Saskatchewan…The Land of Giants

Saskatchewan…The Land of Giants

By:  Tracey Splechter

Our hunt had been planned for a few months, with a few twists and turns along the way.  The day had finally arrived to fly to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for our whitetail deer adventure.  Kirstie Pike, CEO of Prois and I were meeting up on Saturday, November 6^th and planned to overnight in Saskatoon that evening, prior to our departure to camp on Sunday.  All travel plans went off without a hitch and we were ready to go by 9am on Sunday morning.  Devin, the outfitter, and a few other hunters met us at the hotel Sunday morning and we loaded all of our gear into the trucks and headed north.  It is approximately a two hour drive from Saskatoon to Leoville (location where ATV’s are stored for ride into camp) and the guides offer to stop in Leoville to let hunters purchase any extra beverages or snacks they need for the week.  We arrived at the base camp in the early afternoon and each hunter’s gear was loaded onto trailers which were to be pulled by quads (also known as four wheelers).  Each hunter drives their personal four wheeler for the one hour adventure into camp.  I say adventure because this is exactly what it was.  The guides had just brought the previous hunters out of camp two days prior to us making the trek but not long after starting down the trail we hit our first bump in the road.  One of the hunters dug himself deep into a mud hole and had to be rescued.  The weather was quite warm for early November so the trails were not frozen as they typically would be when hunting season begins.  The second bump:  a large tree had been chewed down by a beaver and was blocking our “train” from passing by.  The tree was too large for the six guys to lift and move off the trail, so the guides took each four wheeler around the tree so we could continue on our journey.  The rest of the ride in was uneventful, but the scenery was amazing.  We saw several lakes, miles and miles of timber, clear blue skies and wildlife galore!

Once at camp, the guides unloaded all gear and we were shown around camp.  There was the main cabin, where hunters sleep and meals are prepared, the guide’s cabin, the cleaning shed, a workshop, and the changing cabin.  The heated changing cabin is where you stored all of your hunting gear.  The owner is a firm believer in scent control and does not allow any of your hunting clothes to be brought into the main cabin to keep the scent problem down.  While the guides were busy cleaning the four wheelers, we unpacked our hunting items into the changing cabin and took everything else into the main cabin.  The main cabin has three bedrooms, each with a set of bunk beds, a bathroom with shower, kitchen, dining room, living room and deck overlooking Higgins Lake. The main cabin is also equipped with a wood burning hot tub.

Next on the agenda was the sighting in of each hunter’s gun.  Once this was complete it was time for dinner and to get all paperwork out of the way.  Each person drew for their stand placement and guide for the Monday morning hunt.  This works well as it keeps things fair between all hunters.  After a quick video, it was off to bed as the morning would come very quickly.

Bright and early Monday morning, the coffee was brewing and breakfast was cooking on the stove.  Dustin, the cook and guide, made the most amazing meals you could imagine in a back country hunting camp.  After breakfast was cleaned up, it was off to the changing shed to prepare ourselves for a long day in the tree stands.  We all loaded our gear onto our four wheelers and wished each other well for the day.  My guide for the week was Tom Beebe, the outfitter’s dad.  Tom has been guiding hunters in the area for 21 years so he knows the land very well.  It took about an hour to navigate our way into the stand.  My stand the first morning was named Jack Pine 2.  It was about 20 feet in the air and about 111 yards from the bait pile.  I had three good shooting lanes and a lot of action all day.  I had a nice 10 pointer chase a few doe around for the majority of the afternoon but I didn’t get too excited about him.  I decided that if I was in the same stand on Thursday and hadn’t shot anything, he would be my Thursday deer.  During the twelve hour sit, I also saw four 8 pointers, four 6 pointers and several spikes.  I lost track of all the does that came into the bait pile, of alfalfa straw and peas.  Every day, the guides drive around to all 35 stand locations and place fresh bait, if needed.

When we returned back to camp, dinner was ready and we all talked about the happenings of the day.  Every hunter saw several deer at each of their stands but no one had taken a shot.  We were all waiting for the monster!  The outfitter has about 20 cuddyback cameras placed at different stands throughout the week.  Everyday they pull the cards from the cameras to help pattern the deer movement.  They have a board in the lodge with pictures of deer they have gotten on camera that have not been shot.  They have each hunter study this board to be sure they know how to judge deer in the field.  The guides had spotted a very large buck on a stand they hadn’t placed a hunter so they decided to move a few of us to different stand locations.  I wasn’t really ready to move, but agreed to shake things up a bit.  Four of us were chosen to draw again and I drew lucky stand Carolina.

The next morning we drove about 1.5 hours to my stand location.  This time there was one shooting lane, the bait pile was about 75 yards and my stand was about the same height.  Before we headed out, I had told Kirstie that I had a nervous feeling in my stomach.  About an hour into sitting, I realized why I was feeling that way.  Two does came underneath my stand and headed straight for the bait.  They hung out for a while and something spooked one and off it ran.  The second one stayed on the bait but was looking in the trees to my left.  I scanned the woods to my left and saw nothing.  A few minutes went by and that doe hadn’t moved.  So I started searching the woods to my left again and there he stood; the large deer with the tipped main beams that I had remembered seeing on the board.   I knew instantly he was a shooter!  No need for binos, I went straight for my gun.  The buck went directly to the bait pile and turned perfectly broadside.  I took about five deep breaths and fired away!  Wow, what a rush!  I will never forget that feeling just after you take your shot and you watch your deer trot slowly away.  I immediately radioed my guide to let him know I had taken a shot, just like we were instructed to do.  About an hour after I had shot, I got all my gear and myself out of the stand and was going to investigate.  I walked down the hill to the bait pile and couldn’t find any blood.  All I found was a pile of fur.  I sent Kirstie a message to let her know that I had shot and good news, so had she.  She tracked her deer and had a very nice 12 pointer on the ground!  The timber was so thick that I decided to go back to my stand and wait for the guide.  A couple of hours passed and Tom arrived at my stand.  We went down to the bait pile, I told him which direction the buck ran off and the tracking was on.  We found a very large pile of blood and then tracked for about an hour and couldn’t find anything else.  I was getting that sick feeling like I had a bad shot, but knew deep down I was right on.  It was getting dark so Tom decided we needed to head back to camp and we would try again tomorrow.  I was beside myself.  The entire ride back to camp, I was speechless.  I felt I had wounded a deer and left him to die in the woods.  Tom did everything he could to console me and said that if he was down, the birds would be on him in the morning and we would find him.  Once back in camp, we realized 5 of the 6 hunters in camp had shot deer that Tuesday morning and mine was the only one not recovered yet.  There was Tom who took a 182, Kirstie with a 154, Ron with a 140 and Jessie with his first whitetail deer at 127.  The wait for Wednesday afternoon was the longest 12 hours in my life.  Tom, Devin, Ron, Jessie (Ron and Jessie were from North Carolina and Florida, respectively) and myself headed out on four wheelers Wednesday in search of my tipped main beams.  Along the way we baited a few stands and finally reached Carolina.  I showed everyone the fur at the bait pile, the direction he ran off and the large pile of blood we found the previous day.  We all started off in a different direction with our eyes and ears open.  Driving in we didn’t see any birds flying overhead so that wasn’t a great sign.  Devin yelled for everyone to be quite, he thought he heard something.  We all stood our positions and then we heard them, the birds squawking about 100 yards away.  Devin and Ron took off at a fast pace in the birds’ direction and Ron started yelling he could see him.  At that point, I was sprinting through the brush, my heart was pounding.  Devin was yelling for everyone to get there as he spotted an eagle.  Ron, my savior had found my deer!  Little did we know that Tom and I were only about 10 yards from the deer the previous day but could not see him through the thick brush.  It was smiles and hugs all around.  I was so excited!  I had my first Saskatchewan whitetail deer and he was a beauty.  My emotions had gone on a roller coaster ride in a short 24 hour period but everything ended well.  We made it back to camp and the celebration was on!  We had taken five deer in one day and that was a record at camp!  We had a fantastic meal and Jessie even played a few tunes on the guitar for us that evening.  Bobby, the only guy in camp who hadn’t shot settled in early that evening as he was going to try his luck again the next day.  It turned out that Bobby wouldn’t take a shot on this trip to Saskatchewan but had several opportunities at deer over 140.  Bobby and Tom both are returning to hunt in 2011.  As for the rest of us, we will be back again someday.

Kirstie and I packed up and were ready to head back to Saskatoon on Thursday for Friday flights home.  We said all of our goodbyes to the hunters in camp with us and to the fantastic guides who we had the pleasure to get to know for a few days.  Overall this was one of the best experiences of my life and I would recommend anyone who wants to shoot a large whitetail deer to head to Saskatchewan with this outfitter.

Great meals, excellent accommodations and very friendly guides all make this an unbeatable, unique experience.  My deer ended up scoring a whopping 160 4/8 and for my first whitetail, I think it will be hard to beat.  Thanks to everyone who was involved in this hunt, Kirstie (my new best friend and hunting buddy), Ron from North Carolina (who I owe my first buck too), Jessie from Florida (Ron’s son who kept things lively around camp), Bobby (the only hunter who didn’t make a shot but deserved it more than the rest of us), Tom (who had the largest deer in camp for the week), Dustin (a fantastic cook and new friend as well), Tom (my guide extraordinaire), and Devin (who almost was the first to find my deer and who I owe this incredible experience to).  I can’t wait to do it all over again.

For more information about this whitetail hunt in Saskatchewan or any other outdoor adventure, contact Tracey Splechter with Outdoor Connection.

tracey@outdoor-connection.com

620-364-5500

Aimee Pitts-My 8pt Buck

Have you ever had one of those years where you just want to give up especially when you feel like you have worked harder than everyone around you but they seem to be the ones with the success?  This is my story about my 2009 hunting season that was horrible but then better than all previous seasons and you wonder how that could possibly be.  Chris, my boyfriend/hunting partner, and I have three places where we hunt – one is in Bossier Parish near my mom’s house and is my favorite place to hunt, another is in Desoto Parish which is the closest to where I live and the other is in Natchitoches Parish about an hour drive from my house.   This year we decided to try something a little different by putting our trail cameras out early in Bossier Parish and Desoto Parish in hopes to get some pictures of bucks in velvet.  And that we did, in Desoto, we had pictures of a nice 8 point and a good 6 point which gave us high hopes long before the season started.  That wasn’t true for my favorite place because I went from having lots of deer on my camera last year to having a doe, a yearling, and more hogs than I cared to count, which was a first for this area.  Of course I wasn’t going to let some pesky hogs bring me down and keep me from hunting in that spot so I readied for opening day, clearing old and new shooting lanes.

Two weeks before the season opened we had a special youth hunt weekend and my 8 year old son, Mason, decided this summer that he wanted to start hunting with me this year so I bought him a new rifle.  Youth weekend he and I hunted the 8 point and 6 point that we had seen on camera.  We hunted all weekend long but only saw a doe with a yearling, not once but every time we were in the stand. Mason was tempted to shoot the doe but using his better judgment he decided against it since she had a baby and I was really proud of him for making that call.  Therefore, no first deer for him on youth weekend and he was ok with it.

When the season started I hunted every chance I could, every weekend going to Bossier and seeing nothing and then when I got the chance I would take off early and hunt the 8 and 6 point in Desoto since that stand was close to home.  I had made up my mind that if I saw the 6 point I would let him walk even though I had never killed a buck bigger than a 3 point – a very large bodied 3 point but nonetheless a 3 point.  I was going to save the 6 point for next year or if one of the kids were with me let them take it but I never saw the 6, the 8, or anything else and then sometime during November the gas well company came in and laid a saltwater line and really messed things up for the rest of the year.  Needless to say we were down one place to hunt but I continued to hunt hard in Bossier Parish in hopes that my luck or things there would change.  I couldn’t imagine where all the deer had gone especially since I had never shot anything off of that stand but all the deer had disappeared.  Still nothing and I was now getting very discouraged because it seemed that the harder I worked or the more I went the less I saw. But Chris, on the other hand, saw deer every time he went hunting and it seemed as though everyone I talked to had been seeing a lot of deer but not me.  My discouragement led to us making a week day afternoon trip to Natchitoches Parish.

We took off work earlier than normal and Chris and I headed to Natchitoches Parish and I was glad we made that trip because I finally saw a deer and it was a buck. Yipee!  A very small 8 point came out just before dark and hung out in my shooting lane for a good while.  He was maybe a year and half old so I just watched him, knowing that in about 2 years he would be a nice one.  I didn’t mind letting him walk because I was thankful to have seen a deer.  After seeing the little 8 point we made the decision to take off early Friday and hunt and camp there for the weekend.  When we arrived Friday afternoon we went straight to our stands I hunted the one where I saw the 8 point earlier in the week and Chris hunted what he calls long lanes.  We both hunted til dark and I saw nothing and Chris saw 3 does, I figured it wasn’t a complete loss since he saw deer and he was only hunting about 400 yards from me therefore I knew I was bound to see something that weekend.  Saturday morning Chris and I both hunted the same stands again and again I saw nothing and he saw quite a few.  That Saturday afternoon the frustration was really working on me and I asked Chris to let me hunt his stand and he could hunt mine.  You can bet I will not make that mistake again.  At 4:15 pm I hear him shoot and nearly jumped out of my skin, and immediately sent him a text to verify it was him although I knew it was and he replied “isn’t your lucky day”.  Now I was really getting frustrated – I asked him what he shot and just said “8”, my first thought was “he shot my little 8 point that I let walk” but I new better especially since he will not even shoot a doe.  He told me to stay in the stand and continue hunting the rest of the evening but I was too aggravated by now so I got down and went to see what he got.   When I saw the 8 point I couldn’t believe it, it was huge.  At that moment, I got upset and decided that he was right I just don’t have the luck and was ready to just quit all together but I’m not a quitter.  I have been told that I threw a little fit but I don’t believe it.

It took me a few days to get over being jealous and feeling sorry for myself and when I did I realized that the Thanksgiving holidays were in a few days and I would have extra time off work and more time to hunt.  The Friday after Thanksgiving I was up early not to shop like everyone else but to hunt in Bossier Parish and since my mom was out of town we had a place to camp for the weekend.  Mason wanted to hunt with us so Chris took Mason with him to give me time to focus without any distractions.  I hunted Friday evening in my favorite stand and again saw nothing until right at dark, when I looked to my left there one stood in my new lane that we extended this year.  The deer looked to have a very large body and I could see horns but couldn’t tell how many because his head was behind a tree, I hesitated due to my fear of shooting one at dark and losing it.  I took my chances anyway thinking this may be the last one I see this year.  I shot and he ran and I panicked.  I immediately called Chris but he wouldn’t answer so I waited a few minutes, got down and went to look for blood but couldn’t find any and it was really getting dark.  I finally reached Chris and he and Mason came to help me look, I showed him where I thought he was standing and we looked around and found nothing.  I began to doubt my shot but I knew I hit him so Chris walked a little further down the lane and found blood and some yellow stuff.   That’s when the sickening feeling set in, I had not only gut shot the deer but I obviously can’t judge this lane like I thought because I thought he was a lot closer than what he actually was.  After calling a friend to bring his dog to help track him we found my deer – it was a spike, and I was devastated.  I don’t shoot spikes, it is a rule I have but I had shot a spike.  The next morning when my alarm went off I didn’t move I was still too upset with myself over making a bad decision.  Chris and Mason went hunting without me.  At 7:15 that morning Chris sent me a text message that said “Mason did it. He shot one.”  At that moment I forgot about myself and focused on Mason’s success.  While I was getting dressed to go meet up with them Chris sends me another text “doesn’t look good, gut shot, going to stay in the stand til 10 and then look.”  I crossed my fingers, said a little prayer and waited to hear back from them.  At 10 am we called the same friend with the dog and he trailed Mason’s deer.  Mason didn’t make a bad shot his was perfect the deer only ran about 50 yards a laid down Mason got his first deer – a spike.  I was very proud of him but still upset with me so we went home I was done for the weekend.  Sunday morning 7:00 am the phone rings it’s one of my girlfriends; she needs Chris to come help her husband cape out the huge buck she just killed.  That was it I had had enough everyone around me was either seeing or killing deer and now one of my friends who doesn’t hunt and gripes because I do every weekend has killed a mountable deer on her first time to go this year.  I quit!

Again I spent a few days dealing with what I now know was jealousy.  My aunt who isn’t a hunter is the one who got my mind right.  She told me that I was trying too hard and maybe if I stopped focusing on that BIG BUCK and got back to the reason why I love to hunt then maybe things will change.  After talking to her I thought about the main reason why I love to hunt and that is because I love the outdoors and nature.  When I hunt I feel like a part of nature whether it be in the mornings when it awakens or the evenings when it is going to bed.  That is what I did the following weekend. Chris and I both took off work early Friday and headed to Natchitoches, but since I wasn’t planning to hunt anymore this season we weren’t prepared and didn’t make it in time to hunt that evening.  During the night Chris and I both became very ill with a stomach virus but we hung in there determined not to be forced to go home.  We slept most of the day Saturday and at 2:00 pm we decided to give it a try and head for the stands.  Neither one of us had eaten since Friday and were extremely weak to the point that I didn’t know if I would be able to climb in the stand.  I went to the stand called long lanes and Chris hunted what is called fence row.  Around 4:30pm I had a spike come out about 200 yards in front of me I watched him walk off in Chris’s direction.  A few minutes late I had 3 does in my lane on the right so I watched them for a while.  At about 5:00 pm Chris sent me a text that he said he has 2 does to the right of his stand.  Things were looking up I was finally seeing deer.  Just before dark I had 3 more does come out on the lane to my left and began to wonder how I was getting back to the house because that was the way I had to walk out and I could still barely see them even well after dark.  I managed to get down and walk out without spooking the deer.  When I returned to the house Chris was waiting to tell me what he had seen.  Just after he sent me the text about the two does on his right a nice 8 point walked out behind them, he chose not to shoot in hopes that if I were to hunt that stand Sunday that maybe I would get a chance at him.

Sunday morning I hunted the fence row and he hunted the stand that I had hunted in the previous evening. That morning we hunted til about 11:00 am and I saw 8 does and Chris saw 5 does but no bucks. That evening we were back in the same stands that we hunted that morning and I am thinking Chris saw the buck the previous evening so maybe this will be my evening. Around 4:45 pm a doe stepped out to my right and my heart started pounding I was thinking this is it the buck can’t be far behind her. I sent Chris a text and just as I pushed send the doe spooked and ran back in to the woods I knew then that he was on his way out. Directly across the shooting lane from where the doe came from, out stepped a spike. I knew then that the big buck wasn’t there because the spike didn’t seem too concerned. A few minutes later I get a text from Chris saying “the 8 pt is on my shooting lane to the right.”  Again my point is proven he was just luckier than me and the deer seem to follow him, but why?  A few minutes later he sends me another text that said “get down and come this way if he is hanging with this doe like I think he is you can make it.” My doe had returned and now I had 2 deer to my right about 75 yards from the stand and I didn’t want to spook them but I climbed down anyway and just as I got to the bottom the doe started walking towards me and then stopped and watched. I never scared them and they just watched me walk away and at that moment I knew my luck had to be changing. The stand Chris was hunting in has a lane out front and lanes to the left and right, like a T with the stand in the center. I walked down the lane out front and headed straight for the stand trying to decide what in the world I was going to do once I got there or should I say if I got there without jumping up or spooking one that may be coming out on the lane I was walking down. I walked thru knee high water that filled my boots and made a loud squishy sound or at least to me it seemed loud.  I made it to the end just in front of the stand and was burning up from all the clothes I had on. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled out in to the lane facing the direction of the buck but he wasn’t there only a doe and a 3 point were there. Chris whispered “he is in the woods snort wheezing at the 3 pt, so just be patient” but I was uncomfortable and needed to get out of my coat so I slowly took it off and laid it on the ground. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to shoot from the ground and I knew I needed some type of rest. Everything from this moment on happened so fast that I will tell it how I think it happened. Chris pointed in the direction of the doe and the buck stepped out all I saw were horns and a huge body. I immediately stretched out, laid on my stomach, propped up on my jacket, and shot. He stumbled for a second and ran into the woods followed by the doe and then a few seconds later the 3 pt followed behind the doe. I did it I walked all the way over and I did it I got my first big buck with my brand new Savage 30-06 rifle that Chris bought me for an early Christmas present. That was an exciting moment but it wasn’t over. After Chris got down from the stand we heard a lot of crashing in the woods and I got a bad feeling that I had made a bad shot and it was getting dark. The crashing lasted for about 5 minutes and I stood ready in the shooting lane while Chris went around to where he thought he was headed to send him back my way.  A few minutes later the crashing stopped and I could hear Chris walking thru the woods in my direction, he then yelled at me and told me to start walking the lane.  I went about 30 yards and spotted something white near the woods and there he was.  I didn’t make a bad shot! Chris then told me that the crashing noises were from the 3 pt chasing the doe once he saw his window of opportunity. That’s when the high fives began because I had made a perfect 75 yard shot from the ground. Some people may call that cheating of some form since the buck didn’t come out by my stand but I call it one heck of an adrenaline rush and a really good story to tell.

I always thought of myself as a patient and non-jealous person but I let my emotions get the best of me and that is something that I will not let happen again.  When you let the things that you love to do become work and you try to hard to achieve the goal then you forget your reason for doing it at all.

Shreveport, LA

Battle of the B.O.W. Opening Weekend

Team HuntingLife.com Date-9/12 and 9/13

Opening Weekend Opening morning and the weather was not what we had hoped for. Temps on Saturday morning were in the 60′s and 100% humidity. Terri Lee was hunting and since Kale was working Joe Sharp took over the filming.

Oma and Opa picked up Tali Friday night, (she was not happy) so we could head out early in the a.m. Tom is working so he can’t watch her. Joe and Amy had supper with us and I took my last shots with the bow from the garage rooftop. Everything is ready. All my clothes have been washed in scent killing laundry soap and placed into a tub with cedar and pine boughs, even my underwear and socks. I am going all out after that big buck.

 4:20 the alarm goes off and I am not ready to get up. 2 nights without sleep, due to excitement, had me dragging. 4:25 I am out of bed and into the shower. We are going to be chasing after a big buck that we have seen on the trail cams, but not this a.m. We are doing a trial run at the apple tree stand. The big buck has been coming in early evening and we do not want to spook him but I do want to get some jitters and bugs worked out. We see two small bucks and a doe as we thought we would.

I head over to pick up Tali and go home for some much needed rest and later a change of babysitters. Auntie Nicky picks up Tali at 4:00 p.m. Tom will get Tali back after work and meet me back at home, after hunting. Into the shower again, as it is so hot and I am so sweaty I have to become scent free again. Joe picks me up at 4:30 so we can head into the stand early. It is so still and muggy.

We take the wheeler in at 5:00 and bait the stand like we did the night before. We have been running the wheeler in every night at 5:00 for 2 weeks picking up trail cam pictures trying to pattern this buck. We are hoping to get the deer used to the wheeler noise also. Joe returns the wheeler to a remote spot while I get set up. We get settled in sweat pouring off of us.

Around 6:00 we have a visit from a pesky bear. We have only seen him in here once on the cameras and he picks tonight to show up. He does not want to leave. It is getting closer to the time we have been patterning our buck and we want him out of there. We start throwing rocks from our Grab-it bag. We put it in the stand earlier just in case something like this would happen. We never hit the bear but Joe almost took me out as his rock ricocheted and nearly hit me in the head! lol. He should have had that on camera.

Joe finally decided he was going to get down and chase the bear out. (I was going to film because I knew this was going to be good!) When he stood up to get out of the stand, the bear finally walked away. He was not happy he huffed and puffed as he sauntered off.

Nothing more came in and we headed out at dark, planning to return the following morning. When I arrived home, supper was waiting for me. I have an awesome husband!

9/13-My husband Tom is home this morning so no need for babysitter. Joe picks me up at 5:15 again. We head into the stand in the dark. Not much happening this morning. We think the bear has changed the dynamics of things. Weather is still very humid and warm. We pull the trail cam pictures and head home to review. We want to know how long it was before the big buck returned last time, after the bear raid. He had been back the following day. That was good news and we were hoping he will make an appearance tonight.

I Head back home for family time, a nap and another shower.

 5:00 p.m. Joe and I head back to the stand again. Same routine. Joe drops me off and ditches the wheeler. We get settled in. It is probably close to 80 degrees just slightly less humid than last night. The air is very still though, no breeze. Around 6:00 we have a small doe come into the bait pile. She hangs around for a short time.

 We can hear something coming in from behind us and circling around. Through the limbs I can see the deer and I get a glimpse of horn. My heart begins to race slightly. If the pattern we have seen is true, the 9 pt will come in, followed by the big buck. He finally steps out head down and I can see it is the 9 pt. He looks up directly at us. We don’t move a muscle.

The mosquitoes are biting my cheek and back of my neck but I know I cannot move. I know I am not going to take this one but if we spook this him, the big one will not show up for sure. He continues to look at us and then moves back into the woods and comes around at a new angle. At one point I thought it was the big buck coming in and my heart was jumping out of my chest. I took some long, silent deep breathes to try and compose myself. Then it felt like my heart totally stopped. I thought maybe I had had a heart attack and just hadn’t fallen over yet.

The deer kept staging for quite some time, coming in part way and then retreating. He finally departed, and it was pretty dark in the woods by now. We never spooked him and I don’t think he knew we were there. I didn’t realize until I talked to Joe that it was the 9pt all along. The big buck didn’t come in and we will not be back to hunt there for a few days. We will be checking the trail camera, though to see what he is up to and work on a plan from there. Later in the week I will be filming Kale. Stay tuned for more!

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