The Plan Comes Together...

I never heard him coming. I looked over and he was just there, 45 yards to my left. It was obvious by the buck’s demeanor he spotted the decoy placed just 15 yards in front of me. The buck was focused in and my set up was about to be put to the test.

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Getting ready for this season I had high hopes of not re-living 2009. In the end 09’ turned out (Persistence…), however using all of 4+ months of the season trying to catch up to the right whitetail got a tad long to say the least.

Keeping this in mind I was committed to being aggressive. Last year I learned a valuable lesson when I rattled in a bruiser to 30 yards and left my decoy sitting in the truck. This time however, in an effort to pull out all the stops, my decoy was out and ready for action. If I saw the right buck I had high hopes of bringing him in.

For those that are not aware here’s a quick decoy lesson….most can be made into a buck or a doe by simply adding or removing the antlers. They should always be placed up wind and if the decoy is a buck then it should be put in a quartering to position and if it is doe it should put in a quartering away position. Both set ups are designed to place the approaching deer in a shootable position for the hunter.

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As he walked behind a tree I grabbed the Pearson. Now at 20 yards from the decoy he was closing fast and about to deliver a serious beat down. He stopped, laid back his ears, puffed his hair, put his head down, and walked towards decoy as if the joints in his legs were missing. Hooking my release I readied for the shot.

At 8 yards the buck moved into position and I released. The Victory Vforce pin wheeled him as he circled to 20 yards before stopping to look back. Taking advantage of the opportunity I loaded up and released again. In the end, either arrow alone would have done the trick however he gave me a second opportunity so I took it. Expired, the buck lay just 45 yards from the tree.

The whole experience was amazing. I’ve seen this work before on TV but never like this in real life. From start to finish I had a front row seat and I just couldn’t have written the script any better.

With a great buck in the books the quest now turns to trying to knock off a few does and running cameras to prepare for 2011. There’s a couple of bucks on my radar that to date, I haven’t gotten any pictures of and I'd like to see where they are and what they're doing. Stay tuned, lots more season and action to come….

See you on trail!