quiksilver

So, it's WVarchery season two years ago,I'm hunting a new place with a friend of mine, daylight's approaching fast andI'm feverishlysearching for a tree that's straight enough to climb that has a good view of this little hollow. I spent what seemed like an hour wandering in circles, finding 10 million trees that were:
[ol][*]Too fat[*]Too skinny[*]Bad view[*]Too many limbs[*]Too open[*]Too crowded[/ol]
Then,I wind up getting really mad and climbing a tree thatlooked"O.K."-Next, Isaw throughabout 90little limbs before I realize that my stand is slanted, so I go back down, re-adjust, and re-climb. It's already daylight.

So there I sit,absolutely soaked in sweat and boiling mad - you can't see anything from this god-forsaken tree. Deer are moving all around me, and I can't see a blessed thing.

Ispot a "perfect" tree75 yards away on a small bench with a trail passing under it, soI opt to get down and go over there anyway. I'm halfwaythrough lowering mybow to the ground when a deer spooks and runs away from behind, andI thought I saw a glimpse ofrack. I reel in mybow like a madman, and get all tangled up in the rope like an idiot. I really don't know why, because it's not like it was coming back.

It stops about 125 yards out in a laurel thicket and snorts for the next half hour, just mocking me. I can't see the miserable thing, itcontinues snorts endlessly. I get madder by the minute.

At this point, I'msuicidally mad andall tangledup in my bow rope.I untangle the rope and race down the crappy tree and upgood tree.I get settled in, and try to pullup thebow and drop the rope. So, I sit around and brew for a minute or two, muttering words that would make a sailor blush. I feltlike Ralphie in the Christmas Story. I go back down and get the rope, re-climb and settle in again.

I see3 deer coming, and they all pass directlyunder the "crappy" tree. 3 buck.

After two hours of sitting there not seeing anything, somesmall game hunterin a pumpkin suit comes down out of the field and takes a huge dump about 75 yards above me. I don't know where this guy came from.

Beaten, I just conceded the loss. I lowered the bow, packed my gear and hit the road.

Double Creek

LMAO!!! That's funny..... I can relate to those type days......... Nothing worse than looking for that perfect tree

MO_Bowhnter

Wow's that's a funny story but this was the best part. I had a guy come through on a bicycle pulling his treestand and stuff behind him on one of those yellow carts that carry kids. Then he hit a rock and took a big spill all about 60 yds from my stand. I almost busted up laughing.

Bird Hunt Dog

Great story......"When it rains it storms" or so they say!!!!

Last fall during the peak of the rut I decided to do a all day'er if I could stand it. I sat in one stand for the first four hours and had a couple of small bucks and a doe come by at 13yds. The wind started to switch so I decided to change stand locations. I switched stands and had a doe come by a while later. I was patiently waiting for sunset to arrive(Usually the best time of day). Rightbefore the sun started to set myneighbor decided he was going to Pheasant hunt the field that I was hunting next tonot knowing I was hunting because my truck was across the river. To make a long story short Isat all day to get chased out of my tree my other hunters at the best time of the day

atlasman

Day 1 of archery season last year I was PUMPED and ready to hit the woods. I could barely sleep and we were hunting virgin territory in the morning........no scouting allowed but I had my spot picked out from an aerial map and road scouting. Well, I misjudged the distance to the back woods row and I walked forever before getting there. When I did I realized that 10 yards into the woods it drops off on a 50 degree angle.........I am screwed. I almost kill myself getting down the slippery hillside and hunt the bottom near a creek and was actually on a nice deer run..........saw nothing. Walked all the way back to the truck at lunch and when we came back I decided to set up on the corner of the soy bean field and see what happens. It started raining when I was climbing and by the time I got settled it was RAINING!!!!!! Never stopped and I was soaked to the bone. All I saw was flock after flock of geese honking away as they flew overhead. What started as the highest of hopes ended with my butt dragging and spirts damp.........make that soaking wet

We were back at it the next day.............some days you just kick yourself for not staying in bed........but you know the day you do everyone will tell you there were deer crawling all over your tree

cardeer

I was sitting on my chair on Pa state no game lands and 2 guys knocked me off my chair threw my canes in the briars and punched and kicked me ,then flattened my tires .All because i was using a x=bow

by23856

Well, I can't top that one, but I had one that was aggravating, but ultimately more embarrassing, for me.

I was hunting in a new spot that I scouted the year before but never had a chance to hunt that year. So a year later I go in before dark, find a tree with faded flagging tape around it that I had put up the year before. I climb it and am sitting there until 9:30 and thinking about a clump of four trees that I had marked the year before also. Of course, the grass is always greener, so I finally convince myself that I should go find those trees.

I climb down- Sweat. I climb up hill out of woods- Sweat. I walk along the perimeter of the woods, trying to remember where to enter the woods to find that clump of four trees- Sweat. Try two places. They're both wrong. Sweat some more. Finally find them. Climb one with much difficulty because it is slightly slanted at the bottom. As I'm climbing, a respectable and shootable 8 point runs down off the hill30 yards off and heads away from me. As I watch him go I notice something shineyon the groundpast where he ran, maybe 40 to 45 yards away. I finallyget up the tree and settledonly to realize I lost my bino's somewhere along the line. Great. I'll never find them, I think. But at least I'm hunting again, 200 yards or more from where I was and in a much better spot.

Not long after getting settled in, the wind shifts, blowing straight away towards where I'm facing. A doe comes around the bend, smells me and turns and run.

After another half hour another unseen deer snorts and runs.

I get down and go to inspect the shiney object 40 yards away that the 8 pointer ran past. You guessed it- they were my binoculars at the base of the tree I was originally sitting in. As an adult, I have never been so off on where I was in the woods before. I was mad and embarrassed by my disorientation at the same time.

dkbs

Hello

Two years agoearly in the seasonI went to a favorite tree of mine, that I hadn't been to yet that year. The big tree hada smaller tree growing right next to it and so I start climbing some steps on the big tree and when I'm up about fifteen feet I usethe smaller trees branches for steps.. Well when I get to about twenty feet where I place my stand, I have hornets flying everywhere, stinging me. Immediately I begin a very rapid descent via the branches and steps(I might have missed a couple).
Once on the ground I run from the tree. Looking back,I then for the first time notice a soccerball sized hornets nest hanging from some branches on the smaller tree which I used for climbing into my tree. I then made a fast dash back to the tree to untie my bow which was ready to be pulled up.
When I arrived back at home my wife asked "what happened to you"? Because I usually swell pretty good when I get stung. I probably had over a couple dozen stings. I counted nine on my left wrist/hand alone. Most stings seemed to be in the head/neck area. I'm bald headed so that gave them a big target. I felt like crap the rest of the night, but what bothered me worst was giving up my favorite tree for the season.
The following saturday, at dawn, dressed in insulated coveralls, rubber boots, leather gloves, wide brimed hat and a head net all duct taped to each other, I returned to claim my tree. First I used a full can of foaming hornet/wasp spray, then with a pole trimmer I cut the nest down and stomped it flatter than a pancake. Finally I used the second can of spray just because I had it.

You can bet that I thoroughly looked into the foilage of the trees I intend to climb the following year.

Dan

mobow

3 years ago. I had bowhunted several years, but never even drawn back, let alone deployed an arrow. Anyway, we head down to our farm, and my buddy tells me he has been seeing lots of deer in a particular stand, and that I should sit there. OK. Sounds good to me. I sit there about 2 hours, and the woods opens up. I mean, there are deer everywhere. Between shaking, a heart attack, and shutting my eyes, ( [&:]) I counted 21 deer of various ages, and sizes. At this point, all were does, but I don't care. Well, I wait patiently for what seems like forever to get a good shot at one without 20 others looking around. Finally, a 20 yard, broadside, not looking, not moving shot. I get drawn back, settled in, calmed down, and release. Right over her back. About that time, they all look up and to my left, so I look left, and 2 bucks are coming down the hill across the ridge, heading right for us. Holy cow. The shakes start all over again. The first blows right by, but I get the second to stop. I shoot, he jumps the string, arrow glances off of his back, he runs full speed, and the last I saw, he was upside down broadside smack into a tree. But, he must have tripped or something, because I know I missed. Longer story short, I emptied my quiver, all 6 arrows in the next 1/2 hour, and never a hit.

I don't know if that was my worst day, or my best day. I have never before seen that many deer in one spot before. Let alone shoot at six of them at one time. But since then, I have take my paractice much more seriously. [8D]

Whitetailbuck85

Four years ago, when I began bow hunting, I shot a doe. Being a novice, I did not give her enough time and we ended up chasing her all night. We even looked the next morning and never found her. I kicked myself for a long time. The deer Gods have been hexing me ever since. I shoot more now with my bow than ever before but I never get a shot at a deer. Here is what happened last year.

I had to be out of the woods by 8:30 that morning and by 8:10 I was starting to get antsy. It was windy and I had seen no deer all morning. I decided to stand, draw back in two of my shooting lanes, and let down just to get the feel. I hung my bow back up, removed my arrow and snapped it back in the quiver. As I heard the snap of the arrow, a deer bolted from under my stand. It was five feet from the base of my stand, under a small tree. I never saw it come in(it came in from behind me) and couldn't hear it because of the wind. I tried to get it to come back but to no avail.

I have a different story for each year since I pushed that first doe. Each is more pathetic than the last. I hope this is the year the deer Gods give me a break. I'm still looking for my first bow harvest.