This day is special because I have taken two big bucks off the same stand in the same spot for two of the last three years. What would it hurt to have a mid-day meeting? I would have plenty of time to get back into the woods early in the afternoon.
I hunted in the morning only seeing a few does. As planned, I headed into town for my meeting. Once I entered my office, issues, conversations, and challenges were added to my appointment. The meeting ended up being longer than I thought. Now I was rushed and I would get in very late for a prime hunting opportunity.
A seasoned hunter, I've learned to leave all my gear in the truck so I do not have to gather up my gear every time I go out. All that stood between me and my hunt was a thirty-five-minute drive to my stand. When I arrived, I realized that something was missing. How could this have happened? In my hurry to get to my meeting, I left my camo pants at home in the laundry room.
Now what?
I was running late and now I have the wrong clothes. I decided to put on the rest of my gear and take a chance of hunting in my blue jeans. No scent control, dirty blue jeans would have to work.
I walked to my stand and sat down to look at my phone to see what time it was. It read 4:30 p.m.. Did I mention that it was seventy degrees with a ten-mile-per-hour east wind? Nothing seemed to be going right. I decided to just enjoy the sit. I chalked it up to poor planning and learned my lesson.
Fifteen minutes after I sat down, a doe came from behind me from the south. She walked past me to begin feeding in a cornfield twenty yards in front of me. She didn't wind me so I thought to myself, "This might work after all". Another deer came out from the same spot, then one from the north and another one from the west. I had four deer at twenty yards. I had successfully hidden my scent and my blue-colored jeans from the deer.
I thought about harvesting one of them and even raised the bow for a shot, but something inside of me said to just hold tight. My gut feeling telling me to wait would prove to be the correct decision. I sat and watched the does feed for about fifteen more minutes. After only a half hour of being in the stand on a seventy-degree day with an east wind in blue jeans, I heard something to my right.
I slowly turned slightly enough to see a set of antlers at twenty yards in the pine trees. This buck was doing the same thing I was doing...looking at the does feed. He slowly began to walk up the trail which passed by my stand. His was in full sneak mode, slowly moving toward the field's edge.
I was fully ready when he stepped into my sights at eight yards away - and I smacked him good. He ran thirty yards into the field and collapsed. Four doe still in the field, a guy in blue jeans, and a dead eight-point buck.
Ninety percent of success is just showing up.... in blue jeans or whatever it is you have on!
