NHAngler Fishing BLOG

After a couple of hours of walking yesterday I stopped at the edge of a swamp on a treeline. Hopes were high that something would come out of that tall grass and thick grouping of birch trees. Trails all over the place in and out and so I setup by a couple of big trees for cover. I pictured this scene where they would come out of that puckerbrush like ghosts floating out in front of me, pausing to check out the treeline and give me a shot as if they were posing for self portraits at the photo studio.

I hear footsteps coming behind me and thought, wow, this guy is noisy. I turned around expecting another hunter then see the tail. I could not tell which trail it was on nor the size as it was on the other side of a shallow depression blocking my view. That is when I realized he was downwind of me – which was about the same time he did as well. He paused (out of sight) then his walk became a jaunt but to my surprise was heading right by me. My heart was beating fast as I was coming to grips with the thought that I was going to get my shot at a giant whitetail. Thick, heavy, stocky build and almost no neck to this big head with 8-10 points. His head was like a perfect triangle. This was a big beautiful brute and even better, IT NOW WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

What happens next is where I want to go back in time and give myself a little intel and maybe even a kick in the pants. As it was strutting through, I knew I needed to stop it in order to get at a shot. I grab my grunt call (with the hand that also has my trigger finger on it – see where this is going?) and give it one short blow. It stopped and turned to look at me giving me a full broadside shot at him. That was if I was standing and holding my gun ready to shoot. I was not and missed my best chance yet at a big buck.

Lesson learned. …and only took 15 or so seconds.