When a Plan Comes Together

November 6th 

Most dreams do not go as planned. Occasionally, everything goes as scripted. This is a short story about when a plan comes together. The story started last November when my friend Jason Althide and I began to talk about the 2019 hunting season. The conversation went as you may have guessed. We spoke of stand placement and additional stands. We also briefly discussed adding a food plot.

Winter came and went.  Spring came and went. Summer started and we had not gotten around to doing much. Jason works for an auction company and they were auctioning off hunting equipment. This proved to be the motivation we needed to dial up a plan.

Jason picked up a platform stand with a swivel chair at the auction. We went out and bought two two man stands and a couple of bags of seed. It was not long before we had our plot plowed up and ready to seed. The plot lay between a a corn field and a tight grouping of pine trees. Jason strategically placed our new two man stand in the center of the grove of trees.

Cozy Spot

On a warm July evening after dark, we spread a mix of clover, radish and rye grass in our 40 yard by 40 yard food plot. Immediately we became excited about the potential of this spot. It was only natural for us to put in a trail cam and begin to do some surveillance on our new found honey hole.

We consistently were capturing pictures of deer on the trail cam. Does regularly found their way to the plot for a mid-night snack. It was not until late September when we began to see mature bucks show up.  We captured three mature bucks in one photo and to say the least we were pumped about the prospects.

As it rolled into October, we began to strategize how we would hunt the food plot. Jason and I decided not to hunt the food plot stand til late October. Jason went in first and harvested a doe. I had not even thought of bow hunting the stand, believing it would be best to hunt it during gun season. My rational was that it would be a great source for a post harvest food source. 

On November 6th, I decided to make a quick evening hunt at our new hunting spot. I climbed up the stand later than I wanted to. It was three thirty and only a couple of hours to hunt. Once I got situated, I decided to pull out my grunt call. After a couple of blows, I sat quiet. It could not have been ten minutes before I heard something coming in behind me but because of the pines, I could not see a thing. 

Within forty minutes of sitting down, I could see an 8 point buck entering the food plot. He kept his head down all the way into shooting range. At twenty two yards broadside, my Crosspoint did its job.

I hit him pretty good. I felt like it was a lung shot. He jumped and turned into the pines where he ran fifty yards and crashed. I immediately called my hunting buddy Jason. He came and helped me pull him out of woods and bring him back to the food plot for a quick photo op. 

I couldn't believe it, everything went as planned. First time in the food plot and an 8 point buck was harvested. Sometimes plans do come together!!!