FIELD JOURNALS
Larry 'The
Cameraman' has Success in
Front of the Camera in IL
12/07/2005
The
first 3 days were pretty
much the same. Some good
activity in the mornings and
late mornings, with little
movement in mid day and
evenings. The second morning
was the best of the three.
We had a buck decoy out in a
fescue filter strip in front
of us, with strips of timber
on three sides of us. Two
nice bucks came in to the
decoy. The first followed a
doe out into the field, but
couldn't help but leave her
to come over and try to
intimidate the decoy. Ears
back, hair on end...the
whole deal was awesome.
Larry was unsure if he
wanted to shoot the buck so
early in the hunt, so waited
for a perfect shot
opportunity that never
really happened. The second
buck to come in was a bit
bigger but circled the decoy
and got our wind before
offering a shot.
The fourth morning was one
of those mornings we all
look forward to. Bucks
seemed to be everywhere, and
one time we rattled to a
buck a ways off and brought
in 3 different small bucks
from 3 different directions!
No shots taken this morning,
but 2 bucks were seen that
Larry would have like to
have taken.
Back in the same stand after
a quick lunch with rain
threatening. We got settled
at 1:00 and by 2:00 rain set
in. We saw a deer an hour up
to 4:00. At that time, I was
really getting worried that
I wasn't going to be able to
keep the camera dry for
another hour and a half, and
worried that I wouldn't last
that long because my rain
jacket was obviously not any
good anymore, leaving me
soaked. I checked the camera
under my Day One coat and
noticed the inside of the
coat was completely dry. So,
I switched out my raingear
for my Day One that was wet
on the outside, dry on the
inside. At 4:15, with
thunder and lightning in the
distance, a nice buck
stepped out of the far side
of the field and came
towards us. Soon he turned
and headed directly for our
stands in the treeline. He
may have seen our doe decoy
on the opposite side of the
treeline, but we weren't
sure. I noticed thru the
viewfinder that the buck
stopped to stare back across
the field and sure enough,
another nice buck had came
out. But this one was on a
mission to walk right under
us, and almost did, stopping
just 10 yards from us to
look up right at Larry. He
was already at full draw and
decided to take the shot at
such a point blank distance.
He made it perfectly, and
the arrow buried 3/4 of the
way, right thru the top of
the heart. 150 yards later
and Larry had the 3rd Aim
Low buck taken from this
stand. That's right! This
was the same tree that Keith
and Eric had hunted over
Halloween weekend!
The buck would have been a
basic 8 point, but both brow
tines were broken off nearly
flush with the main beams.
Everything we had, and I
mean everything, was soaked
by the time we got out of
there with the buck, our
stands, and gear. Everything
but the camera, that is.
return to bow hunting field
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