Had to drive to Arkansas and back this weekend, so I didn't get to hunt until Sunday morning.
Was planning to be on my stand before the Astronomical Twilight, but I overslept after a long drive and didn't make it to the woods till just before sunrise.
There a light north wind, and since I was already running late I decided to walk straight to my deer stand instead of taking the covert route I had planned ahead of time. So I'm walking in to my stand on this logging road that I seeded over with Alfalfa during the summer and I was looking for a downed tree that was my landmark for where I needed to turn into the woods to get to my stand.
Since it was dark and since I was coming to the stand from a different direction than I had planned on, I accidentally turned at the wrong tree and ended up about 200 yards south of where I was going and jumped a little buck under the oak trees eating acorns. So I followed him north and kept looking to my east and west knowing he'd try and cutback and get down wind of me as soon as he could.
It was then that I noticed the row of Red Yucca that I planted in the woods to mark the southern boundary of my property the year before and realized where I was. So I kept tracking the little buck and followed him right to my tree stand. He walked within 5 feet of the metal ladder, if I had been on the stand instead of stumbling around in the dark I would have shot him.
So then I was kind of pist, but I decided to go ahead and make the best of things and get up in my stand. I banged around and made a whole hell of a lot of noise getting up the tree, broke the quiver off my bow, and probably alerted every deer within a mile of my presence before I got to the top.
Just as I got to the top I dropped my GPS unit down the stand, it crashed down 25 feet onto the ground and make a hell of a racket. I decided to just go down and pick up the pieces later that day. So I manage to get myself sat down and strapped in and sort of comfortable and then I realized that I in my excitement of seeing the little buck and losing my way, that I had forgotten to set my scent wicks out.
So I opened my pack up as quietly as I could and got my scents out and setup my scent wicks and gave them a toss in the direction of where I was planning on setting them up. And I pumped a few sprays of acorn scent on my boots and jacket -- I love the smell of acorn scent -- to me it smells like a delicious stack of pancakes. Anyway deer love that smell too, and less than an hour later I saw two does, but they were about 60 yards away through the canopy and I'm only confident to shoot one with my bow to 35-40 yards, so I watched them for a bit and sat.
A couple hours later the sun was up over the hill behind me and the wind really picked up and started whipping around in the trees. So I climbed down and set my scent wicks up correctly like I had meant to in the first place and retrieved my GPS unit, fortunately it was intact and working.
Then I stalked down to the other end of my property and turned around and came back, when I got nearly back to my stand I have to cross the power line right of way so I stopped and looked both ways to make sure nothing would see me out in the open when I walked across. I looked south and saw a white ear twitch and it was those two does bedded down in the sunshine 160 yards away, one was looking my direction so I waited till she wasn't looking then ducked under some brush and scrambeled across.
Ordinarily with my rifle I would have shot one of them, but with a bow I would have to get closer so I decided to go about a quarter mile south and then see if I could sneak up on them from the downwind side but when I got there no luck they were gone.
So I sat down and had some lunch then decided to go back to the stand for the afternoon. I sat in the stand for 4 more hours will the sun started going down then I climbed down and went to the hill side the other side of the draw where I'd be in the shaddows and not standout against the sky.
Couple more hours and my wife called on the radio and said she was there to pick me up, so I walked out of the woods tired and hungry with no deer.
But I had a good time.
