Crazy

Well, it's been a crazy few days for me.  It all started on Friday morning with disappointment then incredible rush of excitement followed by more disappointment! 

We arrived early, well before daylight, to our stand on the 29th.  There was a cold west wind, but it was perfect.  We sat there in gross anticipation as we just sensed that today could be the day.  We knew that there were big bucks in the area, but what we didn't know was that our lives were about to change with the circumstances that were about to take place.  Right at daybreak I heard a noise down to my left.  As I turned to look I saw the silhouette of a deer in the opening below me around 40 yards.  I alerted Steve, who was on camera, and we proceeded to watch as the deer turned to look our direction.  We could easily deduct that it was a shooter buck, we knew that it was not a monster deer but would be a great deer to take with the ol' slinging stick!  The buck started to look downhill and proceeded to move in that direction.  Steve quickly grunted a couple of times to him and he did the "about face" and worked up through the brush towards us and the opened food plot that we were hunting over.  We figured that he would angle around us and come out in the plot, but we were wrong.  He went all the way around us and proceeded to rub a tree and then make a scrape.  He was now above us around 75 yards away.  He looked as if he would move off toward the ridge away from us so Steve hit the grunt tube again and the deer turned and began walking our direction.  I was so ready to kill this deer by now, and I could hardly contain myself.  He walked down below us out to the same exact spot that he had come from originally.  This time as he passed into the opening at around 30 yards I was ready.  I came to full draw and was ready to take the shot.  Just as I found his chest through my peep, he turned and faced us straight on.  He stood there for an eternity (a minute or so) looking straight at us.  We did the stare down for what seemed like a few minutes and then he turned and started to walk from left to right.  When he got to the first opening I stopped him with a bleat.  I eased my pin up to the top of his back as I estimated the yardage at around 30 yards.  I eased my finger onto the trigger of my release and whack/crack...  I shot high into some branches and watched as the luminock slid right over his back.  O man, I missed!  He was actually around 25 yards.  I shot high hit branches and flat missed.  I hate missing deer and I couldn't believe it.  I thought that was probably the last chance that I would get a buck this season!  Unbelievable, I went from a rush of anticipation to a feeling of despair kicking myself over what had just happened.  Steve said, "just sit tight, you never know what will happen up here." Boy was he right...

To be continued...