Back from a 9 days at deer camp

[Ol Arky]

I'm getting to ol' for this thing everyone calls hunting.. :wave: :mrgreen: :wave:
Long story short version.
8:13 (checked my trusty Timex) opening morning of our modern gun deer season... Had a big ol' good un (tall and wide for our neck of the woods) walking towards me in my right side shooting lane (now known as The Hole in the Wall)... Crosshairs on him... Safety off... Waiting patiently for him to make that fatal turn into either thicket on either sides of the lane... It's happened a bunch of time before without fail and a bunch of bucks have met their maker when they did so... Did I forget to say I don't really like frontal shots on our little whitetails we have in south Arkansas... Anyway, the lane is 265 yards long and he came out at the far end of it... Closer and closer and closer he came until he got to within somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 yards... He stopped and looked to the right and then back to the left showing me he was a GOOD 8 point at least... Still waiting patiently for his body to do them same... Then he decided to nibble a little on the attempt of a food plot we had prepared for the deer and turkey... Nibble here. Nibble there. Nibble everywhere never turning his body... Patients wearing thin and I was getting a bit tired of holding my 270 Tikka T3 lite in the same position for as long as I had... I figured he was enjoying his nibbling so ol' wore out Ol' Arky lifted his head and leaned back just a tad and catching a split second of relax time... If you haven't figured out by now Murphy's Law took charge... What could go wrong relaxing a couple of seconds??? It did cause when I settled the crosshairs back on him all I could see was the north half of a south bound buck disappearing into the thicket on the right side of the shooting lane never to return to that spot the rest of the 8 days I set there and watched for him and watched for him and watched for him...
Now don't get me wrong, I did see a lot of other deer of which several were small legal bucks... But I just could bring myself to even lift up my trusty rifle much less put the crosshairs on one...
I did get to hunt with one of my younger grandsons and just got a text from my oldest son that my little buddy killed a 10 point at 2:55 this afternoon.. :upthumb: :upthumb: :upthumb:
My 9 days at deer camp are now complete...
I had the privilege to get to go and now have the privilege of knowing my little buddy has killed the deer he wanted to kill while hunting with me but it ended up being with his dad... :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
So for me, hope to go back Thanksgiving weekend. Watch that "Hole in the Wall" along with the "Valley of Death" and the other unnamed lane for now a while longer and see if ol' Lucky will show up again and hope that Ol' Arky will be the lucky one when he does...
And yes I haven't felt good BUT I'm gratefully for the privilege to be there and enjoy being there....

If your wondering how I came up with "Hole in the Wall", I noticed while watching ol Lucky walk down the lane that this year 2 large pine trees have spread there limbs making a canopy over the lane looking like a circle... So ol' Lucky walked thru the "Hole in the Wall" and lived through it... :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

To be continued!!!!!! :wave: :wave:       

 

[DTP]

Glad to have you back, Phil!
You?ll get another shot at then and congrats to your little buddy! :upthumb:

 

[cnelk]

Great re-cap Phil.
Get 'em next time!

 

[cohunter14]

Glad you were able to get out there Phil! So, hindsight being 20-20, would you have taken the shot earlier?

 

[Bowhunter1]

Glad you made it out Phil. Thanks for sharing your story.

Look on the bright side. You have a target buck to go after next time. I hope you get him.

 

[colorado russ]

Happy to hear you able to get to deer camp and hunt with the kiddos.  Buck isn't safe if he comes back out this coming weekend!  Good luck!

 

[Ol Arky]

Glad you were able to get out there Phil! So, hindsight being 20-20, would you have taken the shot earlier?

I thought about it all the time he was making his way up the lane. And when he stopped too feed a little I had serious thoughts of shooting him and was moving my trigger finger toward the trigger but just couldn?t bring myself to take that shot on such a great buck. I may never have another chance at him or another like him but have no regrets of not shooting when he looked up a few times while he was feeding. I did kill a doe several years ago with the same shot but was a lot more steadier then than I am now. Time will tell if I get him but he?s the only one I?ll shoot with my second tag but I do have 2 tags left.

 

[Ol Arky]

Well my deer season is done and as far as  know Ol' Lucky is still being himself.. I didn't help filling the freezer either.. So no deer for me.. I guess I was too obsessed with the one that got away.. But I did enjoy all the time I had to spend with family and friends at the deer camp..
I did take a few pictures of "The Hole in the Wall" and one was very interesting..

The Hole in the Wall on a bright and sunny day..



Same except on a cloudy day after a night of rain..



Tell me if you see what I saw on that cloudy day.. You may have to enlarge it a bit..

 

[Rdub]

nice to know someone is watching you Phil. May you have many more seasons to get that one that got away.

 

[Ol Arky]

nice to know someone is watching you Phil. May you have many more seasons to get that one that got away.

Looking forward to next season since they gave me a bit more leash to play with later in the season this year... I still have to have a older family member at camp but they let me go to my stand alone and even allowed me to drive from home to camp the last trip..