Well as some of you have been asking me how my whitetail hunt was going, it has come to and end... It was another odd year without much snow but we managed to put it together. The big bucks were limited this year as always, but we did manage to see a few but none presented the opportunity for a shot.
So on the last day of the hunt a 3 pt I had seen several times walked out and that was the end of the story after a 15 yard chip shot! He came sneaking in mid day (11:51 am) to be exact, looking for a doe or so he thought by all of my scent wicks hangin in the tree limbs...
Anyways, he came in and got a big wiff of one of the scent wicks, and headed right for another one presenting a quartered away shot. Drawing back and settling in, I carefully placed my top pin on his heart inline with his offside leg and slowly squeezed the trigger. Expecting him duck as the bow went off was a given, and the arrow hit mid body on his right side and exited his left side in the lower part of his front shoulder for a perfect shot in my book. As he turned to run off I could see fletching on one side, and broadhead sticking out the other. As quickly as that happened the faucets had opened and it was apparent following a blood trail would be pretty easy. He ran about 50 yards and all went quiet... About 3 or so seconds went by and I heard a loud thump, I knew he was down.
I waited 40 minutes and slowly climbed down out of my treestand and went to find my buck. As I had thought he ran about 50 yards and had expired. I propped him for pictures and went and climbed back in my treestand for the rest of the day as I had to wait for my dad to come and pick me up in the evening from his treestand. The high was in the low 30's so I knew he would be fine sitting there for the next few hours. Things got interesting then...
A few hours went by and I had a few more deer come by and one big buck chasing a doe and it was enjoyable just to watch the deer. I heard something sneaking by behind the stand at about 3:30 and I slowly turned around expecting to see a big buck looking for a doe. Not believing what I was seeing I had to blink a few times... A cougar was sneaking by at about 40 yards and snuck down out of the clearing I was sitting in and disapeared a few minutes later... Thinking it would be cool to call the cat back in and maybe get a shot at it I decided to make a few fawn bleats in hopes of calling him in... Well that was a mistake..
About 20 minutes went by and it was starting to get dark and all of a sudden it sounded like a tree behind me was falling down... I quickly turn around, and the cat was climbing a tree behind me looking for a snack. As I was moving for my bow he spotted me and the stare down began! Looking for a hole to get a shot at him, I moved and my stand made a loud metal sounding pop and he sprung out of the tree and hit the ground and took off running down the direction I had to walk out..
I waited a few more minutes as it was getting dark, and finally got down out of the tree and proceeded to head out. With the hair on my neck standing straight out, I don't think I have ever ran so fast in my life!!
Waiting for my dad to come and pick me up, I began to get pretty nervous wondering where that cat was... So I took off walking down the road and went quite a little ways before he finally came down the road to pick me up only to find out he had shot a buck as well. After swaping stories and telling my dad about the cat we figured we better get back in and get my deer before it became a snack! We went back in and my deer was fine but to this moment I don't think I have ever had such an unsettling feeling about being in the woods...
Anyways, enjoy a few pics of the hunt.
