Deer&Ducks
PMA Member
It all started 5 years ago when I got into bowhunting, but we'll pick up the story on Nov 10th of this year. I had a perfect wind for a stand on the other side of the river so I got up at 5am, prepped, and put on my waders for the crossing. The river was running pretty full and I had to pick my way across carefully since the channel came up to mid-chest at its deepest points. We'd hung this set in late August next to a very distinct tree that was easily distinguishable even in the dark and I'd hunted it once in the middle of October. After fording the river and finding the landmark tree I realized that something wasn't right. I stared up in amazement at the tree I was sure held the stand only to see no stand! I wandered around the area for a few minutes wondering if I had the wrong tree before it finally clicked that someone had stolen my stand as I screamed 'Em Effer' in my head. Whoever had taken it had been kind enough to leave 4 of the steps and the bow-hanger that I was able to recover, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow. I informed the landowner about it and he was kind enough to mention that he had 2 stands sitting in his machine shed that had been taken off his property in years past and that I was welcome to have them if I wanted. One of these was a super-light homemade hang-on that I figured I'd pack in and out and use as a mobile stand like a Lone Wolf or a Gorilla stand.
Fast forward a week and my buddy Jake wanted in to the mobile game as well so he went and bought a Lone Wolf Assault stand and some Muddy climbing sticks on the 16th. I graciously offered to test drive his new equipment since he'd be in class for the rest of the week and he gave me the go-ahead. I hurried as fast as I could and took the Lone Wolf out on the evening of the 16th but there were already deer on the field that I wanted to hunt by the time I got out so I had to set-up in a secondary location and had nothing come by me that evening. The morning of the 17th I hunted 1 of my permanent stands overlooking some willow bottoms and missed the largest buck I'd ever had in bow range while on stand. He was a 140's class 9, 10, or 11 and I shot in front of him at about 35 yards....this had me pretty depressed but I came home, sharpened my broadheads, and shot my bow to make sure it was still accurate.
Once again the wind was right for the stolen-stand position so I loaded up the Lone Wolf and the climbing sticks and threw on my waders. I was in the same tree where the theft occurred and set-up by 3:30. And then nothing happened until sunset when 7 does and fawns came out on the other side of the field. I watched them and couldn't believe that there wasn't even a dink running the does around since it was Nov 17th. Finally with about 15 minutes of light left the Redemption Buck stepped out into the field behind me and slowly browsed his way right underneath me along the field edge. I waited until he entered my largest shooting lane and then took him at about 12 yards. He donkey-kicked and ran but only made it about 40yds since I center-punched his heart and shredded 1 lung. Symbolically he piled up right next to a large, well used scrape thereby announcing his departure to the rest of the deer in the woods.
I call him the Redemption Buck for 2 reasons: the obvious one is that I'd missed a nice deer that very morning but feel like I totally redeemed myself with this one later in the day. And the second reason is that the kindness of the landowner in giving me those 2 stands redeemed my faith in the core goodness of humanity after I was so disappointed by the stolen stand situation that I was pondering giving up bowhunting. Needless to say I've reversed my position and am probably hopelessly hooked for life. He grossed 147 7/8 when we put the tape on him last night and will barely have any deductions with his almost perfect symmetry. The icing on the cake of this whole story for me is that I shot him out of the very tree that my stand was stolen out of making it doubly sweet. Hunt hard & be well,
Russ
Apparently my pics are too large for the IW gallery so here are the photobucket links-
http://s1022.photobucket.com/albums/af342/russpowers/?action=view¤t=DSCF0433.jpg
http://s1022.photobucket.com/albums/af342/russpowers/?action=view¤t=DSCF0428.jpg
http://s1022.photobucket.com/albums/af342/russpowers/?action=view¤t=DSCF0427.jpg
Fast forward a week and my buddy Jake wanted in to the mobile game as well so he went and bought a Lone Wolf Assault stand and some Muddy climbing sticks on the 16th. I graciously offered to test drive his new equipment since he'd be in class for the rest of the week and he gave me the go-ahead. I hurried as fast as I could and took the Lone Wolf out on the evening of the 16th but there were already deer on the field that I wanted to hunt by the time I got out so I had to set-up in a secondary location and had nothing come by me that evening. The morning of the 17th I hunted 1 of my permanent stands overlooking some willow bottoms and missed the largest buck I'd ever had in bow range while on stand. He was a 140's class 9, 10, or 11 and I shot in front of him at about 35 yards....this had me pretty depressed but I came home, sharpened my broadheads, and shot my bow to make sure it was still accurate.
Once again the wind was right for the stolen-stand position so I loaded up the Lone Wolf and the climbing sticks and threw on my waders. I was in the same tree where the theft occurred and set-up by 3:30. And then nothing happened until sunset when 7 does and fawns came out on the other side of the field. I watched them and couldn't believe that there wasn't even a dink running the does around since it was Nov 17th. Finally with about 15 minutes of light left the Redemption Buck stepped out into the field behind me and slowly browsed his way right underneath me along the field edge. I waited until he entered my largest shooting lane and then took him at about 12 yards. He donkey-kicked and ran but only made it about 40yds since I center-punched his heart and shredded 1 lung. Symbolically he piled up right next to a large, well used scrape thereby announcing his departure to the rest of the deer in the woods.
I call him the Redemption Buck for 2 reasons: the obvious one is that I'd missed a nice deer that very morning but feel like I totally redeemed myself with this one later in the day. And the second reason is that the kindness of the landowner in giving me those 2 stands redeemed my faith in the core goodness of humanity after I was so disappointed by the stolen stand situation that I was pondering giving up bowhunting. Needless to say I've reversed my position and am probably hopelessly hooked for life. He grossed 147 7/8 when we put the tape on him last night and will barely have any deductions with his almost perfect symmetry. The icing on the cake of this whole story for me is that I shot him out of the very tree that my stand was stolen out of making it doubly sweet. Hunt hard & be well,
Russ
Apparently my pics are too large for the IW gallery so here are the photobucket links-
http://s1022.photobucket.com/albums/af342/russpowers/?action=view¤t=DSCF0433.jpg
http://s1022.photobucket.com/albums/af342/russpowers/?action=view¤t=DSCF0428.jpg
http://s1022.photobucket.com/albums/af342/russpowers/?action=view¤t=DSCF0427.jpg
