Frank's Illinois Whitetail
Got to Illinois a day early and went and sat in a box stand that evening. About a half hour before the end of the day a good sized buck came out about 90 yards behind me and stayed along the ridge line in the corn field. A very impressive sight with the sun setting behind him and illuminating his antlers and profile. Waited until after dark to climb down out of the tree so as not to spook him and then walked back to the house.
The next morning I hunted a box blind in another field, but saw nothing worth trying to shoot so about 9 went back to the house.
During the day the wind picked up quite a bit and I wasn't really looking forward to climbing up in the tree stand again. 25 feet off the ground in a swaying tree just wasn't something I was looking forward to, but eventually Bill helped convince me that I needed to climb back up that tree and wait for my deer.
So I put my bow harness back on and climbed back up the tree. At times the wind was really howling and while I wasn't excessively worried about the tree falling down, it was an interesting sensation, sort of like being up in a ship's mast. I was also very worried about how I'd get off a good shot since I would be shooting from an unstable platform.
Nothing happened for the longest time until about 30 minutes before end of hunting when three does came out of the woods and started to eat in the field. Another 15 minutes went by and I was starting to think about climbing down when I looked up and there he was in the field, but behind a scraggly tree. I could see him well, but there were a lot of branches in the way so a clear shot would be tough.
Gave it another 5 minutes and he stepped into a spot that was somewhat clear through the tree and I decided to take the shot. Well, just as I went to shoot a gust of wind moved my tree and the tree in front of me and I hit a branch with my shot. Strangely enough, none of the deer moved. Guess they'd heard so many shots during the day already that one more didn't bother them.
So now began a frantic exercise in reloading a black powder rifle, yes I was shooting black powder, while swaying in a tree and hoping the whole time that my deer would stay put. Well I got the gun reloaded in record time, the buck had actually moved about 10 feet into the clear and my next shot went through both shoulders with the results shown below. Very pleased with myself that I was able to get off that shot standing in a swaying tree.
The next morning I hunted a box blind in another field, but saw nothing worth trying to shoot so about 9 went back to the house.
During the day the wind picked up quite a bit and I wasn't really looking forward to climbing up in the tree stand again. 25 feet off the ground in a swaying tree just wasn't something I was looking forward to, but eventually Bill helped convince me that I needed to climb back up that tree and wait for my deer.
So I put my bow harness back on and climbed back up the tree. At times the wind was really howling and while I wasn't excessively worried about the tree falling down, it was an interesting sensation, sort of like being up in a ship's mast. I was also very worried about how I'd get off a good shot since I would be shooting from an unstable platform.
Nothing happened for the longest time until about 30 minutes before end of hunting when three does came out of the woods and started to eat in the field. Another 15 minutes went by and I was starting to think about climbing down when I looked up and there he was in the field, but behind a scraggly tree. I could see him well, but there were a lot of branches in the way so a clear shot would be tough.
Gave it another 5 minutes and he stepped into a spot that was somewhat clear through the tree and I decided to take the shot. Well, just as I went to shoot a gust of wind moved my tree and the tree in front of me and I hit a branch with my shot. Strangely enough, none of the deer moved. Guess they'd heard so many shots during the day already that one more didn't bother them.
So now began a frantic exercise in reloading a black powder rifle, yes I was shooting black powder, while swaying in a tree and hoping the whole time that my deer would stay put. Well I got the gun reloaded in record time, the buck had actually moved about 10 feet into the clear and my next shot went through both shoulders with the results shown below. Very pleased with myself that I was able to get off that shot standing in a swaying tree.
Posted by Frank at 11/22/2011 10:59 AM 
Categories: IL, Black Powder, Illinois, Hunting, Buck, Deer
Tags: Hunting Buck Whitetail Black Powder Illinois Whitetail White Tail Muzzle loader Black Powder Buck Deer Illinois Muzzleloader
Categories: IL, Black Powder, Illinois, Hunting, Buck, Deer
Tags: Hunting Buck Whitetail Black Powder Illinois Whitetail White Tail Muzzle loader Black Powder Buck Deer Illinois Muzzleloader
Nice buck.
That's the way to "hang in there".
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