So far i've gathered that there are two main groups of hunters. Ones that live for the outdoors and are just happy to be there, the hunt comes second. Then there are the hunters that live for the hunt, live to release their arrow and connect on their quarry.
For about 3 months now as I have prepared for this deer season, I believed firmly I was the first type. I didn't really care if I connected on anything I just wanted to get out and see the world. Today proved me whole heartedly wrong.
I went to my go to spot, where i've had deer on the trial cam, i've spoked deer before, and with the fast depleting water sources the only spot with water. I got in to a little break in the cover of a natural quaking aspen draw. The spot was nice but it is only about 40 yards wide and about 200 yards long. It is also frequented by cattle who like to ruin my day.
At any rate I got in to the spot found a place to sit that allowed me about three shooting lanes out to 40 yards and a log to my back. I got in at about 5:20 PST with an hour till shooting hours. Before 6 a doe popped out on top of the opposite cliff, with a little skipper following, even if I was fred bear the shot would've been undeliverable, but it got me pumped for the rest of the hunt. So I sit till about 7ish and pass out, I wake up to every little noise, hoping and thinking it's a deer to no avail. So 9:30 roles around, and I know that the most active deer hour out here has long since past and i'm getting anxious, so I decide to go spot and stalk the rest of the area. Plus I hear awhole bunch of movement in the woods, and bank on it being another POS cow pushing through the brush.
FYI: NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING!
I get up pack my gear, stand up on the log, make a lot of noise cause I was thinking that the spot was blown. I look to the origin of the noise, and you guessed it, a forked buck decided to come in 20 yards behind me and rub to his hearts content....
Wait it gets better.
So I start freaking out, didn't know what to do, there I am standing in the wide open, with a buck at 20 yards, and I don't know how big he is (at least I wasn't blown). So I dip behind a little red dagwood, and try to collect myself. For some reason, I decided to go to the left a little to see if he'll step out of the cover and make his way towards the water source. I progress a little bit, one step at a minute, making sure I don't hit any of the noisiest pine cones in north America.
Setting for the last scene: So now i'm 15 yards from deer...how many deer...what size....and if they're legal...I have know idea.
So I hook on my release, standing in between two bushes, praying that the deer just walk into the prairie and leave me broadside. So the buck is still going to town, just hammerin this young aspen, and who pops out, but this massive doe, just huge, almost twice the mass of the buck. She's at about 15 yards, and by her point of view i'm just standing in the open, bow out release on binocs on my neck...just standing.
I look down....this is when the oh Sh! Happens, I glance with my eyes, and i'm standing in the trail.... not on it....literally in it. She doesn't know what to make of me, can't really tell what I am, knows there's something there but can't really tell if it's a bush or something else. I keep absolutely still.
1min...2min....3min.... 10minutes she eyes me up. Glancing from the trail to me to the trail to me.
At this point i'm freaking out, i'm stuck. I don't know what to do, then the buck comes out he's a 2X2 no kickers no ear spikes, nothin...not legal.
So my concentration goes to the doe, I have every intention of laying her down. But I can't move. Let alone draw, she moves back to feeding, but her eyes stay forward. She takes a step, then another, then another... She's walking her usual path I just happen to be there. She's at (no lie) 5 yards in front of me, staring right into my glasses.
POOF! Game over.
I tried to stop em at 10 yards but they broke out.
I feel like crap, 20 days of hard work, probably 10 shot opportunities when I was trying to see if the buck was legal.
Just hope I didn't blow my one and only chance, at my first archery deer (mule deer no less).
Don't get me wrong with this next part, I love the sagebrush, I love the prairies, i'll be the first one to just walk in the woods to be there but...The one good thing about today, is that I realized, i'm in it for the hunt and the shot, i'm there for the deer.
