Opening Day Of Gun 11/16/2013

I am writing this post in two parts. I am starting it by remembering last years deer season. I had what I believe was a nice 11 point buck in my scope on two separate days. The first day I saw him which was getting late in the season was a running shot opportunity at around 75-80 yards. I did NOT take the shot. I tracked him with my scope running diagonally across in front of me down towards a stand of woods to my left and eventually a swampy area leading down to a local lake. The strange part is I THINK I would have brought him home with me. I felt good about the shot opportunity and YET.....I did not take the shot.

The last day I hunted, I had a second encounter with this same buck just down over the hill into the wooded area and not far from where he entered the woods earlier in the season. I heard what I thought was a buck grunting up above me a couple of times. I then second guessed myself that perhaps it was another hunter, and after a couple other grunts, remember thinking to myself, "Hey, the guy blowing the grunt call sounds pretty realistic". Immediately I then thought, "Hey, dummy.....maybe it is a real buck". I had already grunted back to him a couple of times with an electronic hand held tending grunt call, waited a while and I then pushed the snort wheeze electronic call and turned the volume up and let the snort wheeze call have a go at it.

Prior to doing that, I had stood on my feet behind the tree I was sitting down by and got my rifle ready and did the snort wheeze with one hand. I then heard another grunt closer to me and still above me on the ridge. I froze with my rifle ready to go, arm wrapped around the sling, and the 3X9X40 Bushnell turned down to 3X. I waited and waited for a while, straining my eyes for some movement and my ears for some noise or another grunt. After a while I figured I had been made and the buck had moved on and become a little wiser for my efforts. I stood the rifle against a tree, and reached down to put my back pack on and THERE HE WAS.... (OR) I should say..."There He Goes." It was the SAME buck as I had seen days before. I dropped the back pack, snatched up my rifle and tracked him in the scope. the only shot I had was up the backside straight away and I was simply NOT comfortable with it. The buck stopped running at the top of the ridge, turned his head back towards me giving me a good look at his head gear while he checked me out and then he went down over the ridge and down a steep hill of pines. Again, I had a shot and I am reasonably sure I could have made the shot from a semi-solid rest leaning against the same tree. WHY didn't I? I told myself it was late afternoon and if I didn't hit him right, I might not find him before dark. I was also hunting alone. In addition he was on the top of a steep hill of pines where I had encountered another hunter twice during the season who left his climbing tree stand in place just down the hill from the buck. Was he on stand that particular day? Turns out, NO he wasn't, however I didn't know that at the time.

That day and the first encounter with the same buck haunted me all year until July 24th when I had a quadruple heart bypass. As mentioned in another post, I had NO heart trouble symptoms, NO chest pains, no tiredness, no discomfort, and NO clue that I had (4) blocked or partially blocked arteries.

My wife indicated to me, that perhaps God spoke to me in that still small voice to "Let The Buck Go" and that I could have made the shot, however in the course of dragging the big buck out of the woods in the dark, I might very well have lost my own life in the process. By the time I would have called 911 assuming I would have been conscious and even able to make the call, and by the time they arrived with an ambulance, I might have been gone. My cardiologist told me that the very FIRST symptom for most men that they have any heart trouble is when their nose hits the ground in mid-stride and they are dead before they hit the ground. Something to THINK ABOUT anyway and I am curious what this coming Saturday will bring.

OK, I should be at Tim's place by 6:15 AM  and he likes to be in his stand on time and it takes about 15 -20 mins to walk to his stand.

Part 2: Hey its Saturday Morning, opening day of deer season in NYS /November 16, 2013.

Got by on about 4 hours sleep last night and got up to Tim's and on our stands on time. Tim took a nice 9 point buck before 8 AM. I looked for the elusive 11 point buck today, however he remained elusive. I did manage to take a nice 8 point around 2:15 PM this afternoon down below Tim's pond. I had it in my head all week to hunt down below the pond today and it paid off. I saw a total of 10 deer today, most of which were does and a couple of smaller bucks.

Tim took his 9 point from his tree stand using his Ruger Model 77 .300 Win Mag with hand loads. I shot the 8 point with Hornady 150 Grain SST out of my Savage Weather Warrior .308 Win.

Dan