“As I progress with my mental strength training, my emotional intelligence studies, strength training, archery, working the ol’ “day job”… and continuing to learn about this writing gig… yeah, I guess testing a constitution needs to happen, you need to come to the end of yourself at some point to “know your limitations”.” ~ Me, previous article
Capturing a life journey sure does have a lot of deja vu’s.
I thought being physically gassed walking out of the woods was the test.
Turns out… I was wrong.
Ever hear the old saying, “A chain is only as strong as the weakest link”??
But… nobody can tell you how much tension the chain can take before that weak link snaps.
Even my own quote can’t tell you where “the end of yourself” is.
They also say, “See a man under pressure and you see the real man.”
Well… I found my weak link… it snapped… and I got a good look at myself under some good pressure.
All around an almost perfect hunting scenario.
The spot I found has plenty of deer sign, it’s located in an agricultural area, and is a public hunting area. I thought the deer would be… or act more pressured.
Turns out… with all of that activity… those deer don’t give a flip.
Wish I was convinced of that a tad sooner.
So there I was… sitting in the perfect tree, with my perfect homemade “Daisy Doe Decoy” out front (made her out of a Vizio t.v. box) in perfect weather.
Got in my stand two minutes early… “and all is well.”
Except for all of the farming that was going on. It was loud… all day.
The farmers were loud and the woods… “vayyery vayyery quiet.”
Too quiet. There was no activity. No birds. No squirrels. There was a little mouse scurrying around, and that was it.
I started talking to myself. Actually, all day I had two conversations going on.
1st thought… “All this farm machinery must have the deer thinking, “We’ll just lay low a day or two till they are done harvesting.””
2nd thought… Me1… “I just know one is going to come from behind me.” Me2… “Stop that! There’s nothing back there. The beans are picked all the way to the highway and from here to the truck is just an open grass field, nothing is coming FROM THERE!”
All day, back and forth with those thoughts.
Then I convinced myself, “Nothing is moving, get down now, beat the dark, ease out, come back tomorrow.”
So… I turned around in my stand and faced the tree, removed my arrow release and placed it in my pants pocket. I removed my arrow from the bow string and placed that back into the quiver I had hanging off of the tree. Then I hung the bow on it’s hook, and with my hands free now, I released my safety harness.
As I finished rolling the harness up, I placed it in my pocket, and at the same time took one last look over at Daisy.
And HOLY CRAP! What to my wondering eye’s did appear but Ol’ Hoss him self!
Coming from where? Yep! From behind, crossing that wide open grass field!
I would never have seen him though if I hadn’t turned completely around. But he wasn’t heading my way.
I saw a flash of horn and started to… hurriedly… get all of my equipment back out.
When I looked again… he was gone! Wait! He’s standing still… looking right at Daisy!
Here we go!
I turned right side out by the time he started moving… I couldn’t believe Daisy the Decoy was working.
You don’t get that big and old in a high pressure area like that by being dumb though.
Everything was perfect… except for the one angle that that old boy decided to take on the way in!
From behind again, and straight in, circling her like he’s supposed to… but from the wrong side… where, because it was behind me… I hadn’t altered any branches on the tree’s or thinned out any of the brush… I had all of the other three angles covered with good shooting lanes… according to Daisy’s position. It was a beautiful set up.
Tank just wasn’t playing by the rules.
I don’t know if you’ve ever hunted deer with a bow before but you want them close… and it all happens so fast.
He never did enter any shooting lane. Where he decided to stop had me turning all the way to my left, as far as I could.
With only one small window of opportunity.
Enter… the Snap!
He didn’t give me the one good opportunity and my heart and mind raced away… “He’s backing up! Crap!”
The snap was… a mind snap… a little thought link actually… “I’ll never get another chance, it’s now or never, he’s the buck of my life time!”
Can you sense the desperation in that thought? See the poverty stricken mindset at it’s finest?
I rushed the shot. Hit him in what is called “no mans land” a small space between the spine and lungs, “no mans land” there is nothing there… no artery’s, no organs, No Bueno!
I was sick. “The buck of my life.”
I thought, over the course of the last few years, that I had come to understand that weak link in my mind, and have learned techniques to help myself strengthen it.
Just must haven’t run into the type of pressure that a fully mature whitetail buck at 15yds can put on a guys links.
A lifetime of pressure.
I did my due diligence in follow up tracking… spending that night, and all the next day trying to find him. All the experts, blogs, and anatomy diagrams indicate he will recover from the wound.
The last I seen him he was standing on a four wheeler trail, walking out the way he walked in… like he owned the joint.
“The beast… [IS NOT] dead… long live the beast.” ~ Ted Nugent
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