I've been very fortunate this season to make some great hunts. I spent a week in Colorado chasing elk, took a nice 8pt in the snow in Missouri on public land, and have refocused my efforts here at home. And I am proud to say I have finally broken the curse on my Hybrid! I have had a dozen or so deer within range since I started using it last November, and for whatever reason it just hasn't worked out. That almost continued on this hunt, but alas, I got it done!
So far in Louisiana, I have "sat" in a spot, either on the ground or in a tree, only 8 times for a total of about 30 hours or so. I have spent about 120-130 hours walking, scouting, and beating the bushes. I have seen deer or hogs on 6 of 8 sits. My first sit of the season I killed a nice pig and a rabbit. The other hunts I the deer were just not within range. I am happy with those results though, and have run into several dozen deer while walking. If I had taken the "sit sign and cross my fingers" approach, I know I would not have seen deer on those sits.
On this particular hunt - the property had a primitive weapon season. I had made 5 trips so far to scout and hunt it. Sunday was the last day of the gun season, and I would have a "lightbulb" moment for hunting here with this kill. I know the property well, and have areas where bucks will bed in early season with a wind advantage. I know the spots because I've found the sign annually, and jumped bucks, or killed them, near these areas. But every year, the sign seems to dry up in these spots as the rut approaches. I knew the deer's patterns would change, that's obvious. But I made an assumption they were still bedding in these areas, and just laying down rubs/scrapes near doe bedding areas and food sources. It never really set in that they would change locations completely for the rut. It also never occurred to me that these deer would give up a wind advantage to do so, but I was wrong.
The last trip out (Friday), I was heading to a known thick bedding area. I can pretty much walk out 365 days a year, and bump a handful of does out of this thicket. I have a tree I like to sit on the southwest side of it, and catch bucks cruising downwind on a north or east wind. I was walking in at greylight, and bumped a deer right off the side of the access trail. I didn't get a glimpse of it, but I was within 30 yards or so before it scooted out. I knelt down, and stayed still hoping it wasn't alone. As daylight came on, I realized I was standing on a heavy trail leading to where I bumped the deer, and there were rubs and scrapes everywhere. It made no sense to me that a buck would be there because the wind is blowing from him to the access trail, and he was only about 40-50 yards from it. It was thick, but I didn't believe he'd give up that wind advantage where he knows people will be.
I decided to go look at another spot, and come back in and hunt that set for the evening. I saw two does milling around in the thicket, and a sounder of hogs squealing and rooting just out of sight. No bucks.
I had family time Saturday for Christmas, and got home and packed up for an all day hunt sunday. The forecast was calling for rain and 40-50* temps with a strong northwest wind. On this particular property, I have hunted 8 or 10 times in the rain, and have killed 5 deer, and seen deer on every trip. I think the two contributing factors are that no one is hunting, and they seem to favor being in the open and able to see. I ended up sleeping in, and heading out to the property for about 9am. I slung the hybrid and ooal sticks on my back and walked in. Normally, I would ride an atv in, and get much closer to where I hunt (two mile walk this time around). But I've gotten to where I'll leave the bike in the truck, walk in, and if I kill, go get it. Honestly, I enjoy walking or riding bicycle more, and find the walks to be much more productive in terms of finding deer sign, than riding motors. This was the second piece of the puzzle.
When I arrived there was one person who walked in, just leaving. I had the entire property to myself, as no one else would show up that day (at least not on atv). I struck out for the area I intended to hunt. As I slipped in the woods off of the atv access trail, and started heading north, I bumped a nice buck out of his bed. He saw me right as I saw him. He simply stood up and snuck out of sight, tail down, no noise no nothing. Again, I was baffled. The deer was bedded just off of the access trail, with the wind in his face. I got to within 30-40 yards of him. Had I been moving a little slower, and actually expected a deer to be there, I could possibly have killed him in his bed. I sat right down on my butt, pulled out OnX, and stared at the two spots I had jumped bucks exactly where I didn't expect them to be. Finally it dawned on me. They were directly downwind of these known "doe (or lots of deer) bedding areas". They seemed willing to give up the wind advantage for danger, in exchange for sight/sound advantage being so close to the access. In return, they're smelling when does come into heat. The rut in these areas is from late December to late January depending on property.
It still didn't sink in, but I decided that I would try to see if I could replicate the setup a third time. It certainly had me surprised, and eager to see if I was on to something. As I moved north through the area, I got about 3-400 yards from the next bedding area. I slowed way down, and started looking for how the deer might set up in a similar way. This time of year, there is a particular oak that starts getting hit by the deer. Normally I find them on higher ground. I came up on a very large scrape. Community scrape size (10' in diameter or so). Confused why it was so far from anything relevant, I pressed forward, very slowly, eyeing every tree around me to get in, and being sure not to end up in a situation I needed to back track, and leave scent where the deer might come in if I decide to hunt. I made it another 15 yards, and ran into a couple fresh rubs. Then another huge scrape. Then about a 10 yard area that was completely destroyed with rubs scrapes, and a buck had ripped switchcane out the ground or broke them off. Deer poop everywhere. Tracks everywhere. Smelled like deer. Now I'm really confused! I looked closer at the ground, and saw the acorns. This tree had somehow survived the low ground, and the deer were hammering it. It was definitely the Womack tree (thanks @WHW !).
I didn't decide I would hunt here. I didn't pick this spot. The sign MADE me hunt it. Unfortunately, the best tree was about 40 yards southeast of where I was standing. But I figured with the gun, I would have ample time to get zero'd in on a deer if it got nervous with my ground scent. As I was preparing to climb the tree, it started raining. I pulled my gear out, and made my ascent. I got set about 240pm. It would continue raining until well after I closed my eyes sunday night...
330 rolls around, nothing but wind and rain. 4 o'clock hits, and I'm feeling really silly. I have had very good luck walking the trails during this type of weather, and felt like maybe I was making a mistake. 430, still nothing. I had decided at this point, that I would leave my sticks set up, and come back in well before daylight. Maybe the deer were just passing through, and I could catch them then. 5 o'clock sunset and still nothing. At 5:05pm, much to my surprise, a very, very nice buck dumps out of the thick stuff on the side of the access trail, and heads due south straight to the big scrape. I can't believe my eyes. He is very keyed up, and I'm thankful it is as dark as it is, and that i'm behind the tree in the hybrid. I steadied my rifle, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and opened my eyes again. He was standing in that scrape, but was clearly on alert being kind of in the open, having walked downwind, and most definitely catching my ground scent. I put the open sights on his shoulder, and squeezed off a shot. He ran directly at me, made a turn towards a creek, crossed, and stopped on the other side. He looked around for a few seconds then trotted off into the thick. I can't believe it - I missed. He easily would have been the biggest deer I've killed. I had no rush. It was a short shot. I felt good. But he looked perfectly healthy, and perfectly content to get out of dodge.
I sent my hunting partner a message letting him know I shot, and that I was going to get down and look for blood before the rain washed it away just to be sure I missed. I dropped the rifle to the ground, and was undoing my daisy chained lineman's. Out of the same thicket, here comes a second really nice buck. I look at my watch and it's now 5:14pm. I feel pretty good I didn't hit the first deer, or if I did, it was not a lethal shot based on the way he acted. So I pulled my rifle up, and for the first time reloaded a ML in a saddle. By the way, I highly recommend practicing this at home folks. This deer was equally as nervous. He went directly to the scrape where the first one went, and every single noise I made loading that gun he was whipping his head all around. He smelled where I walked, and was pretty skittish. I got the gun loaded, and onto the side of the tree. It's getting dark quickly, and I kind of lost the deer against the leaves. Then in a stroke of good luck, he whipped his head my direction and I could see his neck patch. I looked through my peep, and couldn't get a good bead. In a second stroke of good luck he took a couple steps right in front of some bright green switch cane. I could now see his whole outline.
I lined up the shot, and squeezed it off. He bucked, and took off running hunched over. I knew it was a good hit. I got down as fast as I could slowly (haha!). I walked over to the shot site of the second deer, and found good blood immediately. It was thick, and there was plenty of vertical stems and such with blood on it so I wasn't concerned with losing blood on him. I went to the first shot site, and spent 10 minutes looking for blood or hair. I knew within a 10'x2' area he was standing. I also followed the trail he ran on, and found his running tracks, but no blood. I went to the spot he crossed the creek, no blood. I felt pretty strongly that it was a complete miss. So I gathered my gear, and got on the trail of the second deer. He ran about 60-70 yards, right back to where he came from. Perfect heart/lung shot right behind the elbow in and out. The amount of rubs and scrapes and beds where he died was unbelievable. I quartered him up, and got prepared for the 2 mile walk out. The rain is now steady, and strong, and it's about 45 degrees.
I had to blast through some extremely high stem count thick nasty stuff to get to the access trail, only about 50-60 yards away. With roughly 80lbs on my back, 20lbs of small pack and rifle in one hand, and 30lbs of neck roast and antlers in the other, it was slow going. By the time I got to the trail, I realized two things - I could not wear my rain gear because I was going to overheat, and I wasn't going to make it two miles with everything. I took off my rain gear, and wore only my pants and the king of the mountain wool shirt I bought from @Vtbow for the duration of the evening. Dude, that thing is amazing. I put the shoulders, backstraps, and the head/neck on the hybrid, along with the bag and my clothes, and set off for the truck. I will say if you're going more than a mile, 50-60lbs is all you're going to want to carry in the hybrid. I made the first haul in about 45 minutes. I got to the truck with my body temperature perfect, albeit soaked. That wool is some amazing stuff. I dropped that load, ate some jerky, a granola bar, and chugged a half gallon of water. I grabbed the pop up 28 for the second leg. It was a thirty minute walk back in. I loaded the two hinds in the meat shelf, and at this point, a combination of delirium, and lack of hydration and food helped me to decide I would beat that thirty minutes on the way out. I made it back to the truck in 28 minutes!
I was soaked, every piece of gear I used was soaked, muddy, bloody. But I was one happy hunter. I got him to my partner's camp, dropped him a cooler and iced, and got some well deserved food and a shower. Despite the success, I kept playing the first shot over and over in my head. I couldn't believe I missed. And something the deer did while running kept coming into my head. When he took off running at me after the shot, he had to make a hard right turn to avoid an embankment. I woke up at about midnight and woke up my hunting partner. I told him that when that deer made that turn, he wasn't right. I said it could've been just because it was slippery as hell and he was taking the turn too fast. But he looked to struggle a bit changing directions. I told him I was going to go back in the morning, and look at everything in the daylight. I slept very little playing it over and over, and had convinced myself I hit the deer. At 7am, he walked in and said "I ain't going hunting, let's go look for that deer." Good hunting buddies are hard to find !
We arrived at the set, and I ran through everything with him. I climbed the tree, and had him go to the shot site. We were able to narrow down the area, but it was about 5' further away than I looked the night before. He found a small amount of hair, and a little fat/gristle. My heart sunk. We discussed where the deer ran, the direction he could potentially head, and how best to look. We ultimately were able to define the area that he would most likely be in if he was mortally wounded. We spent the next four hours grid searching. We were able to follow his tracks for about 200 yards, before losing them in a thicket. But we felt good that if he was dead, he didn't leave it. We turned that thicket inside out, and then checked every single trail from the outside looking for big tracks heading out. We found a few sets of big tracks on a few different trails. We follow each one looking for blood or hair on anything. We didn't find a single sign that if one of these was this deer, that it was hit well and bleeding. All told, if the deer traveled 600 yards or less, there is a really good chance we would have found him. At that point, we went back to the shot site again. I wanted to see if I could find sign of my bullet in the area. Maybe I just grazed the deer, and we could find where my bullet contacted a tree or limb in front of or behind him.
We lined up where I was in the tree, with the hair, and traced it to a blown up spot of dirt. It was directly behind the hair, and his hoof prints where he took off at the shot. It appears that I hit him in the backside of one of the legs, low. It would explain how he had a little hitch in his step when he was running. I feel very confident that it was a non lethal hit. I will be back to the property in the next day or two, and will give two final efforts: looking for buzzards, and bringing a metal detector to see if I can find that bullet. Anyone know if they detect lead/copper??
I am very proud of this deer. And I am excited to have unlocked a good little secret about this property. These two bucks were bedded right off the access trail, and directly downwind of a known bedding area. This oak was a draw for them, and all manner of other deer. I feel pretty good I can go back in the next week or two, and if it's still dropping, get another one! Finally, I've taken a deer in the hybrid. I can tell you it would have been very difficult in the rain to load that gun in a regular saddle. I was able to set all the crap on the seat between my legs and get it done. I felt very safe on those ooal sticks in the dark and rain. They bite the tree very well, and the tops of the steps have a good grip too.
Don't do what I did, and assume deer won't give up that wind advantage when the rut rolls around. It might help you score on a nice one. And when you find the Womack tree, you'll know it! I know it was a long read, but maybe someone new will pick up something useful. Now, team 4 - we need two does to take the lead. I'm going to get another deer this year, who's gonna help me get us across the finish line?!?!?!
So far in Louisiana, I have "sat" in a spot, either on the ground or in a tree, only 8 times for a total of about 30 hours or so. I have spent about 120-130 hours walking, scouting, and beating the bushes. I have seen deer or hogs on 6 of 8 sits. My first sit of the season I killed a nice pig and a rabbit. The other hunts I the deer were just not within range. I am happy with those results though, and have run into several dozen deer while walking. If I had taken the "sit sign and cross my fingers" approach, I know I would not have seen deer on those sits.
On this particular hunt - the property had a primitive weapon season. I had made 5 trips so far to scout and hunt it. Sunday was the last day of the gun season, and I would have a "lightbulb" moment for hunting here with this kill. I know the property well, and have areas where bucks will bed in early season with a wind advantage. I know the spots because I've found the sign annually, and jumped bucks, or killed them, near these areas. But every year, the sign seems to dry up in these spots as the rut approaches. I knew the deer's patterns would change, that's obvious. But I made an assumption they were still bedding in these areas, and just laying down rubs/scrapes near doe bedding areas and food sources. It never really set in that they would change locations completely for the rut. It also never occurred to me that these deer would give up a wind advantage to do so, but I was wrong.
The last trip out (Friday), I was heading to a known thick bedding area. I can pretty much walk out 365 days a year, and bump a handful of does out of this thicket. I have a tree I like to sit on the southwest side of it, and catch bucks cruising downwind on a north or east wind. I was walking in at greylight, and bumped a deer right off the side of the access trail. I didn't get a glimpse of it, but I was within 30 yards or so before it scooted out. I knelt down, and stayed still hoping it wasn't alone. As daylight came on, I realized I was standing on a heavy trail leading to where I bumped the deer, and there were rubs and scrapes everywhere. It made no sense to me that a buck would be there because the wind is blowing from him to the access trail, and he was only about 40-50 yards from it. It was thick, but I didn't believe he'd give up that wind advantage where he knows people will be.
I decided to go look at another spot, and come back in and hunt that set for the evening. I saw two does milling around in the thicket, and a sounder of hogs squealing and rooting just out of sight. No bucks.
I had family time Saturday for Christmas, and got home and packed up for an all day hunt sunday. The forecast was calling for rain and 40-50* temps with a strong northwest wind. On this particular property, I have hunted 8 or 10 times in the rain, and have killed 5 deer, and seen deer on every trip. I think the two contributing factors are that no one is hunting, and they seem to favor being in the open and able to see. I ended up sleeping in, and heading out to the property for about 9am. I slung the hybrid and ooal sticks on my back and walked in. Normally, I would ride an atv in, and get much closer to where I hunt (two mile walk this time around). But I've gotten to where I'll leave the bike in the truck, walk in, and if I kill, go get it. Honestly, I enjoy walking or riding bicycle more, and find the walks to be much more productive in terms of finding deer sign, than riding motors. This was the second piece of the puzzle.
When I arrived there was one person who walked in, just leaving. I had the entire property to myself, as no one else would show up that day (at least not on atv). I struck out for the area I intended to hunt. As I slipped in the woods off of the atv access trail, and started heading north, I bumped a nice buck out of his bed. He saw me right as I saw him. He simply stood up and snuck out of sight, tail down, no noise no nothing. Again, I was baffled. The deer was bedded just off of the access trail, with the wind in his face. I got to within 30-40 yards of him. Had I been moving a little slower, and actually expected a deer to be there, I could possibly have killed him in his bed. I sat right down on my butt, pulled out OnX, and stared at the two spots I had jumped bucks exactly where I didn't expect them to be. Finally it dawned on me. They were directly downwind of these known "doe (or lots of deer) bedding areas". They seemed willing to give up the wind advantage for danger, in exchange for sight/sound advantage being so close to the access. In return, they're smelling when does come into heat. The rut in these areas is from late December to late January depending on property.
It still didn't sink in, but I decided that I would try to see if I could replicate the setup a third time. It certainly had me surprised, and eager to see if I was on to something. As I moved north through the area, I got about 3-400 yards from the next bedding area. I slowed way down, and started looking for how the deer might set up in a similar way. This time of year, there is a particular oak that starts getting hit by the deer. Normally I find them on higher ground. I came up on a very large scrape. Community scrape size (10' in diameter or so). Confused why it was so far from anything relevant, I pressed forward, very slowly, eyeing every tree around me to get in, and being sure not to end up in a situation I needed to back track, and leave scent where the deer might come in if I decide to hunt. I made it another 15 yards, and ran into a couple fresh rubs. Then another huge scrape. Then about a 10 yard area that was completely destroyed with rubs scrapes, and a buck had ripped switchcane out the ground or broke them off. Deer poop everywhere. Tracks everywhere. Smelled like deer. Now I'm really confused! I looked closer at the ground, and saw the acorns. This tree had somehow survived the low ground, and the deer were hammering it. It was definitely the Womack tree (thanks @WHW !).
I didn't decide I would hunt here. I didn't pick this spot. The sign MADE me hunt it. Unfortunately, the best tree was about 40 yards southeast of where I was standing. But I figured with the gun, I would have ample time to get zero'd in on a deer if it got nervous with my ground scent. As I was preparing to climb the tree, it started raining. I pulled my gear out, and made my ascent. I got set about 240pm. It would continue raining until well after I closed my eyes sunday night...
330 rolls around, nothing but wind and rain. 4 o'clock hits, and I'm feeling really silly. I have had very good luck walking the trails during this type of weather, and felt like maybe I was making a mistake. 430, still nothing. I had decided at this point, that I would leave my sticks set up, and come back in well before daylight. Maybe the deer were just passing through, and I could catch them then. 5 o'clock sunset and still nothing. At 5:05pm, much to my surprise, a very, very nice buck dumps out of the thick stuff on the side of the access trail, and heads due south straight to the big scrape. I can't believe my eyes. He is very keyed up, and I'm thankful it is as dark as it is, and that i'm behind the tree in the hybrid. I steadied my rifle, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and opened my eyes again. He was standing in that scrape, but was clearly on alert being kind of in the open, having walked downwind, and most definitely catching my ground scent. I put the open sights on his shoulder, and squeezed off a shot. He ran directly at me, made a turn towards a creek, crossed, and stopped on the other side. He looked around for a few seconds then trotted off into the thick. I can't believe it - I missed. He easily would have been the biggest deer I've killed. I had no rush. It was a short shot. I felt good. But he looked perfectly healthy, and perfectly content to get out of dodge.
I sent my hunting partner a message letting him know I shot, and that I was going to get down and look for blood before the rain washed it away just to be sure I missed. I dropped the rifle to the ground, and was undoing my daisy chained lineman's. Out of the same thicket, here comes a second really nice buck. I look at my watch and it's now 5:14pm. I feel pretty good I didn't hit the first deer, or if I did, it was not a lethal shot based on the way he acted. So I pulled my rifle up, and for the first time reloaded a ML in a saddle. By the way, I highly recommend practicing this at home folks. This deer was equally as nervous. He went directly to the scrape where the first one went, and every single noise I made loading that gun he was whipping his head all around. He smelled where I walked, and was pretty skittish. I got the gun loaded, and onto the side of the tree. It's getting dark quickly, and I kind of lost the deer against the leaves. Then in a stroke of good luck, he whipped his head my direction and I could see his neck patch. I looked through my peep, and couldn't get a good bead. In a second stroke of good luck he took a couple steps right in front of some bright green switch cane. I could now see his whole outline.
I lined up the shot, and squeezed it off. He bucked, and took off running hunched over. I knew it was a good hit. I got down as fast as I could slowly (haha!). I walked over to the shot site of the second deer, and found good blood immediately. It was thick, and there was plenty of vertical stems and such with blood on it so I wasn't concerned with losing blood on him. I went to the first shot site, and spent 10 minutes looking for blood or hair. I knew within a 10'x2' area he was standing. I also followed the trail he ran on, and found his running tracks, but no blood. I went to the spot he crossed the creek, no blood. I felt pretty strongly that it was a complete miss. So I gathered my gear, and got on the trail of the second deer. He ran about 60-70 yards, right back to where he came from. Perfect heart/lung shot right behind the elbow in and out. The amount of rubs and scrapes and beds where he died was unbelievable. I quartered him up, and got prepared for the 2 mile walk out. The rain is now steady, and strong, and it's about 45 degrees.
I had to blast through some extremely high stem count thick nasty stuff to get to the access trail, only about 50-60 yards away. With roughly 80lbs on my back, 20lbs of small pack and rifle in one hand, and 30lbs of neck roast and antlers in the other, it was slow going. By the time I got to the trail, I realized two things - I could not wear my rain gear because I was going to overheat, and I wasn't going to make it two miles with everything. I took off my rain gear, and wore only my pants and the king of the mountain wool shirt I bought from @Vtbow for the duration of the evening. Dude, that thing is amazing. I put the shoulders, backstraps, and the head/neck on the hybrid, along with the bag and my clothes, and set off for the truck. I will say if you're going more than a mile, 50-60lbs is all you're going to want to carry in the hybrid. I made the first haul in about 45 minutes. I got to the truck with my body temperature perfect, albeit soaked. That wool is some amazing stuff. I dropped that load, ate some jerky, a granola bar, and chugged a half gallon of water. I grabbed the pop up 28 for the second leg. It was a thirty minute walk back in. I loaded the two hinds in the meat shelf, and at this point, a combination of delirium, and lack of hydration and food helped me to decide I would beat that thirty minutes on the way out. I made it back to the truck in 28 minutes!
I was soaked, every piece of gear I used was soaked, muddy, bloody. But I was one happy hunter. I got him to my partner's camp, dropped him a cooler and iced, and got some well deserved food and a shower. Despite the success, I kept playing the first shot over and over in my head. I couldn't believe I missed. And something the deer did while running kept coming into my head. When he took off running at me after the shot, he had to make a hard right turn to avoid an embankment. I woke up at about midnight and woke up my hunting partner. I told him that when that deer made that turn, he wasn't right. I said it could've been just because it was slippery as hell and he was taking the turn too fast. But he looked to struggle a bit changing directions. I told him I was going to go back in the morning, and look at everything in the daylight. I slept very little playing it over and over, and had convinced myself I hit the deer. At 7am, he walked in and said "I ain't going hunting, let's go look for that deer." Good hunting buddies are hard to find !
We arrived at the set, and I ran through everything with him. I climbed the tree, and had him go to the shot site. We were able to narrow down the area, but it was about 5' further away than I looked the night before. He found a small amount of hair, and a little fat/gristle. My heart sunk. We discussed where the deer ran, the direction he could potentially head, and how best to look. We ultimately were able to define the area that he would most likely be in if he was mortally wounded. We spent the next four hours grid searching. We were able to follow his tracks for about 200 yards, before losing them in a thicket. But we felt good that if he was dead, he didn't leave it. We turned that thicket inside out, and then checked every single trail from the outside looking for big tracks heading out. We found a few sets of big tracks on a few different trails. We follow each one looking for blood or hair on anything. We didn't find a single sign that if one of these was this deer, that it was hit well and bleeding. All told, if the deer traveled 600 yards or less, there is a really good chance we would have found him. At that point, we went back to the shot site again. I wanted to see if I could find sign of my bullet in the area. Maybe I just grazed the deer, and we could find where my bullet contacted a tree or limb in front of or behind him.
We lined up where I was in the tree, with the hair, and traced it to a blown up spot of dirt. It was directly behind the hair, and his hoof prints where he took off at the shot. It appears that I hit him in the backside of one of the legs, low. It would explain how he had a little hitch in his step when he was running. I feel very confident that it was a non lethal hit. I will be back to the property in the next day or two, and will give two final efforts: looking for buzzards, and bringing a metal detector to see if I can find that bullet. Anyone know if they detect lead/copper??
I am very proud of this deer. And I am excited to have unlocked a good little secret about this property. These two bucks were bedded right off the access trail, and directly downwind of a known bedding area. This oak was a draw for them, and all manner of other deer. I feel pretty good I can go back in the next week or two, and if it's still dropping, get another one! Finally, I've taken a deer in the hybrid. I can tell you it would have been very difficult in the rain to load that gun in a regular saddle. I was able to set all the crap on the seat between my legs and get it done. I felt very safe on those ooal sticks in the dark and rain. They bite the tree very well, and the tops of the steps have a good grip too.
Don't do what I did, and assume deer won't give up that wind advantage when the rut rolls around. It might help you score on a nice one. And when you find the Womack tree, you'll know it! I know it was a long read, but maybe someone new will pick up something useful. Now, team 4 - we need two does to take the lead. I'm going to get another deer this year, who's gonna help me get us across the finish line?!?!?!
Last edited:
