I went out this morning, braved the Missouri 14 degree weather. Told myself this morning that if I didn't see much movement that I would pretty much pack in the mornings and focus on afternoons between bed & feed. Anyway, I heard deer moving prior to light which was nice. About 45 minutes after first light I had a group of 3 does travel a creek bottom about 60 yards from me. I saw a small forkhorn trailing them, then a nice 8 pt. The 8 and forkhorn started lightly sparring. I thought they we're feeling it a bit, so I hit the can doe call and 5 minutes later the big 8 came up from downwind. I call him big, he was probably only 120 to 125 but big for me on public land. I know a lot of you guys on this forum kill much bigger. Anyway, he got to 35 yards, gave me a quartering away shot and I missed. My arrow hit a branch, just above what I thought the arrow flight trajectory would be. It stinks missing on a nice deer but it was nice to have a good encounter on Dec. 7th. It reenergizes me for the rest of the season. For those of us who haven't killed a nice buck yet don't give up. Good Luck to you all!
With the season I haven't had a chance to have yet, (due to work) this is an encouraging story despite the hardship of missing the buck! Glad you had a good sighting and took away some positives from the hunt. Good luck for the rest of your season.
I'd love to hunt more but there do not seem to be many deer in the area that I hunt. And here in SE Wisconsin, there are two more gun hunts yet.
