Most Heart-Pounding Hunt: A November Bow Hunt
An Early November Morning
One early November morning, I drove over to my friend’s camp to do some archery hunting. It was the early rut, and we had six inches of fresh snow. There was talk of a big buck in the area, and all the other hunters were ready to go.
The guys said if they got one hit, they would come to where I parked and beep the horn two times.
I grabbed my climber and headed into the snow-covered forest. I only walked about one hundred yards, and I came to a small lake nobody knew was there. We were hunting public land that I had never been to, so I was happy to have found it.
I climbed a tree along a pine thicket about forty yards from the lake.
About ten minutes after shooting light, a big doe came to thirty yards from me and bedded under a pine bow. I was confident that I would have a big buck come to visit her.
Well, I never got the chance because a truck pulled up and beeped twice.
Disappointed that the hunt was over, but happy to go help track for someone else, was okay too. I climbed down and headed to the truck.
The news was they were going back for breakfast!
I gave up a hunt with a doe bedded thirty yards away in a pinch point for nothing. To say I was frazzled is an understatement.
I followed them back to camp, and they started cooking breakfast, but my mind was on hunting.
I announced that I was going to go shoot a buck, and I’ll see you all later.
After some joking and laughing, I slipped out.
Fresh Buck Tracks in the Snow
I drove back down the same road from the morning and slid into the woods. I walked across a swampy bottom and up a small hill to a bench that ran just above the brushy swamp.
After a short walk, I came upon two sets of fresh buck tracks in the snow. They were going downhill into the swamp.
I moved forward to a point that stuck out into the swamp and had a good shooting advantage.
I knelt down behind a pine tree big enough to hide me and knocked an arrow.
I pulled out a grunt call and made two short grunts.
All hell broke loose down in the swamp when the bucks came crashing towards me.
The bigger buck started tearing up a tree and pawing the ground. I grunted again and walked forward into a thicket.
The small buck popped out of the thicket first, with the big buck following close behind.
The grass was tall, and I thought they were thirty yards from me, so I drew and fired.
Wrong guess, as my arrow sailed over his back.
They both went down into a creek bed and out of sight.
I grabbed my quiver and ran down into the bottom.
A Buck Comes Charging In
There were three giant poplar trees with a large deer trail on the other side of them. My heart was pounding out of my chest.
As I knelt down and raked my quiver in the red brush branches, the buck immediately came charging in right on the trail in front of the poplar trees.
His ears were laid back, and his fur was all raised like he was pissed.
I drew my bow, and as he was passing less than one yard away, I let my fingers slip off the string.
My arrow entered the deer before it cleared my string.
The buck mule-kicked and ran about thirty yards and looked back with bulging eyes and tipped over dead!
After I recovered from the excitement, I dressed the deer and dragged him back to my truck.
I wasn’t gone an hour from camp.
So needless to say, everyone had some smart Alec comments for me.
Until I held up my bloody hands, and then it was a race to my truck to see the deer.
We all laughed, and I told them the story.
It was a good day.
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