Craziest Thing I Ever Tried...that Worked

[Art 20]

A few years back my brother John invited me along on a cull hunt for whitetails. The land owner said take every deer that we could off the property. The population was out of control in his county and posing a hazard to motorists as well as causing enormous crop damage.

 

It was a cold day. The temperature was well below freezing and everything was covered in ice. John took me to a fence row and suggested that I climb up to a high seat which he pointed out. It was a tiny wooden platform built in the crotch of tree about 20 feet up. The "ladder" was a series of steel bars driven into the tree trunk and all coated in ice. I said "thank you very much but I think I'll just stay on the ground today". There was a 10 foot wide clear lane along our side of the fence row, thick brush on the other side of the fence, and pine plantation for acres and acres on our side. I made myself comfortable on the ground concealing myself in the edge of the pines and began working a grunt call. I would grunt once or twice about every 15 minutes then wait and listen. After about an hour and a half I heard something approaching from the other side of the fence. I grunted again. I heard the chh, chh, chh of hooves on frozen leaves (there was no snow) and then silence again. A couple of minutes later I heard it again. It sounded like it was getting close but I couldn't see anything in the thick cover on the other side of the fence. I grunted again and suddenly right in front of me only 10 feet away appeared the head and antlers of a medium sized buck. He was staring directly at my face. I was afraid to even flinch. It was a complete standoff. I could do absolutely nothing without scaring him off. After what seemed like an eternity of this, but was probably only 20 or 30 seconds in reality, I decided; well, it's no good just staring at each other so I may as well try to lift my gun.

 

The very second that I began to raise the rifle he was off like a bolt of lightning with a second buck right at his heels. They ran straight up the fence row. About 50 feet up the row on my side of the fence there was a huge wax myrtle shrub that spanned the entire 10 foot lane. Were it not for that one shrub I would be able to see 100 yards up the fence row but that shrub completely cut me off. I heard the deer run just behind the shrub and then stop. I thought to myself, this buck has a spot in mind that he wants to get to on my side of the fence and he's going to cross behind that shrub and be lost to me in the pines. These were young pines with limbs to the ground and no chance of spotting him again if he got in there.

 

In a split second I decided, nothing to lose now so might as well try anything. As soon as I heard the deer stop beyond the shrub I jumped up and ran as fast as I could to the back side of the shrub so I was sandwiched between the branches of the shrub in front of me and the branches of the pines behind. From here I could see up and down the lane both ways around the wax myrtle. I quickly knelt down and gave another grunt. The deer spun around and ran back down the fence just barely concealed by the saplings growing right along the fence on their side. I heard them stop again exactly opposite where I had been hiding to start with. Again I grunted and both deer jumped the fence and stood broadside in the middle of the lane looking up the row for me. I already had the rifle to my shoulder by the time their hooves hit the ground on my side. I fired and both deer instantly vanished. He only ran about 75 feet but it took some time to find him in those pines. He was nothing you would want to hang on the wall but I've never been so proud of bagging a buck before or since. I don't think my heart resumed a normal pace for at least half an hour after that sprint up the fence.

 

By the way, my brother and another gent that came along that day both bagged deer as well that morning so it was happy bunch that day including the land owner.

[sussex 5,803]

Good post Art....

[seprim 32]

Damn - does that mean i have to do sprint training ?

great post Art

 

Andrew

[chris87 297]

nice post