Last Ditch Effort for Antler..

With having to work the second and final week of rifle season, the only day left that week for me, to bag a big buck or a buck at all for that matter was yesterday. This day was normally used to deer drives or to walk to woods in hopes of jumping up some deer, mainly due to the fact the snow has set in on us. This year was a little different though, Jay, who had spent the previous week (first week of rifle season) in Florida working, was back with an itchy trigger finger.

Since this would be the first time Jay and I would get together to rifle hunt this year, we decided to abandoned our tree stands and find a spot to sit together. We ended up picking a spot that we had sat the previous year and said we needed to build a shooting shanty or at the very least put a tree stand, but as you can tell by now, we were sitting on a foam seat the ground, leaning against a log, not horrible, but not the comfort level we had planned on the year before. Even with nothing having everything done we had wished we still held tight in this spot for a while, and it wasn't long before we spotted some deer making their way in. The doe and two yearlings that had been frequenting my tree stand started filling down the hill like that had done many times before that year, Jay having the itchy trigger finger threw me his his video camera and pulled up his rifle after we made sure that it wasn't a buck coming in. After some deliberation and the fact that they made their way right under my tree stand (which was blocked by some trees), we decided to pass on these deer in hopes that they would make it till  next year. Those were the only deer we saw that day, until we unloaded the rifle and started to pack our gear away, then of course a doe came crashing down the hill besides, but it didn't plan on sticking around long enough to let me load my gun again. Haha. I still don't regret passing on the the deer we saw earlier that day, hopefully they make it till next year and help the deer heard grow stronger.

The main lesson we learned today is that we should have trusted our instincts and put a tree stand at this location, next year this mistake will not be repeated.

The sun starting to peak over the valley we were watching that morning.