End of the First Buck Quest

At a little after one in the afternoon, Sara and I made our way to the treestand with high hopes for the evening hunt. 

We got in the stand and got situated as the skies cleared from the morning of rain. With high hopes that the deer would be moving and we would have an evening filled with action.

However, after a couple of hours of watching, with not even the sight of a squirrel. We both were beginning to question if we were going to see anything at all. 

Then it happened, the most exciting event of the entire afternoon. A downy woodpecker seemingly dropped out of the canopy of trees and landed, clinging to the side of a mossy stump. We both watched as he pecked the stump and chirped, as it was the most entertaining thing either of us had witnessed all day.

A few minutes had passed as he pecked at the stump and I had lost the little interest I obtained when he first landed. So I yet again scanned what had been lifeless woods just hoping to catch a flash of a deer.

I watched the thicket to the left and when I looked back toward the valley in front of us, a doe stepped into a large opening. I quickly grabbed the binoculars and checked to make sure it was in fact a doe. Sara turned and looked at her as I scanned the brush behind her, with a feeling that she wasn’t alone. 

I scanned about forty yards behind her when I saw a head and antlers sticking over a treetop. As quickly as my brain processed what I was seeing I opened the window and said “There's a buck”. Sara turned around on her seat and by the time she turned I already had the gun resting in the window for her thinking that he was going to cross the gap very quickly in an attempt to catch up to the doe.

The doe walked over behind some trees and the buck slowly followed. He stopped right before the big opening with a tree in front of him and only his head and hindquarters were visible.

I told Sara to let him get into the opening and that we were going to have time, based on them not moving very fast at all. 

It was all just a matter of two steps. The only problem was, the two that he had taken led him back into the brush. It seemed as though he was going to come up the hill beside us. So as quietly as I could, I reached over and opened the side window in case he did head in that direction 

He got into the brush about forty yards away and began feeding. I pulled my phone out wondering how much time we had left and the clock said it was 4:15. Leaving us a touch over an hour for him to make his move. 

The wind pulled up the hill right in our faces and I knew eventually she would be able to get a shot. He fed in a ten-yard circle for fifteen minutes before moving closer to us and feeding to the right, then the left, and once again to the right. 

We both would almost laugh when he would near an opening and then turn back. And although I was hoping he too would realize that the doe he had followed was long gone, it had never seemed to cross his mind. 

Finally, he began working to the left, at a faster pace than he had moved in half an hour.

Every single gap that he would cross, he seemed to always go just on the other side of a big stump or treetop. Blocking what we were concerned was going to be her last chance for a shot.

He got behind another thick patch of brush and Sara moved to the other window. Just as she had, he turned back towards us and jumped a log coming straight at us. 

He began walking and was closing in on thirty yards when he finally stepped into an opening. Sara looked to find him in the scope and he caught the little movement she had made. Locking his eyes and ears on us, Sara and I froze like statues, as did he for what seemed like far too long. 

Our stare-off had ended and he was nervous and quickly turned and started walking straight away. I told Sara if he turned at all that was going to be the shot she was going to get. He made it about ten yards and began to quarter up the hill. 

I stopped him and the gun cracked as he jumped into the air and ran about fifteen yards stopping and standing while he looked all around. I thought she had missed and quickly stepped over and ran the bolt so the casing didn't fly out and make any noise. 

He began trotting down the hill and hit another opening. I said “Hey” and he stopped and yet again the gun had cracked, this time I was certain of a hit and he ran down the hill. 

I watched as he stopped yet again, only this time his legs were beginning to get wobbly and he crashed. Our forty-five-minute wait had finally ended. 

I hugged and congratulated her, and we slowly got out and began walking down to find him. 

When we arrived at him we got pictures and filled out the tag putting an end to the quest for her first buck.