Great weekend! Passed a spike and a basket 7 on Friday morning. Saw 5 different bucks Friday evening, two of them at 40 yards circling each other and all brissled up. Eventually, I got a shot at the bigger of the two(a nice 8) at 28 yards and somehow managed to blow the shot but all in all it was one of the best sits I've had in a while. I was on the Easern Shore of VA and if you saw the weather you know we got hit with cold, windy, wet weather on Friday night through Saturday. Saturday morning I got skunked in my ground blind but I stayed dry. The weather was crap 30-40 mph winds from NNE and rain. Went to my evening spot around 3:00 and it was raining sideways...so I slept in the truck til about 4:30. By 5:00 the rain had gotten lighter so my buddy and I trekked in. It was nasty out but I was excited to see a small buck following another deer down the powerline on our way in. My buddy had killed a nice 8 Friday morning and I drug his tarsal gland in with me. Normally I would have drug it out in front of the stand and left it but in my haste I climbed up with it. 20 minutes later a nice 7 or 8 comes in on my trail and I spot him at about 25 yards, he's walking quick and he ends up right behind the stand downwind of me and catches enough of my scent that he immediately 180's and sneaks quickly back the way he came. I got my bow in my hand and sight on him but he was quartering hard away and already nervous and I couldn't get a shot off. A little bummed and losing what little light I had down in the creek bottom quickly I was already planning to head out around 6:15. Around 6:00 a deer shows up out of thin air upwind of me and even though I had seen some bucks I wasn't waiting for one and smoked what I thought was a nice doe at 20 yards. Good shot but upon finding her I realized "she" had grown some tiny spikes. In VA under 1" you can tag as antlerless but he didn't make it, they were just a touch over an inch(anyone have some sandpaper) so here's my buck for the contest entry. A touch disappointed about the spikes and the miss but all in all a great weekend hunting and the action is hot. Between VA and NC I have 5 buck tags left so I'll see if I can top this one....lol. That's the cliff notes version(sorry if you read this in the team threads already). Here's some pics: my buddies 8, some camp grub(5 day old venison ham steak), the bunk house, and the monster spike!
Good hunt. Bummer it's 1" for antlerless over there. Here in Indiana they can be tagged antlerless if they're less than 3". But we're also only allowed one buck for the year, across all seasons combined.
Thanks fellas, I can't see me making a full week of work this week the way the deer are acting. Good luck Finch, it looks like you timed your vacation perfect!
