Rick dropped me off at the same stand as the previous evening. I methodically made my way to the stand and got settled. I had about an hour before shooting light. I thought back to my first year or two of hunting. It's crazy how much has changed since those college days. I recall making a ground blind on public land for opening day of gun season. I ended up not using it since I got access to private land. My neighbor ended up using it (or tried to), but some jack-wad had taken dump in my blind. I'm not sure why I thought about that. Sometimes I'm not in charge of my brain. People suck. I enjoy coming down to South Carolina.
Weather was between cool and cold. I was treated to a pretty sunrise.
Even with a nice start, it was a slow morning. Almost nothing was moving.
Right towards the end of the morning, a doe came out half-way between myself and the corn.
A small buck, I think the same 4-point from the previous evening, came out for a short time. And my morning hunt ended.
I had enough down time at the lodge to take a walk to the river. I thought about asking Rick if Moose needed a walk. Walking with a dog is (almost) always better.
Rick pushed me to tell him where I was going to sit. I don't play that game well - don't guide the guide. Although in this situation, it is a bit different. We did talk about it and I went back to the same stand which I was 100% OK with.
There was a small buck on the corn when I got out there. I made it into the stand without spooking him, which I was slightly proud of.
Weather was hot and breezy. I had a hard time getting comfortable. My butt was getting tired from sitting so much. A headache behind my eye was starting to come back. But it was still a really nice afternoon so I was making the best of it.
A few deer came in throughout the afternoon. Oddly, all of them were bucks. At one point I had crows, turkeys and deer all on the pile at the same time. The turkeys were harassing the crows which was funny to watch.
Late in the afternoon a really large 6-point came out. He as big enough that I wanted to send a bullet at him, but he would be under the Rick legal limit. He kept looking towards the right and stayed behind the brush off to the right for some of the time until he and another deer made a raucous and raced off to the left with one of the few does I saw.
A short time later I saw more deer to the left as several bucks and at least a couple does milled around the clear-cut area. Through the binos, one of the bucks looked really nice - probably the target buck Rick had showed me. Setting the binos down, I found him in the scope ... wait ... that was a small buck. Where'd he go????
This set off a very confusing 15 minutes when deer were milling around, but I could never get a clear view of what I knew was the big deer and not have his vitals obscured by brush. It was both exciting and frustrating until the deer simply vanished. One doe did walk across the 2-track. I was hoping the other deer would as well which would make it a game-over, but that didn't happen.
At dark-dark, I got out and made my way to the gate. Rick and I compared notes on the late part of the hunt. What I saw was distinctly different than we he saw. The time stamps on these pics is three minutes apart.
Me:
Rick's Cell Camera:
Perspective is everything. In deer hunting and in life.
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