Outdoors - Buck Hunting

   Zane had been in his deer stand since well before dawn on Saturday morning. There was less than an hour of daylight left when he decided to call it a day. He lowered his bow to the ground and started to climb down when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. 

   His day had started early on the bright star-lit morning. More than an hour before dawn, he made his way across the dam, over the hill and to the tree where his tree stand was waiting. He climbed up, pulled his bow up on a rope and made himself as comfortable as is possible sitting on a metal seat while being tied to a tree with a safety harness. It is always important to use a safety harness as people have been known to fall asleep and fall out of their tree. Zane did promptly fall asleep but did not fall. 

   It was almost light when the sound of leaves rustling woke him up. The noise came from directly below the tree, but it was still too dark to see what was down there. A squirrel playing can make as much noise as a full grown deer. Being just before dawn, almost anything could be passing by. The nocturnal animals would be moving back into the timber after hunting all night or it could be any number of day time hunters. Quiet returned as light began to spread through the thick stand of hardwood trees. Before long, a doe and her fawn moved down the hill and passed under his stand. He raised his bow, estimated the distance and sighted in on the doe. Satisfied it would be a nice clean shot, he let her pass on by, waiting for a buck. Any buck would do, but being early in bow season, he had time to wait for a big buck. 

   As the hours passed, a few more does and a couple of small bucks walked by. It was almost noon when he saw a big buck. It moved along the tree line heading in the right direction but stopped and laid down just out of range. No amount of wishing would move the old buck an inch closer. After an hour or so of mentally trying to communicate with the buck, Zane fell asleep again as the warm sunshine spread down through the trees. Sometime later, he awoke with a start to see nothing had changed. The sun was still shining and the buck was still resting just out of range. Eventually, the old buck got up and walked away, back into the trees where he had come from earlier.

   Not much was happening when Zane decided to climb down and give it a try another day. With his bow lowered to the ground and making the first step down, he saw movement of a deer coming through the thick brush behind his tree. The flash of antlers in the sunlight convinced him to continue his hunt for a few more minutes. He quickly sat back down and pulled his bow back up. Quietly he unsnapped the rope from his bow and knocked an arrow. A nice buck walked around the tree in the same zone used by the doe that had been used for practice sighting. The arrow flew fast and true, hitting exactly where he aimed. Zane has his first bow kill and a lot of meat to show for his efforts.