The Vacation, Monster Buck & Heart Attack

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted, but I have been on vacation. Hope everyone’s deer season is going good, mine is going ok,  but not a great one for me so far.  I hunted everyday of my vacation and saw very few deer. The weather and moon were just about perfect for hunting,  so I really cannot blame it on anything other than I just don’t know the place well enough to know the best spots for stands.

I am pretty positive that the invasion we have made on the area since we first started looking at buying it in October,  probably has the deer and hogs a little skittish, and not going about their normal routine. But what else can you do when you acquire a new piece of ground you have never hunted before,  right in the middle of the bow season, except go on in and try to be low key as possible while looking for the best possible stand sites. I know I have left scent around and probably spooked them some, but how am I supposed to scout it, by helicopter?

I am not a guy who just walks in the woods and throws up a stand thinking this looks like a good spot, been there and done that and I am not that lucky!  I like to at least try and find a little deer sign to hunt by to up my odds a little, and if possible I like the deer sign to be more than a track or two. I like rubs, scrapes, droppings, anything other than just a track. Deer tracks are great to find when you find lots of them coming and going cause then you got a trail, but just a track here or there don’t tell me crap! I walk along fence lines looking for signs where they have been going under or through it, I look for hair on the barb wire and things like that. If I can’t find new sign I will hunt by old sign, at least I know that deer at one time or another, have spent a little time there. If you are the guy who just goes and throws up a stand because you think it looks like a good spot then more power to ya. If it works for you then you are luckier than me,  I am glad it works for you and hope your luck continues.

It did not help matters any that I started feeling so discouraged and impatient for awhile that I did not know if I was coming or going. I also started second guessing myself alot and I really hate when I do that! Guess it is because during my vacation I got picture texts on my phone every other day from buddies of mine who were taking some dang nice bucks. Now let me say this, I am happy for them and anyone else who takes a deer especially a nice buck. I do have to say though that when you sit in a treestand day after day, in spots where you know you should see deer activity, and rubs are  everywhere in the vicinity and your not seeing anything but squirrels, while everyone else you know is sending you pics of bucks they are killing, it gets a little discouraging! Pretty soon you start to wonder if you have any idea what the heck you are doing!

I have never felt that way in my life and have always hunted because I love the woods and just being out in them. Guess I just pressured myself into believing that  because I am in Oklahoma now, that everyone is expecting me to kill a huge buck. I did not really realize how ridiculous I was becoming until the other day. While I was in my stand I had a big doe walk out of a cedar thicket in front of me. She milled around a minute and started looking behind her,  at that moment I thought here he comes and started breathing heavy and my heart was pumping like it was coming out of my chest! I kept telling myself “Calm down make sure you hold behind the shoulder. Do not screw this up  and do not miss him”, then I started seeing legs walking behind the cedar she stepped from behind and I was already beaded down, safety off, waiting for this massive 10 point to step out so I could pull the trigger and start sending picture texts! Well it seemed like eternity but what finally did step out was a smaller doe, and then another small doe,  probably her twins from this spring. Needless to say I felt like a real idiot,  but I was also very happy to see them in our new woods! Michele thought it was very funny that I almost had a heart attack over a doe!

So after that near massive heart attack I asked myself what is wrong with you, you have never been this way! Michele has been very supportive of me as well as my buddies. They all remind me that I just got the place right before hunting season, and that it takes a while to learn a place and really make it good. Michele tells me that I am being too impatient and that I am making a job out of it instead of doing it for the enjoyment like I always have, and that is why I am having such a hard time. I know that they are all right. I have the place now and it is not going anywhere, so I am just gonna relax and enjoy the rest of the season in the woods. I will start working on the place preparing for next deer season right after close of this season. That is actually as much fun and enjoyable as the actual hunting.

I did manage to take a spike buck right before the rifle season closed. I never would have shot him but I wanted some deer meat because I was completely out. I also wanted to check the performance of my handload for the .243. I shot him right behind the shoulder at about 75 yards and he dropped on the spot. The Sierra 85Grain HPBT completely turned his heart and lungs into jelly, but did not exit the offside. I have them pushing a little over 3000 fps with 43 grains of IMR 4350. So far I like the load but the buck did not!

I still have a bow tag left and the bow season is not over until January. I also have a vacation Dec 20, I got meat in the freezer, and took my first buck off of my new hunting ground. Now I am just gonna relax enjoy the woods and hope I get lucky and maybe get a shot, or just catch a glimpse of one of those legendary wallhangers that are known to be in Oklahoma!

To tell the truth I would love the new place even if I never saw a deer on it. The place is beautiful to me and anyone who likes the woods would fall in love with this place. I told Michele the other day when I was discouraged, if there were not many deer there I would just get a lease. But now that I am back in my right frame of mind with the help of Michele, family, and friends, I know they are there. Anyone who owned this place and paid for a lease would be stupid! It  just needs some plots planted, feeders going and then kept quiet and undisturbed for awhile, and it should be a hunters paradise. I may not fill my bow tag this year, but I will go out on a limb and say, that if I get everything done that I have planned to do before this summer, I am expecting  2010 will be the best deer season I have ever had!