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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...
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.
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!
I'd nicknamed this guy "Devil Spike" from our game cam pics.
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...
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.
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!
I'd nicknamed this guy "Devil Spike" from our game cam pics.