I made fun of Ferret and his quickstik falling off the tree trunk with a dandy buck within range the other day. Well I went out this morning to a spot I know is not known by gun hunters. It's a tiny finger of state land with only a foot path wide entry near a fishing access site. I didn't check if it's legal to bow hunt during gun season I just bought a gun license and took my longbow.I hope that is legal(I think it is).(Please don't think too ill of me for this)
Anyway I'm wearing a blaze orange vest that I doused with UV killer, over bdu khaki pants and a plaid cotton shirt and just walking as slowly and queitly as I can and I hear a couple of shotguns' reports from the larger piece of land about a quarter mile away. I take out my 10 X 50 binos and scan all around for blaze orange. All of a sudden I see not one but 5 sets of antlers in a wad of blackberry briars 50 yards away.
It takes me an hour or better to go 20 yards, I'm trying so hard to move quietly and use available cover to block me from their view. I kneel down and glass them again. and they are still bedded right were they were before. They are watching in the direction of the gunfire. I take my shoes off and put on another pair of wool socks on just as quietly as I can. I check them again and they are undisturbed. I stand up, nock an arrow and take my first slow step toward them and pause, check them and take another even slower. I take 20 minutes to go 5 feet and still they have not moved or noticed me.My heart is about to burst and I have to kneel, look at the ground and get control. I slowly look up and they are still watching the direction of the gunfire. Another 20 minutes for 7 feet. I stand perfectly still because I am now completely inside their Red Zone. I wait and take one more slow determined step. I wait and and take one more step. I pick the one i'm going to try for, he is the one off by himself and closest to me, a very wide 5X4. I look for a hole to put an arrow through and see that if I just move 3 feet to my right there will be a window of opportunity. I take a side step as slowly as I can force myself to move. I bring my other foot over and freeze. I check them all and none have noticed. I count my blessings and wait just a few minutes and take another side step right onto the leg of a doe bedded just under the bush I am trying to use as cover. She jumps up, I fall backward, bump the back of my head on a tree and lay there trying not to cuss. I look over and all the bucks are standing now but not running. the doe is standing a few yards from where she was bedded and looking in my direction; but now I am completely behind the bush and not visible to her. I can just see her feet and ears. I lay there trying to figure out if there is a recovery when the does turns to walk away and all the bucks follow her with their heads forward and ears down. From my supine position I watch two nice 6 pointers spar a bit and the other bucks kick and push at each other to be the first one behind the doe. They move off and I guess they never knew I was there. So I try to get up as quietly as I can. I finally manage to get up and there in the briars looking at me is one of the bucks. I didn't count them, I just figured they all left. It's the 8 point I saw on this finger of land last year and he is even more massive. He does something I find unnerving he takes 5 quick steps right at me. Then he stomps the ground and snort-wheezes. I think, "How the heck do I look like a rival to him?" I don't know what to do....so like my Dad always said, "When in doubt, nock an arrow." the arrow I had on the string is still on the ground so I take another out of my bow quiver and nock it. He is 10 yards away with his ears back doing a lip curl sort of thing, just then the wind changed and he got a great big nose full of big ol' me and I've never seen a faster change in attitude nor a faster sprint out of the area. I am certain he went every bit of 50mph. He looked like he was flying and only setting one foot down every 20 yards or so to steer. That is when my knees went to jelly. Hard to be mad at yourself when your laughing your butt off at yourself. But the good news.... I stalked up on bedded bucks during the firearms season to within their Red Zone, undetected. That is until I stepped on a doe that was asleep(probably shagged out)until my foot met her leg. Well laugh away. Ferret get your digs in.
OK I felt so bad I checked. Not only is it ok to hunt with a bow during gun season I didn't have to buy the firearms license.
good story and good stalking...
Wow...talk about your once in a life time never will forget story. I don't care if you got one or not that's one heck of a story and had to be an absolute blast.
way good... stories like that are why I bowhunt!
I can't get the bowdown to you graemlin to work so... my hats off to you!
Great Story Curtiss! Way To Go! You had a blast and ya don't have to clean your knife. Stalking is soooo cool.
... mike ...
You TOUCHED a wild deer! It is only slightly marred by the fact that you did not know she was there until she jumped up. That is a great milestone in the stalking world. Congrats.
Very cool.
That's an awesome story! Wow what an excperience thatmust have been
I am humbled at your skill in the wool :0) :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
That's one you'll remember (& re-tell :D ) for the rest of your life!
Now that's counting coup!!!
Cool.
I feel like a jackass and all you guys are going "well done!" :bigsmyl:
My wife isn't a hunter or even a woods walker but she loved your story.( couldn't help but read it to her) I have to agree with what others have already said."an experience of a lifetime" Thank you for sharing! My reading was interupted by laughter when I reached the point you step on the doe.
God bless,Mudd
Lol sorry man but that is really cool. Great stalk!
Wow I would have like to have seen that when you stepped on the doe. I would just probably had the big right there. Way to go.
Curtis..sounds like an awesome stalk. Sorry it didn't work out for you , but for your awesome efforts I am dedicatiing these pics I took today in your honor
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/theferret111/2007_11200001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/theferret111/2007_11200010.jpg)
:bigsmyl:
ferret very neat pic. C@ that was a good story. Tat is the first time I have ever heard of someone stepping on a deer.
A jackass?? Nah, you're one stealthy dude Curtis! You've got to move slower than the sun to pull off a stunt like that - "well done" is well deserved! :notworthy: Ferret hanging off the side of a tree isn't even in the same league :biglaugh:
Opps - Mickey, you were posting those pics just as I was rippin' on ya' - looks like you know how to get up close and personal too! :thumbsup: Maybe you're better staying out of the trees :biglaugh:
I was just lucky that the leaves were damp and the forest floor wasn't crispy and that the wind was stiffly blowing toward me. But I have to say it was good to remember all the things my father and the scout/sniper school taught me.Thanks for the kind words guys. It hasn't always worked out as well. It ain't easy being stealthy as a lardazz. But learn the lesson of moving slower than the shadows.
Curtis,
You have been blessed with a wonderful skill, and a memory of a lifetime. :notworthy:
C2 - Too bad on the results, but it looks like you found a hiding place and they have to find a new one! I bet the adreniline rush took awhile to wear off!
I know what it's like to ALMOST step on a doe anyway, so I know the feeling. I walked my buddy's son into his tree stand one morning when he was only about 12 years old, then I walked back out to our footpath. There was a doe and fawn bedded right there where I turned off. I don't know, I may have stepped on her, but I'm here to tell ya, there's nothing like two deer exploding under your feet in the pre-dawn darkness!!!
That thar is cool! Nice job. Good yarn.
Great Story C2,
I once watched a doe bed behind a blowdown on a dry riverbed in Western Kansas. I was able to circle down wind and come up behind her to about 20 yrds. Once in place I threw a rock to get her up but then shot over her back. I felt pretty good about getting so close.
When I got back to my truck, 4 hours had elapsed. It seem like about 30 min.
Great story! Thanks for sharing! I bet you'll not forget that in a LONG time!
Nigel
I doubt that you'll ever forget that day as long as you live.Great story.
I wish i could have been thier to see that great story. :biglaugh:
TTT for Ron LaClair
TTT4 MarthaK
C2, Just gotta that is about the best hunting story I've ever read on tradgang!
Mickey, looks in that second pic like you scared the "you know what" out of that deer....
Thanks for the compliment Dave. Maybe I should send it in to TBM or Primitive Archer.I have gotten so many compliments on it, I am blushing a little everytime I check the post for comments.
:bigsmyl:
Blush? Dangit man...when anyone can sneak up on that many wild critter sets of eyes and ears, in hunting season...y'know nobody ever approached them from that direction, and they thought that was a safe place!
But it also means that when you spoke of moving with excruciating slowness, you weren't lying... about the time you put on 2nd pair of socks, I'd have had a brain meltdown and blew it all on my own!
:notworthy:
Doc I thought my heart was going to explode several times. I'm fleshing out the story with more detail and going back to take some pictures of where it happened. After they left the area and I put my sneakers back on I looked around a little and the area is chock-a-block with scrapes and rubs and one area just reeked of rut smell(urine, tarsal, fecal, musk. I only hunt this strip of land about every other week. Only the big 8 saw me or smelled me. It rained the night after this event so my scent should have been washed out of the area so I will be checking it for the bucks again soon. I have to say it took all I could muster to pull this off. I don't know if I'll ever be able to repeat it. Everything went just my way until the end. BUT that is why God is the best comedian. He has perfect timing.