I'd been seeing lots of action in the creek bottom, but all in the morning, so I decided for a change of scenery for te evening...
If you golf as good as I do you probably say, "this is it, I'm not coming back again." Then, it never fails, you birdie #18 and all the misery goes away and you are ready for the next round. The Outback stand did that to me today. I have sat in this stand 7 times now. I've seen one deer in range (a 4 point) back in September and have only seen a handful of doe in this giant field. I told my dad as we parted ways (he was taking Kody out) that if I didn't see anything tonight I was pulling the stand on the next shitty day before it gets stolen like my camera did that was in the tree next to it.
Me, my dad, and Kody are all texting back and forth right before dark about how I can see 150 acres of field and not one deer in it. He says, "same here". I text Kody that I'm packing up and I'd meet them at a place out the road.
I grab my backpack, put it on, put the arrow in the quiver, and do one last listen since the wind finally died down. I hear walking... SERIOUSLY?!?!? I put the bow across the seat of the stand and start scanning down in the woods (it's a steep bowl). Can't see much as it is pretty dark. It's 5:35 and very overcast.
I wait and listen, I hear steps again, defenitely a deer. Finally, coming up the steep hill to the woods edge I catch movement. I find it in the binos and sure enough it's a buck and it's got long tines. At this point I'm not exactly sure how big, but i know it's a shooter... at least I'm pretty sure.
I nock my arrow just in case. He slowly makes his way from my extreme left along the woodsline to right in front of me broadside at 15 yards. He followed the exact script, but he was 10 minutes too late for the show. Legal shooting time ends at 5:45 and with the overcast sky, it is too dark to be sure of the shot even at 5:35ish. All I can surely make it is it's a 9 point with a bit of a crab claw on one main beam. Never saw his brow tines, but could tell he was tall and wide. All I could do was helplessly watch him walk away. No way could I risk the shot. I would not have been able to be sure of shot placement, impact, ect...
So, he got a pass. But, it was a great encounter. I didn't get a birdie on the last hole, but I parred. Now I gotta go back for more.
I'm thinking it was this guy, but not positive. Are there bigger ones? Sure, but I love his width.
Hours on stand: 41.5
AM Sits: 5
PM Sits: 9
All Day Sits: 1
Bucks: 12
Doe: 26
Shooters: 2 plus 1 borderline
Harvests: 1 (Klay)
Coyotes: 1
Idiots: 1