10-9-10 archery report

AM Report

Me, Andy, and our dad hit the woods on the top hillside this morning. The temperature was much warmer than the first day, and I really had low expectations. While me and Andy were skunked, dad smoked a doe. After hitting a branch and missing the first shot, he nailed it clean on the second. We had her gutted, skinned, and de-boned in the frig before it hit 10:30 am.
One down eleven to go!

PM Report

I headed out to the twin trees for the first time this year. The air is just so much cooler on that side of the hill, I figured with 80F temps it would be my best bet. A slow evening turned exciting fast. Saw squat all night until right before dark. As I was starting to tear down the gear to get ready to climb down a bat landed on the tree right by my head and kinda freaked me out for a minute, as I shooed it away I heard some leaves crunching behind me and looked down to see a big bodied deer with horns. I had already packed away my binoculars, so I had to dig them out of my pack, and I was suprised through the fast coming darkness to spy a dandy set of horns. I quicky grabbed my bow and as I was attaching my release to the string the bruiser walked not only into my shooting lane, but into my scent stream. He looked right up at me, took three or four leaps, and walked away. It all happened so fast I wasn't really upset until the climber was on the ground, then it started to gnaw on me, but that's what's up dealing with older bucks i guess. This deer is at least four years old to sport those antlers on this ridge. He displayed all the typical signs of a big buck too, not moving from his bedding area until last light, moving around ghost like, and having that damn nose! Oh well its nice to know there's a heavy horned buck cruising around the area.