I had 24 hours to digest how royally I blew that setup on a great buck and it's haunted me all night. I woke up at 2:19 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. I had to get back to that stand and see if that big buck would return. I got there an hour before dark and patiently waited for light. Morning came and went and the only thing that showed was a bunch of cows and a couple of immature bucks.
This immature 9 was not interested in sharing the bait with a cow.
The deer did not like the cows being on bait and neither did I. I sucked it up and stayed until noon but it was very slow. The big buck never showed and neither did anything else that was mature. I got a text that the deer were running around everywhere down south. I blew it. That buck has no idea how close he was to getting muzzified.
Tuesday Afternoon Hunt
For the afternoon hunt we both decided that I should hunt the River stand. I like this stand a lot, you can see deer for miles and there are some real giants that cruise through here. I was dropped off there early and within 20 minutes I had bucks cruising by my stand. None of them were interested in bait, it was almost a waste to even put it out. These bucks were searching for does, not food. By the time the sun went down I had 6 bucks in range but no shooters. I spotted two big bucks with one of them being another giant. But he was close to a half mile away with a doe and he wasn't leaving her.
This guy gave me a shot but he was too young and I don't need to kill a buck that bad. He'll be nice in a couple more years.
This was a shooter, a mainframe 12 with a couple busted tines.
There was so much buck activity that I could hardly wait for the sun to set. I figured it would just be pandemonium. But it slowed down considerably and about the only thing I saw was a fat coyote that decided to howl right in front of my stand while I video'd. It was really spectacular to watch - and beautiful. About the only thing more beautiful would be watching my son Matt put a 22-250 round into his forehead.
Coyotes were thick this year. This is the 3rd one that came into my stand.
I have to seriously restrain myself since my first impulse is to arrow them all.
One more day left. I am once again down to the wire. No idea where I'm going tomorrow but I guarantee that I won't be passing up any cake shots - or 160" 12 pointers!
