I made a rookie mistake yesterday. I climbed about 15 feet in a small pine tree with very little cover. Deer sign and acorns were plentiful, but I realized my mistake as I settled into my Lone Wolf stand at around 4:00 P.M. About 30 minutes later, 3 does approached, but spotted me about 30 yards out. A quick circle down wind of me and they were out of there. Shortly after, a small buck approached from the same direction as the does and again picked me off and circled down wind. Off he went. I was kicking myself for my poor tree selection when I saw a deer approaching from the other direction. He walked directly under my tree and turned broadside at 15 yards. As I reached full draw, he turned toward me and looked right up at me. He turned and bounded off about 5 yards and turned toward me again, trying to figure out what I was. I remained at full draw for at least a minute because any movement and I knew that he would spook. As I began shaking, he finally turned broadside to leave and I took the shot. He made it about 125 yards. This hunt reaffirmed for me the importance of picking a tree with good cover.
I used a 50 LB. hickory selfbow, Zwickey Eskimo Broadhead and cedar arrows.
I used a 50 LB. hickory selfbow, Zwickey Eskimo Broadhead and cedar arrows.
