After a season-long drought for me, I headed back to our hunt club in Summerton, South Carolina to try to fill some doe tags. The freezer is bare and the wife, who got down on me pretty hard last year for hunting so much, told me she was jones’g for some butterfly venison steaks. By December we’re hard-pressed to see anything with horns and most of the club members (6 of us) had already bagged several very nice 8-points back in October, during the rut.
Having not seen anything at a stand located in an open area not far from a field, and another fairly reliable stand Saturday morning in the woods, imagine my surprise when a dozen does shot across an adjacent field from where I was scouting Saturday afternoon. It seemed it wasn’t going to be my weekend again. So that evening I opted for a stand I’ve never hunted, way off the road and about 100 yards into the woods off a cornfield. The locals had been running dogs recently: Exhibit A, the hound that came blasting through my Saturday morning sit. And I had on video a coyote near the one field stand that was still active this late in the season. So this secluded stand seemed like the place to go.
Having settled in around 2:30 in the afternoon, it was darn near dark when this buck stepped out, the only thing I saw that evening. It was immediately larger than a doe and was just walking through the woods, not interested much in anything. I took him as he turned towards cover.
Not a monster by any measure, but I can’t help but admire him. He’s got an extra point near the left browtine and his left ear is split. Lots of character for a young buck. This 9-point with that split ear reminds me of the Primos Scarface decoy I picked up at the first season, which by the way is a remarkable success when I remember to bring it with me to the field stands. A pretty buck, and now I have an excuse to get back down there next week to pick up those steaks for the wife!
3 Comments
Congratulations. I was feeling your pain because I’m having a drought this season as well, but I don’t feel sorry for you anymore.
Nice! I shot a smaller buck than that this year and I thought the same thing – “boy this guy has a lot of character for a little fella!”
I’m just as proud of a small animal as a big one – they’re all just as hard of hunts most times.
I’m in the same boat now… I haven’t had too much time to hunt by myself, and when I have had time, I have passed on everything in hopes of a monster. Now I only have about 2 weeks to put SOMETHING in the freezer, or my wife is going to yell at me every time we have to pay for meat.