Saddle Up

Sweet November. As hunters, and archery hunters specifically, there are few better days spent afield each year than those of early November. Each and every year, our family spends a few days in early November at camp for our annual Guys Weekend. It is one of my most anticipated weekends of the year, and this year was no different.

I got on the road on Wednesday around lunchtime and got to camp in time to start smoking the ribs and head into the woods for an evening hunt. It was a beautiful warm weather weekend – seemingly a theme so far this year. I was hunting in the “Graveyard” spot I had spent many sits near in years past. The past two years, all of my hunts had been out of my tree saddle. After making the switch away from a climber last year I have become much more comfortable and efficient in the saddle. It’s a breeze to climb up and down and easy to move if you’re just too far from the action. My whole set up of a saddle, lineman’s belt, tether, 5 tree steps, knaider swaider and gear hanger is incredibly light and gets me comfortably in a tree at 27+ feet.

Given the move to the saddle and its inherent mobility and weight benefits, Robert and I decided it was the perfect thing to take into the big woods where we rifle hunt each year. With that, we were up early Thursday morning to make the drive there. We hiked in, and while sunrise was supposedly still 45 minutes away, it was already getting light and we still had about 15 minutes of hiking left. We quickly crossed the creek and made the final ascent to our respective spots. At this point it was getting light so we hustled up our trees, approximately 150 yards apart on the point of the First Finger.

I was set up just 15 yards past the Jeep Trail with it at my back. As I looked down at the Jeep Trail, I realized it was the exact spot Ken and I took pictures with our bucks last year where his dropped. Pretty cool, I thought. The morning was beautiful, but slow as far as deer movement goes. A couple hours passed and I was beginning to think about the plan for the rest of the day. Robert and I panned to climb down at 11:00 AM to meet for lunch and find our spots for the afternoon, and it was now just after 10:00 AM.

Seemingly out of nowhere at 10:20 AM, I heard crashing through the leaves directly to my back. I quickly turned to see a deer running straight toward me, and it didn’t take long to realize it was a buck. Immediately, I turned back and grabbed my bow. When I returned to the deer, I saw him now stopped looking my direction. I had feared he caught a glimpse of my movement, but he began feeding seconds later. I took a few deep breaths and continued to observe the deer.

He fed and moved through the woods at a slow pace in my direction. As I decided I was going to shoot this deer given the opportunity, the adrenaline and shaking set in. Before I knew it he was on the Jeep Trail above me to my left at about 35 yards. As he crossed the Jeep Trail and went behind some brush, he got the sense something was off. He started looking my way and sniffing in the air, but couldn’t quite figure it out. He took a few more steps behind some trees and only his head stuck out. He looked up at me, my legs and entire body now visually shaking, and I thought for sure my chances were dashed.

For whatever reason, he couldn’t make me out and put his head back down to feed. As he took his next steps, I drew my bow back. He stopped broadside, now at 30 yards. I had an opening of about a foot between two branches. I centered the pin behind his shoulder and released the arrow. “Pop!”. He turned and dashed right back where he came from. After about 80 yards I could swear I heard him crash. I let out a few fist pumps and was ecstatic. I waited a few minutes before climbing down and gathering my gear.

I briefly checked the shot sight and immediately found blood. I left it at that and sat on the Jeep Trail to eat my sandwich and wait for Robert to come join me. About 20 minutes later I could see him coming down through the woods. I made no indication that I had shot one, and waited for him to get closer. When he got to about 40 yards, I gave him a few fist pumps which he returned with those of his own.

He joined me for lunch where I told him the whole story of shooting the deer about 30 minutes prior. “You know Clayton got one too right?” “What?! I had no idea, I’ve had no service all morning.” He proceeded to show me Clayton’s big heavy 8 point shot early in the morning behind camp. Two bucks shot on Thursday morning of Guys Weekend? Now that was something. We decided to give it about a full hour before taking up the blood trail, but didn’t want to wait too long as it was already about 60 degrees and the forecast was for nearly 70. We went to the shot site and after about 5 yards found the broadside half of my arrow covered in good blood. The trail was easy to follow and after another 30 yards found the other (fletching) half with bright bubbly blood on it as well. Another good sign. After about 80 yards of a good trail we found the buck piled up against a tree.

While he certainly isn’t my biggest buck, I couldn’t have been more happy with him. Archery hunting this spot was something we had talked about for so long and to have finally done it and connected on a PA 8-point was truly something special. We quickly took some pictures before the work began as we wanted to get the hide off and meat de-boned as soon as possible. With two sets of hands and knives, we got all of the meat de-boned and into a game bag in 1 hour and 5 minutes. We sat and talked for another 15 minutes, enjoying the beautiful day in the big woods. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time someone (from our group) got an archery deer back there. We were loving it, and immediately said we would be back there in the coming years.

With that, I left Robert to continue his hunt while I began the heavy pack-out.

I made it out in just under an hour and began the drive back to camp. Finally just now getting service, Robert and I thought it would be cool to surprise everyone with my buck. Figuring they would all be out for the evening when I got back, I was going to display the rack by the campfire for their return after hunting. Like most things however, this didn’t go as planned as the guys were all still back at camp when I returned. Instead, I told them all the story of our epic morning and its conclusion. The antlers did make it out to the fire where we told more stories of our hunts thus far and anticipation for those yet to come.