# Columbus Day weekend



## sparky27 (Jul 8, 2008)

First of all, Saturday looked like it was going to be great due to the thick layer of dew on the ground and the temp in the low 60's. It looked promising but all in all, didn't see a damn thing in the morning.
I was set up back in the usual hunt zone at chetam and had deer movement signs all over the place and set up right on the trail leading to the food source and where they cross the creek but saw absolutely nothing for the morning and midday hunt. The temp crept up to the high 80's and decided to go home and call it a day. Pretty uneventful but nice to get out all in all.

Monday rolls around for Columbus day and went just because. I was a standby and didn't get my usual hunt zone so I took the one available just north of my regular site. Well, not much happened. I wasn't really familiar with the site and it was a large zone so I sat in the tree from 0600 to 1000. after I got down, I walked around the zone and saw where the traffic was and was leading right to the waters edge on the back side of the zone and was at least 800 yds from the tree where I was set up in the am. The new location was a perfect set up for two archers 75yds apart as there was two trails leading to two different water edges. So I made the mental note to go there next time I got the zone. The temp crept up to the high 80's again and told the wife I would do only the morning hunt so I drove back to turn my zone in and left. speaking with the wife i decided to stay out for an evening hunt and promptly turned around and went back. Well, the zone I was in the morning was checked out but my favorite site was open so I took it. I had done a little scouting previously and since my zone was cut in half by a road I decided to hunt the opposite area on a high bluff surrounded by a creek (large amount of traffic) with heavy brush 75 yds away. The tree I picked originally was slightly too large for the stand so I had to pick one a little closer to the creek but wanted to keep about 20/25 yds from the water source. I wasn't able to get as high as I like due to a large branch in the way but was able to get up about 15 ft in the tree. I was sitting for about an hour and a half and noticed a doe come in about 75 yds away in front of my off to the right and then it was on!!

I sat there with my heart beating out of my chest watching this doe come in closer and closer to me. After about 20 minutes she came into 40yds right in front of me and then crossed the creek just to my left. She came across and up the hill just a little bit and started feeding at about 45degrees to my left just at 40 yds away. I watched her for another 15 minutes and was very anxious and drew and released an arrow.
As the arrow made its mark where I aimed my peripheral vision saw a very large doe out of the right corner of my eye about 50 yds away and another 20yds behind her. Well, after a few minutes I got down and went looking for the doe and couldn't find the arrow at first so I started looking for blood. No blood and found the arrow in the ground with no blood so to say the least I was pretty bummed and made a really bad rookie mistake but learned a lot from it. I still had 2.5 hours of daylight left so I went back up the same tree just a little higher. Not even 45 minutes later; I saw a buck at 60yds dead ahead of me. I started watching the buck which milled around in front of me for a while then walked the exact same trail crossing the creek the doe took. Not wanting to make the same rookie mistake again I sat there watching and knew exactly where my shooting area was. The buck was a VERY NICE 6 point and proceeded to the exact same spot the doe was feeding where I took my shot. He fed there for a few minutes and then I hear this CRUNCH, CRUNCH coming from the extreme left behind this bunker. Out comes a second buck (4pt) and proceeds to where the 6pt is. They mill around for a few minutes acknowledge each other, put their racks down and tap a couple of times, turn around, feed etc. Then all of a sudden, this 6pt starts just tearing up this bush establishing dominancy of the area and making a scrape. This goes on for over an hour and Im right at 40 to 45 yards from these two bucks and all of a sudden, this doe comes in !
from where the second buck came from just a trotting down to the two bucks and begins feeding. After a few minutes go by, the 6pt begins walking down the trail to the creek just below my stand. He finally crosses by boundary for a kill shot. I have to remain sitting to draw my bow because I went just a little higher and had tree limbs just above me. I bring my bow to my left ever so cautiously and begin to draw and BAM!!!! He looks up and is off like greased lightning and blew it for any of the three.

So there I was contemplating what just happened and realized I had about 20 minutes of light left and decided to just relax and watch the last light of the evening and all of a sudden something on the edge of the heavy brush in front of me spooked and took off. All I saw was a flash of brown take off. HOLY CRAP!!! So I sit for a few minutes more and in the shadows 80 to 90 yards to my right I saw the silhouettes of several large does as I loose the rest of the light. Feeling very satisfied for an evening hunt not even caring that I didn't take a deer I got down out of the tree and headed back to the truck for the end of the most exciting hunt I have ever experienced. I now know that I need to move my treestand about 25yds closer to the heavy brush and where the trail crosses the creek.


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

Great read. Sounds like it was a great day in the woods.


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## jlove1974 (Oct 9, 2009)

Great hunt!
This is why I need to take up early season archery 

NC just passed the crossbow statute and I want to get my 9yr in the early fall woods w/ one as soon as possible


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