An October weekend to remember

[mparks]

I had a real nice weekend. My 8 year-old's soccer team won, the Spartans brought back a win from Columbus, Tigers evened the series, even the Lions came back to beat the Cowboys.

Would have been a pretty nice weekend if I would have just stayed home last night and basked in the glory of all those sports victories. Luckily for me that I would rather sit in a stand for a few hours and see nothing than watch the greatest ball game ever on TV.

Last week I got permission to hunt 160 acres across the road from our farm. I hunted this farm a lot when I was a kid but had to give way for about 10 years as the landowner's family was hunting and didn't really want any competition. Their interests have changed and it's now fair game for me.

Yesterday morning I headed over there at first light to do some low-impact scouting while slowly still hunting into the wind. That little walk produced no deer sightings and I was disappointed in the amount of fresh sign. I did however find a nice little pinch-point where the soy beans came very near a small creek in a narrow area of the woods.

Last night I grabbed my climbing stand and headed to that spot. I had elected a tree that required very little trimming to produce a nice shooting lane to a trail along the creek and a second to the edge of the bean field.

The first hour or so on stand was spent checking my Blackberry to see if Papa Grande was going to blow the save and cost the Tigers a win. Soon after the last out a plumb fox squirrel took up a perch on an old, rotten stump about 8 yards from the base of my tree. I had plenty of time to trade broadhead for squirrel arrow and connected on my first bushytail with a bow. I'm now batting about .001 on squirrels with a bow. [clapper]

   

The rest of the evening produced only a distant doe and fawn sighting until about 7:30 when I spotted a real nice buck entering the soy beans. I mean this guy was a nice, wide 8 point with a huge body. The question now was would I have enough daylight for a shot if he continued on his path that would lead right past my stand?

The wide 8 kept making his way toward me along the edge of the bean field. After a few agonizing minutes he approached my shooting lane. Unfortunately, my shooting lane was also a faint trail and he started right, straight towards my stand. About the time I was sure he was going to walk right under my stand and not present a shot he stopped at 17 yards and turned out into the bean field as if he heard or smelt something. The movement gave me the angle I needed and a chance to draw undetected. It was 3 minutes before legal shooting light ended and I wasn't able to pick a hair or any kind of spot so I relied on the gap shooting method I've been working on all summer. The shot looked perfect but the arrow was through so quick it was hard to be sure.

I tried my best to take my time and carefully descend the tree in order to give the buck lots of time. I didn't have my trusty Fenix PD30 on me so I took a quick look near the edge of the bean field with my small headlight. Not seeing anything I took the long route back to the truck to avoid the spot where I last heard the buck.

Giving the buck about an hour, I enlisted the help of my Uncle Dan to take up the track. The track turned out to be pretty short as I could see his white belly in the edge of the beans as we drove the truck to the end of the farm lane.

   

This is the best of the pics I took as I was in a hurry to get the buck skinned and in the freezer with the high temps coming.  I was shooting a 58" Black Widow PSAX 56# @28". CX 250, 150gr Woodsman, and 100gr brass inserts.

Switched to 3 under this year and attended a Rod Jenkins clinic.  These were my first shots on game since my shooting changes.  I have never had such confidence in my shooting under pressure.  Rod's clinic made all the difference for me.  Picking a spot and burning a hole works great for lots of guys.  I needed more instruction on form and technique and Rod's clinic did that for me.  Thanks again Rod!

[non-typical]

Congrats Mick, that's a dandy!

[Mike Bolin]

Congrats on a nice buck! Mike

[Bernie B.]

Wow!  That's a nice buck!  Congratulations on your deer and your first squirrel!  Thanks for sharing your pictures and story.

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

[varmint101]

Nice buck!  Great shot!

[Eric Sprick]

Excellent!

[nomad]

Nice buck. Congrats

[slayer1]

Thats a very nice buck! I love this time of year.

[Stump73]

Congrats!!! Nice Buck!!!

[Red4arm]

Nice buck, congrats. I too shot like you and Rob. Works well for me.

[Shan]

wow thats a big guy congratulations  

[joe ashton]

wow that is a great deer.  wow

Congrats on everything except the lions beating the cowgirls thing (with a QB like Romo on the Lions team, how could y'all lose?)!!!!

Bisch

[pacopperhead]

       

[Steve O]

My hero     .  I have shot a lot with Mick...he did not need that much help from Rod!

[hnt2mch]

 niceun!

[RedShaft]

very nice job!

[Yellow Dog]

Mick, after shooting with you at Rod's clinic I was sure I'd see one of these "Harvest" posts from you. Well done          

[Huntschool]

Good job man...  When the Widow whispers... its over....

[KentuckyTJ]

 Very nice congrats.