A five-hour ride to hunt for one day.
It is not my first time and probably not the last.
I planned to check a couple of places in the morning and see how many people are hunting and make a decision where to hunt with a northwest wind. The plan was to go in blind and look for fresh trails that head into the phrag thanks to the fresh snow from the day before.
On the walk-in, I wasn’t seeing much sign until about 45 minutes in and I started seeing good tracks looked up and eyeballs are looking at me And behind them, there were more. I counted 14 eyeballs in the dark and I realize this was a spot to go. I was right on the edge of big woods and a saplings thicket that bled into the phrag. My gut said to sit put right on the edge of the phrag and the big woods but for some reason, I kept walking and found trails all over the place inside the sapling thicket. I decided to set up with the chances of a 50-yard shot.
I get set up with My back to the wind so I wouldn’t have a cold face in the morning. The sun is rising and I’m looking around to see what kind of holes I have and I see a tree in front of me about 50 yards and say to myself “I should’ve been there”. All set And I was unmotivated to move…
The morning was pretty slow Till I caught movement closer to the big woods and it looked like a decent stag and then another one. Of course, there’s no shot and they skirt away into the phrag. Around 10 I had another deer walk by on the same trail with no shot… The only thing that came in was a little deer that probably weighed 10 pounds making all kinds of noise on the ice.
at 11 o’clock I get down and move to where I should’ve been all day and get set up. This time I have a 60 yard shot towards the phrag and a 100 yards shot into the big woods with the wind blowing into the big woods expecting the deer to come from the phrag. The wind was supposed to drop down and I was hoping for the last two hours to get some action. I told myself that if I saw a stag it had to be 10 inches or bigger and I was planning on pulling the trigger on a hind.
The wind calmed down to almost nothing and all I could hear was the ringing in my ears... For the next three hours, I was waiting to hear the cracking and crunching coming from the Phrag. The shadows were getting longer and my time to shoot something was getting shorter and shorter. Then, I heard the sound that I was wanting to hear at around 4 o’clock I heard cracking and crunching coming from the phrag at my 10 and 4. I could hear them from a good distance but they were taking their good ole time to get into shooting range. at about 415 I saw glimpses of the noisy critters at about 80 yards. Turned out to be a tall stag and another decent stag. The next thing you know the wind changed to a south wind blowing right to where I was expecting them to come out. I planned to shoot the first one that popped out and ask questions later. It’s 4:19 and the crunching is getting closer and here pops out a decent stag and he gives me a shot quartering too. I put the crosshairs on his chest and pull the trigger. The stag runs and staggers closer to me and crashes about 20 yards from me. Talk about last-minute excitement!!!
The stag turned out to be a 10-inch six-point Unfortunately, the stag was either run down or sick (had an infection going on in his stomach) because he was all skin and bones... there was barely any meat on him. He was so light that I could carry him over my shoulders for a mile and a half. Talk about a disappointment.....
This season I’ve probably put in a couple of day's worth of driving to Chase these things and finally things came together. Already looking forward to chasing them next year.
