This begins in late August, before the Early Goose Season. I was out getting in touch with all the farmers that I had permission from last year. I like to go out and talk the the landowners, instead of just calling them. We usually shoot the poop for 10 - 20 mins., and I think it is just nice to have a conversation, to see what they are up to and how their year has been.
Well, I go to this one landowners home, knock on the door, but alas, they are not home. I was a little dissapointed, because I had a few nice goose hunts on their property last year, and didn't want somebody else asking permission, so I would not be able to hunt there.
Driving out of the driveway, I thought to myself, why don't you stop in at the neighbours place, and see if you can get permission there. So I drive over and this landowner is cutting his grass. I should mention that I knew that they were related somehow, so was pretty confident that getting permission to hunt a few geese would be pretty easy. Walking over, I realize this man is getting on in years, and it turns out that his hearing is failing him. Quite evident in the way I was almost shouting, and him always saying, "WWWHHHHAAAATTTT". Anyways, we finally get around to the topic of the geese and hunting them.
Well, he doesn't "REEEAAALLLLLYYYYYY", like the idea of shotguns on his property, and would rather that I did not hunt. Being more than disappointed at this time, I continue chatting with him, or rather Screaming, and finally tell him to have a nice day. I get my wallet out and give him my business card, and tell him that if he changes his mind, call and let me know.
Walking away, he calls to me, and says "Where did did you get your name for your business"? I tell him the story and he says "Garth is my first name." I should mention here that I did introduce myself with my full name, but he did not tell me his. You see my business name is Apple Garth Accents, and he was quite taken with my business name having his first name in it.
So we chat a little more, and he said that he really didn't want me goose hunting, but if I like, I would be more than welcome to deer hunt on his property. WOOOHOOOO!!!! I was thinking, what a score. Most properties in my area are already taken with other people bow hunting, so this was a great opportunity for me. I said thank you to him and arranged a time to come by and do some scouting. He mentioned that he had never had anyone else hunting on the property, but he liked my attitude, and the fact that I only live a mile and a half away, and that I was hunting on his cousins property, his neighbour. Of course I offered to help him around the farm with any small jobs that he needed done, but he said that was alright, there was no need for me to do that.
Anyways, about the 10th of sept., I go and have a scout around the property. Well, I could not believe the sights that I took in. Deer tracks everywhere. Water on the property, in the form of drainage ditches. Beside all these ditches were grass roads, for lack of a better term. Easy access to and from stands, as well as natural highways for deer, ad ease of hauling deer out. What a bonus. I picked out a few stand locations, cut shooting lanes, and the like. I don't really like the small permanent stands, but I do like my Summit Climber. So all said and done it was a great work day for me, as well as scouting and the like.
Deer Season Begins
The first day of the hunt, I was not sure what to expect. I hadn't really patterned anything, so was unsure of what times the deer were using certain trails. I ended up seeing 8 deer in all that first day, 7 does and 1 6 point. I should mention here that last year during the controlled hunt, a couple of the guys go to Port Loring for the regular season, and had invited me to their camp for this year. Never having been on a rifle hunt before I was quite excited about the offer, and right away took the up on it. Consequently, I applied for the Antlerless in that WMU, and had decided that I was only taking 8 pointers or above with the game seal. I did purchase 2 additional seals for my area 92, but as you know are Antlerless only. All that being said, I really had my heart set on Doe's with the bow.
On the 2nd outing on this property, I ended up seeing a doe, with this years fawns, and a fork horn. Of course the fawns were dancing around underneath the stand, having a great old time, while I am eyeing up the doe, that is busily eating the leaves off a dogwood. I can just see her head, the rest of her body is concealed by the bush, giving me no shot. I could easily have taken the yearlings, but I wanted the biggest bang for the "Buck". So I level the crossbow on her, watching her through the scope standing and eating the dogwood 25 yds away. She finally decides that she has had her fill of that, and steps in the opposite direction that I need to get a shot. "DARN" and other explitives are going through my mind. That is when I spotted the fork horn, about 60 yds away, past the Doe, and she wanders right up to him gives a small snort, and he takes off ad the fawns canter over to her and all disappear into the woods.
Hunt three. I called Garth in the morning and told him I would be out around 3:30 to hunt. He told me he had a few chores to do and come on out. I arrived at 3:45, and he was picking up Walnuts from the base of ths Huge tree that is right beside his house. I park the truck and go over and start helping him pick up the Walnuts from the ground. We took about 45 mins for the two of us to pick them all up, and he thanks me for helping him, and I told him that it was no problem, as I really appreciated him letting me hunt his property. I think its the little things like this, helping out, that really help you out with your landowners. I really wanted to be in the tree stand, but putting in some time with the farmer was the right thing to do. Walking out to the stand, I ended up bumping a couple deer that were on the grass roads, and did not see anything else that night.
I hunted there most of the long weekend, with the exception of Sunday, as he does not want me hunting there on Sundays. I have no problems with this, as every landowner has his things, and we as hunters have to abide with them. So I ended up not seeing anything Friday night, Sat. morning or night, as well as monday morning. Sunday I ended up hunting at another property that I share with a fellow hunter, and I saw 2 does in a field 200 yds. away, and that was it.
Stick with me here, I am almost done! ;D
Monday afternoon, I arrived at my stand location at 3:30. Got myself settled in and began to read a book that I am enjoying. I lifted my head up every 5 or 10 seconds, with the rustling of leaves from those pesky squirrels. Its hard to believe how much noise they can make. So, every half hour or so, I give a doe bleat, I bought one of those "Canned Bleats" from CT, on the suggestion from Adrian on another thread. Not much was going on, other than those pesky squirrels and their infernal racket.
5:30ish, I looked up, and I saw movement on one of the grass roads. Quickly putting my book in my pocket, and getting the crossbow ready, I peered through the foiliage. I can see antlers, but not how many. I give a few soft grunts, but I don't think it heard me from all the noise of the leaves and wind. The body slowly moves off, and I am thinking to myself, how am I going to get that deer to turn around. Finally, I see more movement coming towards me about 80 yds out, and cath a glimpse of the rack and the body of the deer. I determind, that it is a 6 pointer, and all of a sudden it just layed down. It Bedded no more than 75 yds from me.
I can still see part of its rack sticking up out of the ferns, and have definately decided its a 6 pointer. I set the crossbow down on the shooting rail and continue to watch.
About 5:55 this deer finally decides to get up, and proceeds to rake the snot out of a maple sappling just in front of it. I give 1 grunt on the tube and it looks my way, then decides to go at the sappling some more. He does this for about 2 mins., before deciding to come and check out what that "Grunt" was. Slowly, he comes my way, and to my astonishment, I can count 6 main points, plus 2 kickers on one side, and another kicker on the other. I slowly pick up the crossbow, and level the sights on him. He stopped 30 yds out and started to rub another sappling, but this time just rubbing his forehead on the tree. He moves on to another sappling 3 yds closer and does the same thing.
Now at this point, I am thinking to myself, is this the deer that you want to take with your original tag? Are the guys up north going to be upset with you for not having a tag to use for antlerless? Well these question and more raced through my mind, in about a matter of 2 seconds. The deer moved a step closer, concealed behind a small shrub, giving me no shot. A couple more steps later and I heard the saftey click on the crossbow, and I knew that the decission was made. One more step and "THWANG".
Well that deer took off like a rocket. I could see the fletching of the bolt on the side he was hit, and I thought to myself, "Did I shoot to far forward"? I thought maybe I caught the shoulder, because I could see all of the fletch, but before I could get another good look, he was 60 yds out, and all I saw was a white flag. WOW. I really didn't have much chance to get the shakes before the shot, because it happened so fast. But afterwards!!!
I immediately called a friend and told him the situation. This was about 6:00 pm.. He said he would meet me there and help me seach all night if we had to. That made me a little happier, and I told him we should wait at least until 6:45 before we start searching, so I quietly got the stand down and walked out to wait, and to tell the farmer that I had a deer down and would it be alright if a friend helped search and drag the deer out.
We get to the spot where I last saw the deer, a low and behold, there is the end of the bolt with the fletch on it. A lot of blood, and my mind gave a great sigh of relief, knowing that the deer was fatally wounded. we continued the search, spotting small drops of blood every 2 or 3 yds, until I finally looked up from the ground and saw the deer 10 yds in front.
What a trophy. The deer only went about 100 yds from where I shot it, and everything worked out great. It ended up that the bolt did exit the off side, and I got both lungs, despite what it looked lioke with the fletching sticking out. I have to mention that the Broadhead used was one that was a give away by a company that was posted on here. I recieved the broadhead about 2 weeks after I filled the application, so thank you whomever it was that post that free giveaway link.
Its not the biggest deer out there, but it is the biggest one I have ever gotten, and I will remember it for a lifetime. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my story. Here's a couple of pics.
7.62mm
Well, I go to this one landowners home, knock on the door, but alas, they are not home. I was a little dissapointed, because I had a few nice goose hunts on their property last year, and didn't want somebody else asking permission, so I would not be able to hunt there.
Driving out of the driveway, I thought to myself, why don't you stop in at the neighbours place, and see if you can get permission there. So I drive over and this landowner is cutting his grass. I should mention that I knew that they were related somehow, so was pretty confident that getting permission to hunt a few geese would be pretty easy. Walking over, I realize this man is getting on in years, and it turns out that his hearing is failing him. Quite evident in the way I was almost shouting, and him always saying, "WWWHHHHAAAATTTT". Anyways, we finally get around to the topic of the geese and hunting them.
Well, he doesn't "REEEAAALLLLLYYYYYY", like the idea of shotguns on his property, and would rather that I did not hunt. Being more than disappointed at this time, I continue chatting with him, or rather Screaming, and finally tell him to have a nice day. I get my wallet out and give him my business card, and tell him that if he changes his mind, call and let me know.
Walking away, he calls to me, and says "Where did did you get your name for your business"? I tell him the story and he says "Garth is my first name." I should mention here that I did introduce myself with my full name, but he did not tell me his. You see my business name is Apple Garth Accents, and he was quite taken with my business name having his first name in it.
So we chat a little more, and he said that he really didn't want me goose hunting, but if I like, I would be more than welcome to deer hunt on his property. WOOOHOOOO!!!! I was thinking, what a score. Most properties in my area are already taken with other people bow hunting, so this was a great opportunity for me. I said thank you to him and arranged a time to come by and do some scouting. He mentioned that he had never had anyone else hunting on the property, but he liked my attitude, and the fact that I only live a mile and a half away, and that I was hunting on his cousins property, his neighbour. Of course I offered to help him around the farm with any small jobs that he needed done, but he said that was alright, there was no need for me to do that.
Anyways, about the 10th of sept., I go and have a scout around the property. Well, I could not believe the sights that I took in. Deer tracks everywhere. Water on the property, in the form of drainage ditches. Beside all these ditches were grass roads, for lack of a better term. Easy access to and from stands, as well as natural highways for deer, ad ease of hauling deer out. What a bonus. I picked out a few stand locations, cut shooting lanes, and the like. I don't really like the small permanent stands, but I do like my Summit Climber. So all said and done it was a great work day for me, as well as scouting and the like.
Deer Season Begins
The first day of the hunt, I was not sure what to expect. I hadn't really patterned anything, so was unsure of what times the deer were using certain trails. I ended up seeing 8 deer in all that first day, 7 does and 1 6 point. I should mention here that last year during the controlled hunt, a couple of the guys go to Port Loring for the regular season, and had invited me to their camp for this year. Never having been on a rifle hunt before I was quite excited about the offer, and right away took the up on it. Consequently, I applied for the Antlerless in that WMU, and had decided that I was only taking 8 pointers or above with the game seal. I did purchase 2 additional seals for my area 92, but as you know are Antlerless only. All that being said, I really had my heart set on Doe's with the bow.
On the 2nd outing on this property, I ended up seeing a doe, with this years fawns, and a fork horn. Of course the fawns were dancing around underneath the stand, having a great old time, while I am eyeing up the doe, that is busily eating the leaves off a dogwood. I can just see her head, the rest of her body is concealed by the bush, giving me no shot. I could easily have taken the yearlings, but I wanted the biggest bang for the "Buck". So I level the crossbow on her, watching her through the scope standing and eating the dogwood 25 yds away. She finally decides that she has had her fill of that, and steps in the opposite direction that I need to get a shot. "DARN" and other explitives are going through my mind. That is when I spotted the fork horn, about 60 yds away, past the Doe, and she wanders right up to him gives a small snort, and he takes off ad the fawns canter over to her and all disappear into the woods.
Hunt three. I called Garth in the morning and told him I would be out around 3:30 to hunt. He told me he had a few chores to do and come on out. I arrived at 3:45, and he was picking up Walnuts from the base of ths Huge tree that is right beside his house. I park the truck and go over and start helping him pick up the Walnuts from the ground. We took about 45 mins for the two of us to pick them all up, and he thanks me for helping him, and I told him that it was no problem, as I really appreciated him letting me hunt his property. I think its the little things like this, helping out, that really help you out with your landowners. I really wanted to be in the tree stand, but putting in some time with the farmer was the right thing to do. Walking out to the stand, I ended up bumping a couple deer that were on the grass roads, and did not see anything else that night.
I hunted there most of the long weekend, with the exception of Sunday, as he does not want me hunting there on Sundays. I have no problems with this, as every landowner has his things, and we as hunters have to abide with them. So I ended up not seeing anything Friday night, Sat. morning or night, as well as monday morning. Sunday I ended up hunting at another property that I share with a fellow hunter, and I saw 2 does in a field 200 yds. away, and that was it.
Stick with me here, I am almost done! ;D
Monday afternoon, I arrived at my stand location at 3:30. Got myself settled in and began to read a book that I am enjoying. I lifted my head up every 5 or 10 seconds, with the rustling of leaves from those pesky squirrels. Its hard to believe how much noise they can make. So, every half hour or so, I give a doe bleat, I bought one of those "Canned Bleats" from CT, on the suggestion from Adrian on another thread. Not much was going on, other than those pesky squirrels and their infernal racket.
5:30ish, I looked up, and I saw movement on one of the grass roads. Quickly putting my book in my pocket, and getting the crossbow ready, I peered through the foiliage. I can see antlers, but not how many. I give a few soft grunts, but I don't think it heard me from all the noise of the leaves and wind. The body slowly moves off, and I am thinking to myself, how am I going to get that deer to turn around. Finally, I see more movement coming towards me about 80 yds out, and cath a glimpse of the rack and the body of the deer. I determind, that it is a 6 pointer, and all of a sudden it just layed down. It Bedded no more than 75 yds from me.
I can still see part of its rack sticking up out of the ferns, and have definately decided its a 6 pointer. I set the crossbow down on the shooting rail and continue to watch.About 5:55 this deer finally decides to get up, and proceeds to rake the snot out of a maple sappling just in front of it. I give 1 grunt on the tube and it looks my way, then decides to go at the sappling some more. He does this for about 2 mins., before deciding to come and check out what that "Grunt" was. Slowly, he comes my way, and to my astonishment, I can count 6 main points, plus 2 kickers on one side, and another kicker on the other. I slowly pick up the crossbow, and level the sights on him. He stopped 30 yds out and started to rub another sappling, but this time just rubbing his forehead on the tree. He moves on to another sappling 3 yds closer and does the same thing.
Now at this point, I am thinking to myself, is this the deer that you want to take with your original tag? Are the guys up north going to be upset with you for not having a tag to use for antlerless? Well these question and more raced through my mind, in about a matter of 2 seconds. The deer moved a step closer, concealed behind a small shrub, giving me no shot. A couple more steps later and I heard the saftey click on the crossbow, and I knew that the decission was made. One more step and "THWANG".
Well that deer took off like a rocket. I could see the fletching of the bolt on the side he was hit, and I thought to myself, "Did I shoot to far forward"? I thought maybe I caught the shoulder, because I could see all of the fletch, but before I could get another good look, he was 60 yds out, and all I saw was a white flag. WOW. I really didn't have much chance to get the shakes before the shot, because it happened so fast. But afterwards!!!
I immediately called a friend and told him the situation. This was about 6:00 pm.. He said he would meet me there and help me seach all night if we had to. That made me a little happier, and I told him we should wait at least until 6:45 before we start searching, so I quietly got the stand down and walked out to wait, and to tell the farmer that I had a deer down and would it be alright if a friend helped search and drag the deer out.
We get to the spot where I last saw the deer, a low and behold, there is the end of the bolt with the fletch on it. A lot of blood, and my mind gave a great sigh of relief, knowing that the deer was fatally wounded. we continued the search, spotting small drops of blood every 2 or 3 yds, until I finally looked up from the ground and saw the deer 10 yds in front.
What a trophy. The deer only went about 100 yds from where I shot it, and everything worked out great. It ended up that the bolt did exit the off side, and I got both lungs, despite what it looked lioke with the fletching sticking out. I have to mention that the Broadhead used was one that was a give away by a company that was posted on here. I recieved the broadhead about 2 weeks after I filled the application, so thank you whomever it was that post that free giveaway link.
Its not the biggest deer out there, but it is the biggest one I have ever gotten, and I will remember it for a lifetime. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my story. Here's a couple of pics.
7.62mm
