Time To Go Back To The Practice Block

After this weekend, I think I need to spend more time practicing with my bow. And after you hear Jason's story you might agree with me when I say, "I’ll see him there."

I was able to hunt two times this weekend. My first trip out was after work on Friday night. I went to Thurmont, MD, specifically Cunningham Falls State Park. Cunningham Falls is a wonderful state park to hunt, in my opinion. I felt like I was the first one to hunt there this year and I was all alone- LOVED IT :-). This time of year the bucks are fresh out of velvet and ready to start sparring with other bucks to determine the pecking order of the herd, so I started off with a couple of grunt calls and some light rattling. I consider myself an active hunter, meaning I go into the woods trying to create a scene that will attract the deer to me as opposed to the traditional method of sit and wait. This method requires you to spend a lot of time on small details. Anyhow, after a series of calls and a couple soft rattles, I had three does come out and wander around my stand, which I had chosen to put in a bad tree- that's one of those small details I was talking about. I put the stand so tight in the cover that I was unable to maneuver my bow, thus preventing me from taking a shot at the biggest one when she was ten yards in front of me. I was forced to wait until she was about thirty yards behind me to take the shot. Still a doable shot unless the limb of your bow hits your tree stand when you released the string, causing your arrow to fly sideways into a tree. Luckily, the noise stunned one of the other does and made her hold tight in the cover 20 yards from my tree stand. I took the shot through the sticks and briers and missed again. I know this never works, but for me it was more of an anger shot. After being wheezed at for 2 minutes by the first deer I decided to retrieve my arrows and verify the misses then leave.

I will update later with Part II of this weekend's misadventures.