A Hunting Experiance

I'm sitting in a very small tree stand the third day of deer season. My doe permit is in my pocket with my hunting licenses. Its 4:25 pm and sunset is at 4:26 pm. Hunting time is over 30 minutes after sunset. I've been hunting quite a bit over the last few years. Funny thing is I have never seen a deer while I was hunting. So here I sit enjoying the woods, with all the wonderful smells and curious noises. There are a bunch of goofy squirrels running around on the ground, fighting and chattering at one another. All their noise is about to bring another hunter to the scene. I catch a glimpse of a large bird as it glides to my right. I hear a faint noise in front of me. Then the first shadow moves, a quick flick of the tail and I have seen a deer. My heart beats so loud it's hard to hear anything else. But my eyes are glued to the trees in front of me. Then from my right swoops a gray owl and lands 30 yards from me. Directly between me and the three does that emerge from the trees. What an incredible a sight. The owl is staring at me intently, while moving his head side to side. Slowly the three does walk toward me. They stop and nibble at the ground. One even begins to lick a younger ones ear. The scene is so surreal. My gun is raised but I can't get a clear shot. To many small trees and branches in the way. I follow them with my gun barrel as they go to my left. Slowly they make their way back over my left shoulder and head in the direction of my daughters’ tree stand. I text her and let her know they are coming her way. All this time the owl just sits there staring at me. Finally after they are completely out of sight he flies off in the direction the does have gone. So I wait and listen. About six minutes pass and I hear one of the does blow, alerting her companions to danger. They must have become aware of my daughter somehow. She text me, wants to know what that horrid noise was, so I tell her, they must know you are there. Then I hear a slight blowing noise on my right. I slowly turn my head towards the sound and clearly see the bone white tips of antlers. My heart stops. Suddenly I forget to breathe. The antlers go behind a tree, so I bring the barrel of my gun as far to my right as possible, for a right handed person. The antlers emerge from behind the tree with a large buck attached. I start counting points, maybe 5. Only problem is he's straight out about ten feet on my right. I can't get a bead on him. He actually looks right up in the tree. He knows something’s not right but still stands there. Finally I remember to breathe and he hears the intake of breath. He bounds toward the front of my stand about 20 yards away and stops almost perfectly broadside to look back at where the noise came from. I take my shot, as he bounds away again I take another shot and then one more as his rear end disappears into the bushes. I hear him crash through the woods, then the noise stops. I quickly call my daughter and tell her the shots she heard were me. I know I am suppose to sit for awhile so he doesn't run further away but I have to get out of the stand. Once down I call my boyfriend Kim, who is hunting about 30 minutes from me. He says he'll be on his way in a few minutes and in the meantime I walk the opposite direction of the buck to get my daughter. We looked around where I had shot at the deer but it's getting dark. Since we see no blood, we head back to my car and take a short ride to the store for more flashlights. When we get back we still can't find a blood trail. I'm really starting to get discouraged. How could I have missed? Finally Kim arrives with 3 other hunters to help us look. Within 5 minutes Kim finds the blood trail. And another 5 minutes there lays the buck. He's not a 5 pointer he's 8 points and weighs in at 190lbs. So now I have my buck. First buck ever, not bad for a 45 year old from Boothbay Harbor.

The above story will appear in a future issue of The Maine Sportsman. I wanted to share it here. There is more to the story that your average hunter wouldn't be able to understand. The Owl had a message for me, luckily I got it and my reward was the Buck. Later I returned to the area to offer my thanks to the Buck, the Owl and Mother Earth. What a wonderful experiance. The hungry were feed and soon I will have a new Drum.