at least that's what i'm now calling my ground blind after missing my dream buck yesterday. It seems i am determined to make every rookie mistake in the book before achieving success. I took the past few days off to hunt hard out in PA, and activity has really been picking up. Given the coming Noreaster, the wind was set to shift 180 degrees throughout the day yesterday, rendering my stands pretty useless. I had previously set up a ground blind and brushed it in on my property to have as an option, and yesterday it seemed the blind was my only good option so i thought i would give it a shot. Turns out it was. I haven't seen many big bucks all year on my property, but have seen a beautiful 8 point on camera, only once during daylight, that is a real standout. Yesterday i had him come in to 30 yards, and give me a perfect, wide-open, quartering away shot. I must have taken him a half hour to come in thoses last 10 yards, but i promised myself i would not take a shot over 30. Here was the golden opportunity to take my first nice buck with a bow... i settled my pin, slowly pulled the release, and watched him jump and sprint off into the woods. Things happened quick and i didn't have any sense whether it was a good shot or not. Eventually, i crawled out of the blind and went to take a look for the arrow. well.. i found it pretty quick, and i could tell from a ways off that there was no blood on that arrow. turns out the arrow caught the camo screen bunched around the bottom of the opening of my blind. nothing but screen fiber on that NAP killzone. the good news is that it was a clean miss, and while i'm sure i spooked that buck pretty good, i'm very thankful i didn't injure him. i'll be looking for him saturday, but guessing he's a bit smarter now.
Tough break! But that's just part of bowhunting. We've all had our fair share of hearbreaks. They just make success all that much sweeter when the time comes. Stick with it, you just may get another shot at him!
