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This is my story. Let's hear others.

I look forward to deer season each year. I usually scramble towards the last minute getting stands put up and all of the gear ready, but I get there.

This year I planned to hunt overlooking our ancient apple orchard from a stand in a fir tree. On the morning of Oct 4, that's exactly where I was. About 6am a bird swept in and landed on a branch in the tree in front of me. The ground was well lit by the moon and I assumed it was looking for breakfast. I could tell by it's silhouette it was an owl. After a bit it flew my direction, surprising the heck out of me, and I assumed itself, swerving and attempting to land on my tree mounted umbrella before flying off. As I was thinking about the flyby, something hit me in the side of the head! I saw the speckled belly of that freakin bird as it continued on to land in another tree. I had been attacked by an owl! I thought it might have cut me and I felt a little moisture, so I thought taking a picture would be a good way to tell. It's still dark and while I fumble with my phone I take a picture of the forest floor, my shoulder, the umbrella and finally my ear. Meanwhile I light up the forest with the flash...
owl attack.jpg
OK. No big deal. Strange and will make a good story, but that's about it.
Just then I turned to look over my right shoulder and here comes that bird again! I wave my arms and rifle at it while swearing and it flies into a tree a little farther away than the last time. I give considerable thought to shooting it, but decide to shine my light on it for a while instead. I didn't see it fly away and spent the rest of the early morning with my rifle propped up beside my head to give it something to run into. Later that day I saw a doe with a couple of youngins and enjoyed the view.
The next weekend we were out of town, but I had a message relayed to me that some nice bucks may have been kicked out of Weyerhaeuser and were holing up on our place. My game camera confirmed it. Then there was a week of elk season I sat out.
Saturday morning I was back in my stand. The moon wasn't shining the light it had been a few weeks earlier and the forest floor was dark. Legal shooting time was 7:08 am and I knew my ability to use the sights would come well after then. As things began to lighten up a little bit I thought I saw something leave the orchard to my left. I thought I saw some movement down below and grabbed my binoculars to see. I saw a lump. The closer I looked at the lump I began to make out something. A deer tail, sure sign of a deer's butt! It's head was down and I kept watching. When it's head came up and turned a little I saw antlers. Tall enough to make out in the near darkness with my binocs, I couldn't see well enough to get any kind of sight picture. I picked up my gun and thumbed the hammer back anyway. When he moved I was able to make out his silhouette well enough to have taken a shot, but he stepped behind some brush and I lost him for a bit. When he came back into view I sorta had a shot through the branches. Sorta... I found where the bullet struck the ground. Low and to the left. Shooting through the branches proved to be a bad idea.
I returned to the stand after getting down and double checking that I had thoroughly screwed up my shot. I sat there for most of the morning pissing and moaning about not using a gun with a good optic before taking a break to get some other work done. I knew I'd missed a nice one. This picture is the first one of him that morning. Check the time stamp.
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When I got back to the stand it was mid afternoon. I'd avoided the temptation of going home for a different rifle. After a couple of hours sitting, thinking about being tired, cold and hungry plus still whining about how the morning had turned out, I had about 2 more hours until the day would be over. It shouldn't be that big of a deal to hang on, but sometimes it's tough. I caved. I got out of my tree and headed back the the bus. The plan was to get warmed up and filled up, then come back for an "evening" hunt. I'd just cleared the trees and two deer ran into the yard. Looked like a doe and a spike. I froze, then stepped behind a tree. The spike ran off. Around one side of the tree I saw the deer looking right at me. I went back around the other side with binocs. It wasn't a doe!
Not a big trophy buck, but after the events of my last couple of seasons I was certainly happy to have filled a tag. Whew!
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I'd nicknamed this guy "Devil Spike" from our game cam pics.
 
Deer Season 2020 will be the exact same as it's been for many years:

1) I will not be huning
2) I will see more deer in my backyard here in the middle of the city than I ever do out in the bush.
 
Deer Season 2020 will be the exact same as it's been for many years:

1) I will not be huning
2) I will see more deer in my backyard here in the middle of the city than I ever do out in the bush.
Ditto, love watching them go bipedal for some apples. :s0114:
Awesome hunt stories! I'm glad you filled the freezer. I am in the midst of building an enfield retro sporter that somebody started long ago.
 
Deer Season 2020 will be the exact same as it's been for many years:

1) I will not be hunting
Yup on #1 except I won't be hunTing.
Unlike some, I don't fine pleasure or satisfaction in killing an animal that I will recover 40lbs of meat from it. Cost vs benefit analysis to me.
Some enjoy it, I don't enjoy the after the shot stuff. never really have and more power to those who do it and enjoy it.

I'll spend my hours in the woods if needed alone, listening to the chickamunks, wind and occasional branch snap. The symphony out there is deafening.
 
I have a yard buck that looks just like your little devil. He was one of the first fawns hatched this spring. His brother is similar in size but just has thumb sized knobs with no points at all. Just hope I don't come up with one of those devil spikes in a lawn mower tire come spring. :)
 
I can't actually hunt any more, I refuse to "road hunt" as most out there irritatingly seem to do now a days, but I'm not giving up just yet. So I drag my folding lawn chair 3 to 4 hundred yards from camp and sat in the Wallows for two weeks being quiet and reading some, hoping something tender or the buck of my life would cross my path when to my left, just fifty feet, (feet, not yards) A very large black bear comes sauntering down an old cow trail. What a beautiful Chocolate brown new winter coat I thought as I tried to get up while flicking off the safety. But as soon as I grabbed for the armrest to get up, in a second and a half, he was back up the trail and out of sight like the big chicken he was. I came home without a buck or a bear. But undeniably had a good time and worth every penny of the 220 dollars it likely cost.
For fifty dollars the great state of Oregon is allowing me a whole 4 days (coming up soon) to bag an lawn chair elk, (dressing him out may be a little tricky) then I get to wait just 333 days till next year.:( Everybody needs something to look forward to.:)
 
My wife decided to take a bunch of vacation time to hunt. She had the whole week off for elk in the Santiam and has been hunting deer since a few days before Halloween...
For elk season she saw nothing.
For deer season she had seen nothing the first several days she was out. On Monday I went up to swap game camera cards and check them out on her computer.
The late next morning she checked out my treestand, climbed up and strapped herself in. She called the stand torture, but it didn't piss her off to see a spike that evening. Unfortunately she didn't have a clear shot, so unlike her husband, she chose not to shoot. :rolleyes:
She has a portable ground blind and decided to set it up near the orchard under the cover of a few fir trees. In the blind the next morning one of the larger bucks came strolling by. She takes aim, takes the safety off and pulls the trigger. "CLICK"
She reloads the rifle and gets him in her scope as he disappears into the trees.
She did reload. The brand new cartridge misfired. Later, back at the motorhome she swaps the new shells out for the old ones.
That afternoon she's hanging out in her blind and a Forkie takes his turn. BOOM!
Unfortunately she didn't pay attention to the line of sight not being exactly the same as the travel of the bullet and shot thru her blind, deflecting the shot.
Tough day!

A dud and a miss.jpg
 
DD43EB43-991C-4A52-A577-46F25FFFA372.jpeg Helix area 2nd weekend. All the big boys were hunkered down....unloaded my 25/06 on him as he raced across opposite hillside at 150-200 yds. ( didn't touch him)
I waved goodbye and said I would see him next year....when he thought he was out of range he stopped and looked back at me.
I guessed 300-400 yds and held at his back....turned out to be 325 yds and he dropped and rolled into a 6 foot dry ditch filled with tumble weeds.
I had to cut him in half with only my knife to get him out of the ditch. Was able to get my 4 wheeler within 50 yds of him, so easy pack.
Blessed to have a friend who is a wheat farmer over there.
 
Tagged out this morning. I got up early and drove to my treestand area, unfortunately spooked 2 deer as soon as my son and I were getting close. We endured some cold toes and nothing was moving except some squirrels.
Called it early and went home. While making breakfast, a buck stepped into the neighbors field pushing a doe. She's wasn't very receptive to him and after a while she decided to jump the fence into my food plot to get away from him. Being the gentleman I am, I gave him a chance to apologize to the lady, but it was clear he was going to continue the sexual harassment on my sanctuary property. After he crossed the fence and moved out behind some tree branches, I reminded him that a lady deserves to be treated with respect and popped him in the back of the neck.

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Tagged out this morning. I got up early and drove to my treestand area, unfortunately spooked 2 deer as soon as my son and I were getting close. We endured some cold toes and nothing was moving except some squirrels.
Called it early and went home. While making breakfast, a buck stepped into the neighbors field pushing a doe. She's wasn't very receptive to him and after a while she decided to jump the fence into my food plot to get away from him. Being the gentleman I am, I gave him a chance to apologize to the lady, but it was clear he was going to continue the sexual harassment on my sanctuary property. After he crossed the fence and moved out behind some tree branches, I reminded him that a lady deserves to be treated with respect and popped him in the back of the neck.

View attachment 773539
Beautiful buck, with a beautiful rifle!
 
Tagged out this morning. I got up early and drove to my treestand area, unfortunately spooked 2 deer as soon as my son and I were getting close. We endured some cold toes and nothing was moving except some squirrels.
Called it early and went home. While making breakfast, a buck stepped into the neighbors field pushing a doe. She's wasn't very receptive to him and after a while she decided to jump the fence into my food plot to get away from him. Being the gentleman I am, I gave him a chance to apologize to the lady, but it was clear he was going to continue the sexual harassment on my sanctuary property. After he crossed the fence and moved out behind some tree branches, I reminded him that a lady deserves to be treated with respect and popped him in the back of the neck.

View attachment 773539

NO means NO!



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