the earth as if he created it. 4 to 6 inch birch trees were bending like
rubber bands as this bear plowed threw them away from me, I was in such shock seeing a bear that as my hands went up I drew on the bear only like 1/4 inch because my quick release was attached to my string so both hands went up to draw but i couldn't draw because of the change of pants i was needing... so what felt like an eternity was only maybe 3 to 5 seconds went by of this large bear movement ... I backed out the way i came in and jumped on the quad and drove in a different direction.. I did see 1 more deer this day but didn't get a clear shot. but I have to say that was amazing to see this large animal in its natural environment.
3rd day back in the stand and this time I put out allot of apples from his apple trees hauled them over on his quad. so i get in the stand at 7 am and wait. I m thinking to myself, ok they will be here soon and I will be ready, stay standing this entire time and be ready to draw.. Its my last day I have to take home a deer. 8 am ... nothing...... 9 am..... nothing.... its 9 :45 and Im like well *censored* i guess nothing is going to come so its cold, and i need to warm up. so i take my time and climb down the ladder, as I get to the bottom i put my bow down to fix my clothes, and as i look up, this god dam buck is standing right in front of me. we lock eyes....... he runs as I kneel down to get my bow... and yes he got away.... DAM IT!!
I go back up the ladder and into the stand I didn't make any noise or yell when he noticed me, so i figured he would come back.... 10:30am .. nope. 11:30am nope.... so time to go warm up. Mr awesome asks me if i want to take the quad back out to the fork again. I said "no thanks I'm stay in the stand". but really I didn't want to get eatten alive by a bear, hahaha
So after noon comes and like clock work a nice thick tall doe come s walking in, and starts to snack, I was sitting down but i was able to stand up and draw I aimed for right behind the shoulder and released but she was looking at me when I released she ducked and my arrow sailed right over her, and that was the end of my 3 day hunt..
view from stand
Now the Great news = Why you ask is this a great hunt. well I learned allot from Mr awesome about hunting his lands and where to go, as well as techniques. He welcomed me into his home as if I was family and I felt honored to have meet him and be able to even hunt on his property. He is a class act gentlemen that I can personally say we need more people like him in the world. because the world would be a great place to live. Mr awesome is wonderful person and I can proudly call him my friend, my wife even made him our family Christmas treats because of his hospitality. I didn't get a deer this season but I got something more special then the deer kill, that was the experience's and a life long friend.
-Paxer
