Sunday A.M.
 This Fallow buck walked around the edge of my blind and was curious This morning I arrived in the dark to the spot I sat last evening, to set up my Double Bull ICE blind. I found a suitable spot about 10 yards into the woods for a little more cover/shadows, set my blind up, got situated, and waited for daylight. It wasn't long after daylight until I saw some an Axis buck coming out of the brush to feed. It looked like the same Axis buck I had almost got a shot at last evening. I had the shoot-through netting up on my blind for more camo, but I wasn't planning to shoot through it. My plan was to quietly move the netting aside on one window as a shooting opportunity presented itself. Well, the lead buck was getting closer to shooting range, but was at a bad angle, so I slowly started moving the netting out of the way. Well, unfortunately it wasn't as quiet as I was thinking it would be, especially on a still, quiet morning. I had barely even started moving the netting when the buck heard me and immediately looked at the blind. To this point he hadn't seemed to notice the blind, but he definitely did now. He was facing me dead-on and I didn't have a comfortable shot, even though he was only a little over 20 yards. He immediately started getting spooky, stamped his foot, and started walking around in circles, looking for all the world like he was getting ready to split. I took my cue, pulled the netting tight again to shoot through it, and was getting ready to draw on the buck when a serious dilemma presented itself. Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw more animals coming out of the brush. Among them were the two huge white Fallow bucks I had seen the first evening of my hunt after dark. One had very tall, heavy horns, and the other had major palmated horns with a few non-typical points as well. They were quickly coming into range and would be in my shooting window in a matter of seconds. My moment of hesitation killed me. The Axis buck had seen enough of my blind to know that he didn't like it, and he was trotting away, not in the open for a shot. When he left alarmed, the whole group of deer left post-haste, including the two big white Fallow bucks. I guess I should have remembered the saying "one in the hand is better than TWO in the bush". My hesitation cost me a shot at the Axis buck before he left. I sat for a few more hours hoping they might come back, but they never did. I did see a group of Fallow deer, but nothing that I wanted to shoot. I'm going to hunt this spot again this evening in the hopes that I see the Axis buck again. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures during this whole scene, as I was more concentrated on shooting an arrow instead of shooting an exposure. Sunday P.M.  a close-up view of the big velvet Fallow that is off-limits the netting on my blind window caused the camera to focus improperly This evening I hunted from my ground blind again. I was hoping I might see the big Axis buck again, or one of the two white Fallow bucks, but I didn't. I guess twice being spooked from the same spot in two days was to much for them to come back again right away. All I saw before dark this evening was the same group of Fallow deer I've been seeing, with the big buck that is off-limits because he's in velvet. Right at dark, I turned on my hog light from in the blind to see if I'd be able to see to shoot, but the periphery light reflected off the inside walls of the blind and made it too difficult for me to see outside the blind. So, I got my gear and moved about 30 yards over to the tripod by the water hole, where I had sat yesterday evening. About half an hour after dark, I heard some grunting on the other side of the waterhole and slightly to my left. Shortly a single hog - a good-sized one - exited the brush. I'm guessing it was a lone boar, and was probably in the 175-200 lb. range. He came right to the water hole, a little out of my shooting range, and proceeded to walk into the mud. I heard a series of sucking sounds as he walked around in the muddy water, and then I heard nothing for a minute or two as he lay down in the water to cool off. When he exited on the other side of the water hole he was almost close enough for a shot. I stood up on the platform of my tripod to see over a big mesquite limb, and saw that he was working his way quickly closer to me. Preferring to have as close of a shot as possible, I sat back down to wait for him to get closer and then shoot from a sitting position. That's when things fell apart. Just as I started to put my weight on the tripod seat, it "creaked". I put a little more weight on it and it creaked again, and again. I was cringing by now, with the hog at a bad angle to shoot, and now certainly aware of my presence. The next thing that happened was a deep grunt and a few snuffles and then he disappeared across the road and out of sight. I hunted for about another 2 hours that night, but nothing else came in. Check back for tomorrow's hunt!
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. He also arranges exciting hunts through his business Longleaf Hunting Adventures. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
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