By Rich Miller
I’m not going to flatter myself and think everyone has missed me on here the last few weeks but here we go again! Although I have been doing a little bit of hunting for the most part it has been work and I haven’t had a lot to write about. I have been seeing a lot of deer the times I have been, but they haven’t been what I was looking for. Every time I have been in the stand this year I have had my son Tye with me other than just a handful of times. We have had a ball and now when I’m in a tree without him I miss him being there.
I just got back from my Kansas bow hunt and after the monster I got last year, I had high hopes for this year. As usual, before we left the weather looked really promising; but as it normally goes, that all changed. Still, as I always say I am off and am there to hunt I just take what the good Lord gives me and hunt as hard as I can.
My buddy, Mick, put my camera up a couple of weeks before I got there and although we had a few nice bucks on camera, most of them were a little young for what I came to Kansas for. I just keep reminding myself that I’m in Kansas and you never know. The big deer I killed last year I had never got a picture of. The first few hunts were a little slow but I knew that it could happen any minute. On the third morning I checked my camera I had in the area on the way in and liked what I saw!
I had a big 10-point show up and it was the kind of deer that I came to Kansas for. He had been in there on the feeder pretty much all night off and on, so I felt pretty confident he was still in the area. I was on pins and needles all morning just knowing that sucker was going to show up any minute. For some reason, I guess you would say because I got lazy, I sat down a few minutes and as luck would have it guess who showed up. I hadn’t been sitting down but a minute or two when I heard something behind me. The wind was blowing pretty good so I looked over my right shoulder and didn’t see anything but when I eased around and looked over my left shoulder there he was inside of 10-yards just looking around like he was on a Sunday stroll. Well that was about the time my heart kicked into overdrive and my mind started trying to figure out what to do now.
I waited, thinking he was going to stay on the trail that would take him out straight in front of me, which would allow me to get back on my feet and grab my bow. Well, doing what big deer are known to do, he did the opposite. He came even closer and ended up right under me in my backside. I had my eyes cut pretty much to the back of my head trying to see where he was so I would know when to make my move. When he got to where I could see him he was walking away and got to my feet and got a grip on m bow in one smooth motion. The downfall to this plan was he was straight down wind by this time and the gig was up. He didn’t just blow out of there like he was scared to death but he got enough of my wind to know he didn’t want to be there anymore.
It was good that I knew that deer was in the area but the bad thing was he set the standard and I couldn’t get him off my mind. I kicked myself for the next few days about sitting down that morning. I hadn’t sat down the few days before that and I definitely didn’t sit down after that – but that two minutes cost me on this year’s hunt. I had shots at a couple of smaller bucks that now I wish I would have shot; but that’s part of it, I guess. That why they call it hunting and the good thing is – I know he will be that much bigger this time next year!
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