I'm sure a lot of you here have had one of those days in the field and I just had to share mine from the other night. The whole sit was screwed from the moment I left the truck. The evening before, I threw a sit at a spot I was sort of saving for late season because I had run ins with good bucks in there in years past this time of year. Well, right at dark, two does skirted out of some thick red brush, followed by a dandy eight pointer, nose to ground, about 100 yards behind them. They were way out of range, probably close to 100 yards from me, but I watched him disappear in the direction the does went. Great! I have a target buck to hunt in late season! With forecast wind direction supposed to be the same the next day, I was banking on him bedding in the same area. It was a slam dunk! Well, I got to my spot, jumped out of my truck and started suiting up. I had about a 3/4 mile hike to get there, so I left the truck at 1PM to make sure I had time to get there, find a tree in the spot where I saw him and get setup. I took a slightly different route to the spot so that I was walking straight at where I expected him to come from, trying to keep my movements and such to a minimum. All stealthy like. I got to the spot and started looking for the right tree. Well, there literally was nothing suitable to climb here. All a bunch of super noisy hickory trees, most of which were as crooked as a politician. I spent 15 minutes walking up to different trees... and finally I saw something that might be suitable. But... it was huge. I couldn't get my arms much more than halfway around it. It was a hickory, noisy as heck. I decided to give it a go and climb it. I threw my one stick on the tree and climbed to the top of it. Everything about the tree was shady. The noise I made just in that one move was ridiculous. Back to the ground and I half assed packed up my stuff and started looking for another tree. I found a white oak, and I swear it was the only one within 100 yards of this spot. It was way off the trail that buck used the night before, but you never know what might happen tonight. Up I went. I got up the tree about halfway and I heard something hit the ground. Looked down and there was my jacket. It somehow worked out of my straps on the pack and fell. Crap! So, I unhooked my one stick from the tree, tossed it back to the ground and reppeled down and packed it all back up again. Then up the tree I went for a third time this evening. Finally I was settled in and things were looking up. I had a pretty decent sit, seeing 8 does and a small 6pt, but the big guy didn't show up. Probably the highlight was how I managed to fool four does that came in at my 4 o'clock and walked directly behind me. How they didn't see me and spook is beyond me as the tree I had to climb was in the open with zero cover on that side. Then it got dark. I packed up my stuff, lowered the bow to the ground and started repelling out of the tree. For those that don't know, I one stick saddle hunt and get out of the tree by repelling out. Its super fun, safe and quick. But there is this little thing called gravity that you have to be mindful of at times. The tree i was in leaned slightly away from me, which is perfect, but if you forget, sometimes its "interesting". I began my decent, unhooking my stick from the tree quick and hooking it on my saddle like i've done a thousand times now. After than, its a 10 second trip to the ground. Well, gravity had other ideas and I began to swing to one side of the tree and I couldn't bring myself back. I swung wildly around to the back side of the tree as if I was on a kids swing. I had to laugh as I hung there for second, in the dark, still probably 15ft off the ground. I finished my descent to the ground, packed up my gear and shamefully walked back to the truck, praying that no one or no deer was watching this whole fiasco tonight.
I've had my fair share of "disaster" hunts over the years! My all-time favorite was trouncing around a piece of public with 50 lbs of stand/sticks/camera gear/clothing on my back for almost 2 hours, getting buried up to my knees in mud, and eventually giving up on finding a tree or a spot to hunt for the night, and just packing up and driving home.
Dude... Ive been there. Didn't ever go home. I've gotten so mad and was like... F it... I'm sitting in that bush over there till dark. Sometimes it turns into a fun hunt that way... lol
I once stepped out of the shower after my scentless wash and instead of grabbing scentless spray I grabbed the citrus lysol and sprayed my head and shoulders with it. Same hunt that the original war kitten decided to climb up in my stand with me, lessons learned most important do not try to throw a cat off your tree stand, there will be blood.
I am familiar with the feeling! Some days it’s just a crap show and you have to laugh. I climbed a shag bark hickory this year bc it was the tree I had to be in. What a mess, never doing that again.
Statue of limitations. Bout 1990 is, my buddy and I each had our bowtags. I think it was Christmas eve morning? I don't remember temps but I know it was well below 0*. We went into a riverbottom. Snow was DEEP! i was dressed in whites and was just gonna sit on the ground. When I got to where I wanted to be, I just dug out a hole in a deep drift overlooking the riverbottom woods. At daybreak, a buck came below me,drew and shot and seen my arrow go high. Following him was another buck. Fumbled to get another arrow nocked which I remember was a total cluster F being so cold. When the 2nd buck got to where the first was standing, I shot and it hit perfect. My buddy met me later at my hideout. We were both absolutely frozen. Told him what happened. Went down the riverbank to the deertrail only to find 2 bloody arrows stuck in the snow.. Oh crap!. I was 100% sure I missed the first buck. Both deer a 4x5 and a 4x4 were piled up within 20 yards of each other. I was in shock and buddy was pissed thinking I did it on purpose thinking he'd tag the other one. He would not do it. Took a few phone calls to find someone with a tag but I did. Remember it sucked dragging 2 good sized bucks 1/2 mile through deep snow. Thinking back now, I think the temp was around minus 15*.? Ain't now way in hell I could do that now.
