A few years ago I was still hunting the edge of a swamp with my recurve. It was a damp day with a very mild but steady breeze. The conditions were too good for ground stalking to sit in one place. So I was cruising the woods slowly looking down towards the thick swamp. About an hour and a half before last light I caught a strong smell of buck in the air. So I started into death creep mode - working my way into the wind, never taking more than two steps per minute. I had lots of cover around me, but my visibility into the swamp was great. And then I heard a short series of grunts… I held my bow up in the ready position, set to draw at the first sign of movement. I stood frozen for 5 minutes taking in every nuanced sound and movement around me. And then there was a single soft grunt, it was close. But something wasn’t right and I realized the sound was coming from an elevated position. I looked upward and there in front of me, at 20 yards was a hunter in a treestand. He was motionless, with his back to the tree - facing away from me. All that I could see was the strap that secured his stand to the tree and his shoulders sticking out beyond the tree trunk. I Crept back up the hill at a snails pace, never taking my eyes off the hunter for more than a second, prepared to greet him with a human salutation should they become aware of me. I slipped off without the other hunter ever becoming aware of my presence.
That may have been one of the most informative experiences I’ve had in the deer woods.
