...in my chest!!
It' s just a small patch of woods across the street from my driveway. It's surrounded by roads and a few houses and has maybe 3 acres of trees. I put a camera out there last year and some corn just to see. I got a nice, real nice, 10 pointer on camera last year. This year no camera. I did put out some corn and checked it once. Some was gone so I refreshed it. Today I decided to check the corn and put more if needed. This time I grabbed my bow, put on some camo and grabbed three arrows. You know... just in case. The corn was gone and the ground bare! Wow, that was quick! I put out the gallon of corn I brought and positioned myself between and arm+ length behind two trees. Enough room to draw my bow.
After about an hour I saw a four pointer coming in at a trot. I leaned back to draw my bow. When I saw him next he was about far enough from me I coulda whacked him with my bow. The tree on my left obscured a good portion from my view. He was in front of me and behind the tree to my right so fast I couldn't draw. I did notice four velvetted points and a scruffy coat. He must be shedding his summer coat, I thought. Then I noticed another fork horn about 10 yards away. Great. Another pair of eyes, I can still fool two pair of eyes. Shoot! a doe! OK, three pair. Another fork?!! Four, no, five pair. Another doe. OK, I was at half draw and that second fork was staring right at me stomping his foot. I'm not exactly sure when he started staring me down but in about 5 seconds I had 5 deer within 10 yards of me. I do know when my chances pretty much vanished... it was the fourth deer. I still had hope though.
I slowly lowered my string to just past tawt, it was still resting on my knee. I slowly turned my head away to watch with my peripheral vision. I noticed to the outside of the left tree trunk a small fawn full of spots walking through the browse to catch up with it's friends who were all playing some kinda game to get me to move. Two bucks were staring and stomping their feet and the two does were lowering their heads down and jerking them up to try and catch me moving. Sorry folks, I was thinking, I can be still long enough for you to get comfortable and lower your guard. I'll just get one of you, hopefully the velvet fork, as you leave with your bellies full.
He was in my mind but only as much as me thinking that he was the one I wanted, scruffy coat and all. I have yet to fill an archery tag, mostly due to my short comfort range, so any but the fawn were fair game, and dead, if they made a mistake. But I failed to realize, as he was out of my sight because of the big tree to my right, that he was close to downwind of me. I was just hoping they couldn't hear my personal jackhammer pounding away inside my ribcage. It was over in, I guess, around 5 minutes. The velvet fork obviously took noticed of his buddies attention and slowly started circling around the tree. I heard him snort, wheeze, then they were gone in 2 seconds.
So... wow! I figured out a few things. One, I need to build that brush blind I've known I need there. Two, they'll be back later and looking in that same spot. Three, my ticker can actually take a beating. I also noticed that the extra adrenaline is actually helpful in helping me focus on a small spot.
Man, what a day!! Or more specifically, What a five minutes!! I was only out there for about an hour... 12:30-1:30.
There's always next time.
possum
