Well, the opening day of bow season came and went and the backstrap collection has begun.
I’ve only been seeing early evening traffic on my trail cameras so I waited until the late afternoon to head to the stand. I was hunting a new area and I hadn’t had a chance to mark my entrance/exit trail with bright eyes so I went in a little early (4pm) so I could take my time heading to the stand as I marked trees with bright eyes. While pausing to mark a tree, I heard some leaves rustling so I squatted down to survey the area. As luck would have it, the deer were already on their feet. Four does were between me and my stand. The were browsing along through a bottom heading past my stand. They hadn’t noticed me so I hunkered down and let them move off. After a solid 15 minutes, the does moved off out of sight so I proceeded to my climber.
Having to wait for the deer and taking my time in the woods, I didn’t get to the stand and in position until 5pm. Air temp wasn’t too bad (for someone that hates hot weather) but once I finally climbed into position with my climber, I was sweating like a whore on nickel night. I got my gear squared away, grabbed a Gatorade from my pack and settled in for the evening.
It was now 6:30pm and surprisingly quiet for as dry as the woods were but there was a slight breeze in my face and I was beginning to lose a fight with the nap monster when I heard something moving behind me. I adjust in my seat so I could see over my shoulder and I saw movement. Sure enough, it was a lone doe. I thought it may have been a button buck at first since it was by itself but I confirmed it was a doe with my binos. She was walking down a path I thought the deer would use and I had cleared a shooting lane that she would walk into at about 22 yards. I had my bow in hand, release on the string and Rage Hypodermic-tipped Beman ICS Hunter nocked, locked and loaded…and she changes direction and starts walking right to my tree. I hadn’t cleared anything that close to my tree so I start scanning for holes she