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First Buck using the Sit Drag (Florida Public Land)

Scott Murray

New Member
Joined
May 5, 2017
Messages
4
Our archery season down here in South Florida was for the most part ruined by hurricane Irma but I was able to hunt the opener and 2 days after. I hung my ussual more permanent stand, a Millennium 100 the day before opener and 2 of the bucks I had on camera walked by me at 25 yards. I thought hey this is going to be cake! Well opening day 2 guys walked the mile and a half to exactly where i was and set up in the tree island those bucks were sleeping in and spooked em out. I never saw them again. After day three i went home leaving my stand in the woods to hopefully hunt the following weekend. Well that never happened because Irma blew through, flooding the swamp and closing the WMA for the entire remainder of archery season. The WMA luckily opened up for muzzle loader and since my stand was located in an archery only area I decided to give the Sit Drag/climbing harness I assembled a whirl in another area rather than go into a place i couldn't hunt to retrieve my stand. The areas I hunt are covered with water between 12-30" deep and scattered with semi dry pine islands so in order to keep things dry and make it easy to haul deer out, i always bring a little boat/sled with me. Halfway into the mile walk in i realized my boat was extra heavy and it turns out it was because it had a hole in it. After the hurricane i had used the sled to haul debris and at some point it had worn a hole into one bottom corner. This was the first sign that the morning was going to be more difficult than usual. I got to the tree and begin unloading my sticks and in the process i hear something fall in the water but cannot locate or figure out what that something was so i continued to get set up. I would later realize that it was an expensive Leopold range finder. I buckled up the climbing harness/sit drag realizing that at some point the carabiner i use with the harness as a back up safety had fallen off in the walk in basically rendering the harness useless. That wasn't going to stop me so i ascended and attached my homemade platform to the tree. This area is on the edge of a prairie and the deer occasionally cross the prairie from the treeline on the other side or walk along the edge where I was setup. I setup expecting the second option with my back facing the prairie. Once tied into the tree and settled in for a short sit waiting for the sun to rise i heard another plop in the water below and since i could see it in the water i was immediately aware that my iPhone had fallen into the water. I figured maybe i could get it quickly before the sun rose completely and so i began trying to quickly descend. While trying to set my foot on the bottom group of steps, my aider got in the way and twisted that step in a way that made it difficult to step down onto it. It had also slid about a foot further down on the tree and basically turned sideways. The phone was going to have to wait as the sun was coming up. I just was hoping the life proof case was going to protect it but i doubted it. I ascended again at this point basically giving up on the morning after the extra bit of racket i had made pretty much assured the deer were aware of my presence. The sun rose and i tried as hard as i could to enjoy the first hours of the morning despite the fact that i had almost $1000 worth of electronics potentially being destroyed and while i watched my little boat slowly sinking into the water below me. The wind was slightly picking up from the east blowing my scent onto the prairie behind me and so i just hoped and prayed that if deer did come that they did not come from that direction. I knew It was about a 50% chance they would since i have hunted this spot the last few years. Usually down here you hear deer walking in the water long before you see them and the first indicator that there were deer present was faint splashing that of course came from the East across the prairie. At this point even seeing a deer even if it scented me would have made the morning a success and so i hoped they would at least break the tree line behind me. The beauty of the sling became very apparent at this point as the first animal emerged. I was able to twist my legs around behind me easily with my behind hanging off the side of the platform in order to face the animals head on! I focused my scope on what i thought was a doe realizing that even without my shooting sticks, using my bridge and back rest tethers as points to steady myself, i felt more steady and confident aiming than i have in any of my other stand options! On top of that, the deer was actually a little spike! Another animal emerged and i looked it over..another spike! A bachelor group! But neither were shooters in the area since the rules changed to requiring a fork for legality. At least i got to see a couple males! They walked to a tree island in the middle of the prairie about 200 yards from me and began rubbing on a sapling pine. One of them peed and they both looked back to the treeline as a third male emerged. This one had a fork and more and he was big enough! That was enough information for me. He was at least a 6 point (turns out he was an 8) and I'm fine with that and hopefully he would give me a shot. The 2 spikes started crossing the prairie angling south east, their path crossing 40 yards in front of me while the shooter rubbed on the sapling that the previous 2 had hit. The big one was on the move. He might have been a little more weary of the Eastern treeline i was sitting on because he crossed the prairie angling further from me at about a hundred yards. He peed and continued, presenting me with a perfect shot which i took. He went down 10 yards from the hit. I worked my way down using the sit drag to hang and adjust the misplaced step. I picked up my phone which turned on promptly! I found my Leopold rangefinder which despite the companies written policy against fixing damaged electronics they are currently replacing no questions asked! And retrieved my buck taking the picture above with my salvaged phone. The drag out was no fun since my boat kept sinking but i made it none the less. I think i love my sit drag and i may be benching my other stands indefinitely! Also, never give up! Don't get down just because things don't go smooth! Anything is possible in the morning woods!
 

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Awesome! Great read. Congrats on your first from the sitdrag


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That some perseverance... along w some terrible luck! Congrats


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Congrats on the kill! Hearing deer in the water before you can see them is one of the best adrenaline highs you can get. It's why I love the swamp


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
All's well that ends well. Congratulations on the buck and for hanging in there.
 
Our archery season down here in South Florida was for the most part ruined by hurricane Irma but I was able to hunt the opener and 2 days after. I hung my ussual more permanent stand, a Millennium 100 the day before opener and 2 of the bucks I had on camera walked by me at 25 yards. I thought hey this is going to be cake! Well opening day 2 guys walked the mile and a half to exactly where i was and set up in the tree island those bucks were sleeping in and spooked em out. I never saw them again. After day three i went home leaving my stand in the woods to hopefully hunt the following weekend. Well that never happened because Irma blew through, flooding the swamp and closing the WMA for the entire remainder of archery season. The WMA luckily opened up for muzzle loader and since my stand was located in an archery only area I decided to give the Sit Drag/climbing harness I assembled a whirl in another area rather than go into a place i couldn't hunt to retrieve my stand. The areas I hunt are covered with water between 12-30" deep and scattered with semi dry pine islands so in order to keep things dry and make it easy to haul deer out, i always bring a little boat/sled with me. Halfway into the mile walk in i realized my boat was extra heavy and it turns out it was because it had a hole in it. After the hurricane i had used the sled to haul debris and at some point it had worn a hole into one bottom corner. This was the first sign that the morning was going to be more difficult than usual. I got to the tree and begin unloading my sticks and in the process i hear something fall in the water but cannot locate or figure out what that something was so i continued to get set up. I would later realize that it was an expensive Leopold range finder. I buckled up the climbing harness/sit drag realizing that at some point the carabiner i use with the harness as a back up safety had fallen off in the walk in basically rendering the harness useless. That wasn't going to stop me so i ascended and attached my homemade platform to the tree. This area is on the edge of a prairie and the deer occasionally cross the prairie from the treeline on the other side or walk along the edge where I was setup. I setup expecting the second option with my back facing the prairie. Once tied into the tree and settled in for a short sit waiting for the sun to rise i heard another plop in the water below and since i could see it in the water i was immediately aware that my iPhone had fallen into the water. I figured maybe i could get it quickly before the sun rose completely and so i began trying to quickly descend. While trying to set my foot on the bottom group of steps, my aider got in the way and twisted that step in a way that made it difficult to step down onto it. It had also slid about a foot further down on the tree and basically turned sideways. The phone was going to have to wait as the sun was coming up. I just was hoping the life proof case was going to protect it but i doubted it. I ascended again at this point basically giving up on the morning after the extra bit of racket i had made pretty much assured the deer were aware of my presence. The sun rose and i tried as hard as i could to enjoy the first hours of the morning despite the fact that i had almost $1000 worth of electronics potentially being destroyed and while i watched my little boat slowly sinking into the water below me. The wind was slightly picking up from the east blowing my scent onto the prairie behind me and so i just hoped and prayed that if deer did come that they did not come from that direction. I knew It was about a 50% chance they would since i have hunted this spot the last few years. Usually down here you hear deer walking in the water long before you see them and the first indicator that there were deer present was faint splashing that of course came from the East across the prairie. At this point even seeing a deer even if it scented me would have made the morning a success and so i hoped they would at least break the tree line behind me. The beauty of the sling became very apparent at this point as the first animal emerged. I was able to twist my legs around behind me easily with my behind hanging off the side of the platform in order to face the animals head on! I focused my scope on what i thought was a doe realizing that even without my shooting sticks, using my bridge and back rest tethers as points to steady myself, i felt more steady and confident aiming than i have in any of my other stand options! On top of that, the deer was actually a little spike! Another animal emerged and i looked it over..another spike! A bachelor group! But neither were shooters in the area since the rules changed to requiring a fork for legality. At least i got to see a couple males! They walked to a tree island in the middle of the prairie about 200 yards from me and began rubbing on a sapling pine. One of them peed and they both looked back to the treeline as a third male emerged. This one had a fork and more and he was big enough! That was enough information for me. He was at least a 6 point (turns out he was an 8) and I'm fine with that and hopefully he would give me a shot. The 2 spikes started crossing the prairie angling south east, their path crossing 40 yards in front of me while the shooter rubbed on the sapling that the previous 2 had hit. The big one was on the move. He might have been a little more weary of the Eastern treeline i was sitting on because he crossed the prairie angling further from me at about a hundred yards. He peed and continued, presenting me with a perfect shot which i took. He went down 10 yards from the hit. I worked my way down using the sit drag to hang and adjust the misplaced step. I picked up my phone which turned on promptly! I found my Leopold rangefinder which despite the companies written policy against fixing damaged electronics they are currently replacing no questions asked! And retrieved my buck taking the picture above with my salvaged phone. The drag out was no fun since my boat kept sinking but i made it none the less. I think i love my sit drag and i may be benching my other stands indefinitely! Also, never give up! Don't get down just because things don't go smooth! Anything is possible in the morning woods!
Congrats, great story!!
,
 
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