Tales and Trails

BY DAVE BECK The sting of a lost buck

I just realized that we are six weeks or so into the archery season and I haven’t written a single word about it. I guess that just goes to show you that I’m not single-minded when it comes to the fall outdoor seasons. To date, I‘ve only hunted a handful of times but now that the weather is cooling and the bucks are moving, I’m all in.

The first night out in the stand I was chased out of the woods by the pesky black gnats. I have a love/hate relationship with them. They love biting me and I hate that I blow up like a balloon when they bite me. For that reason, I have to wait out the bugs until the frost takes care of them. So, to be fair, my first night in the stand was more like a walk to the tree stand and then back to the truck. If that counts as an ovcial outing, I didn't see anything in the ten minutes that I was actually there.

Now the second evening in the stand was a diuerent story. I barely sat down and I had deer surrounding me. It was a blessing and a curse. While I was happy to be watching deer, I hoped that they didn’t drift downwind on me and the hunt would be a bust. The does were a great distraction and I never noticed the buck that walked in from who knows where and was in archery range. He was a 10-pointer that held still for so long that it was as if he knew he wasn’t big enough to win my coveted buck tag. Why do all bucks that you never intend to shoot stand like archery targets?

The buck drifted away and I lost track of him through the trees. That’s why I was surprised to see him 10 minutes later, or at least I thought it was him. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that I had made a huge mistake because this wasn’t the 10-pointer that I had seen earlier. This was a HUGE 10-pointer that my tag would have been a perfect fit for but I didn't recognize him ini tially because he had his head down feeding through the soy beans.

Time and wind were not on my side. I knew I had to draw my bow quickly before he got downwind of me. I was waiting for him to put his head down and instead he picked it up and nosed the wind, ending my chances. The buck turned and walked ou. He didn’t know exactly what was wrong but he knew something wasn’t right.

Normally I would say that the good news regarding that buck slipping through my fin gers is that I get to go out and hunt again. This was not a normal buck. This one is going sting for a while.