It was by chance that I glanced to my right. The silhouette of something dark caught my eye and was followed by a sudden rise in my body temperature as the buck stepped into a clearing between two branchy downed trees. He was a large deer with a substantial rack – at least eight points – and he was as careful as you’d expect him to be.
It was the afternoon of day two of the rifle deer season and I had seen a fair amount of doe. This was the first buck. I was hunting private land that was open to hunting through an access program through the DNR. Not many hunters were in the wooded acres …but there were others as I would soon discover.
The buck made his was closer to my shooting lane, but extremely cautious. Finally, I slowly inched my way into a shooting position that allowed me to raise my rifle and put a scope on the big buck, when, like a shot, he straightened, jumped straight in the air and turned on his way down and disappeared over the ridge he came from.
I haven’t been that cussed-out since I was in basic training. I must have spooked him …or so I thought.
Snap, crackle, pop sounds came from my left, followed by hunter orange making its way along the edge of the woods along a field about 200 yards away. The buck heard the approaching hunter before I did and reacted.
Here’s hoping that guy has to go to work on Monday.
TD