Here you go Michael, I finally had time to do a little write-up on my trip. Just a warning it is a little long.... We kicked off our week of hunting on Monday morning with some nice mid 30s weather. The excitement, anticipation and confidence were all at super high levels. We get in stand about 45 minutes before daylight and chill a little in the Summit waiting on the sunrise. About 30 minutes after the shooting light I get blown at from behind. Total surprise here did not expect a deer to be back there. Well I don’t get turned around in time to see him, so now the confidence in the set-up has dropped a bunch. A little later in the morning I do hear some grunting coming from the direction I had planned on but no deer ever showed its face. About noon I head back to camp to grab some lunch and a quick shower and then head back out for the evening hunt. The evening hunt proved to be a little bit more exciting. I decided to hunt in the same area but to move my stand about 20 yards. About 5:30 a little button buck came out and proceeded to feed around my stand until after dark. The best part came when it was real dusky. A real nice buck showed up. This buck came out of the area I anticipated and chased the button buck away from the acorns. It was real low light at this point so getting a good look at the rack was difficult because of the level of light and the 50ish yard distance. This buck was noticeable bigger than the button though. The back and forth between these two deer of being chased off and then coming back to browse lasts until about 7:45 and keeps me on stand well after dark. During this hunt I heard my buddy take 3 shots. (He was rifle hunting on the other side of our lease while I bowhunted.) There were 2 shots taken pretty close together and then a single shot about 5 minutes after. When I got back to camp he had taken a boar, a sow and a piglet. This is the first time pigs have been seen on the property but we did see tracks for the first time last year. We also had an encounter with the rest of her litter later that evening when they showed up at camp looking for momma. Tuesday was a little bit tougher hunting. The temps were on the way up and deer sightings dropped a lot. I decided to move to a stand that is a little closer to camp but I have always seen deer here on morning sits. Early in the hunt there is a nice size buck browsing about 70 yards away. I'm terrible at judging size but can tell you this was a nice looking 6. Lots of potential with this deer. After this hunt I decided to move this stand 90 yards to put myself on the other side of the trail. Tuesday evening I returned to the same area as Monday night and the same button buck makes another appearance but doesn't stick around nearly as long. A little spike also showed up a little bit after the button. After seeing mainly smaller bucks in this spot, I decided to switch gears for the rest of the week and pulled my Summit from this area. Wednesday turned out to be the hardest day of hunting. Zero deer sightings on both the morning and evening hunts and temps ranged from the low 50s all the way up to the low 80s. Tough tough tough! Needless to say frustration had set in at this point. Thursday morning I decided to hunt an area of the property that had some good sign but is rarely hunted. On the first set I have 3 does come through before legal shooting light. They headed straight to the pine ticket on a neighboring property just as I thought they would, my confidence is back on the rise at this point. Thursday evening again has 3 does at my stand within 20 yards. They come up the trail behind my stand. I about goofed up here. I initially only saw 2 of them and when they had their heads down and almost to my shooting lane I decided to draw. As I was making this movement I notice the 3rd doe and I am forced to be very still. Luckily I had only hooked my release to my d-loop and had not begun to draw. I am finally able to come to full draw and as I am standing there waiting on one of these does to step up to my shooting lane they decide to stay just out of it and moved on out of range. Friday morning ends up being the last and most frustrating hunt of all. I return to the Thursday spot. About 8 am a single doe is coming up the trail but is coming a little higher up the hill than I thought. At first I thought it was going to be just another I get to watch her move on through the area, but then she started to come down the hill a tad towards a shooting lane. I get the opportunity to come to full draw. I realize as I am holding at full draw that I did not range this spot. I estimate the distance to be about 20 yards and as she is coming into my window I give a little “meh” to stop her squeeze the release and……WHIFF!! What? I could tell right away my arrow went just under her. She bolts up the hill, stands around, grazes a little bit, laughs at me and eventually moves on without another chance at a shot. I think my arrow was low because my estimated 20 yards was actually 25 and the deer jumped higher than Calvin Johnson catching a TD pass when I shot. Even with the miss I had a great week down at the lease and will be heading back this weekend, with even cooler temps than the other week and reports are the rutting activity is starting to pick up down that way. I have also picked up a lease closer to the house just in time to hunt the rut in my area without going to public WMAs. I'm pretty excited about this new piece of land.
