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I am sure many who will read this story have talked themselves out of a hunt before. This year I have just not felt the desire to deer hunt like in past years. The weather had been unseasonably warm. My personal work schedule had been exceptionally busy, preventing me from preparing correctly. As November neared, the landowner where I hunt sent me a picture of a bruiser he had just taken. (Picture above) His message was, "You need to get out here." 

This was all it took. I was in the stand the following evening. There was not a lot of action that day, but the deer woods was awaking, and so was I. Over the next week, I went out one or two more times but still, it was not my usual obsessive daily trip to the farm. 

Monday, November 7th, rolled around. I was somewhat excited to get out, but after a long day of work on Sunday and getting to bed late, the demon of laziness was talking to me. I had set my alarm for 4:45. As I went to turn the alarm off, I noticed a text message from a dear friend and hunting buddy, Mike Roux. He simply had sent me a picture of me with a buck that I had taken two years ago on the same farm and on November 7th. (Picture below)You guessed it! I jumped up and began to get ready. It was all the motivation I needed to get to the deer woods.

I didn't get into the stand any too early. It was about fifteen minutes before shooting hours. Because of where I have my stand, I had plenty of time to get set up early for deer traffic. I began to glass the cut bean field in front of me. (There are about a hundred acres of bean field in front of my stand and a big timber behind me.) I noticed a nice-sized buck chasing a doe across the field, headed for a cornfield to the south. I began to think, "This could get interesting".." 

After about ten minutes of watching the chase, a four-pointer came out of the woods behind me. He passed in front of my stand, heading toward the hot doe. As soon as he got to the cornfield, I noticed a group of deer making their way toward me through the cut beans. At that moment, I didn't know precisely how many deer there were or if any of them were bucks.

I began to glass them. I couldn't believe it. It was another hot doe and three bucks. Two of them were pretty nice-sized, and a third was a tag-along. These deer closed fast and right where I have harvested many deer. I began to realize that it was going to happen. I decided to harvest the buck when he got seventy-five yards away from me. 

The doe was headed directly to the woods behind me and on the main trail right beside my stand. She was moving at a pretty fair pace, and he was behind her by about twenty yards. I got ready to shoot. A quick little bleep stopped him, and I let him have it at twelve steps. When the arrow hit, he just turned around and began to walk into the bean field. I thought, did I somehow miss him? or not hit any vitals?" After about two minutes and forty yards away, he dropped. 

It was over and not even seven thirty yet. With two bucks around the down deer, I decided to just sit. As I looked back onto the bean field, I saw four more deer. I couldn't believe my eyes; another hot doe and three more bucks chasing her. (This made a total of nine bucks and three hot does.) This time the lead buck was the biggest guy I had ever seen in the field. Watching him chase her into the big woods, I began planning for the next hunt. I didn't need another picture!

The deer I took was a nice mature nine-pointer who field dressed at two hundred and thirty-five pounds. We were able to donate ninety-two pounds of venison to families who are in need of meat this winter.