I'll try and keep this as long as possible.....
Back story: I've been watching the same 8 bucks for the past two months, patterning them. They've come in consistently around 1800, traveling the same direction, all together. Two does with their fawns consistently come in at 1530 and bed down in the shade in the back of the field.
Saturday morning: In the blind at 0445. Two does came in around 0700, walked by at 20 yds. That's the excitement of the morning hunt.
Saturday afternoon: In the blind at 1400, to get ahead of the does that come in at 1530. Check! They walked by and stared at me a half a dozen times and walked off. Sweating my balls off, sitting on a stupid HD bucket with a "hunting cushion lid" (PSA...these suck)
Fast forward to 1730 - 8 doe with fawns in tow come in on my left side, 10 minutes later 3 of the bucks in the bachelor group are following them so I shift myself in the blind thinking they're all coming in...at the same time, my two horses decide to walk out in the field. They're still about 60 yds from my blind. Right at 1800, as predicted, all of my target bucks come out on my right side....heartrate is now at about 160ish.....I whip around and position myself for a 30 yd shot. Just then, my horses decide to walk up and stand in front of the blind and LITERALLY LOOK INSIDE "Hi Dad, whatcha doin". The bucks see this and make a hard left at 50 yds and one by one start jumping the neighbors fence. The 150"+ buck I've been targeting is one of them. I start snorting at them in desperation. He jumped back on to my property and is staring at me at 50+ yds. I need to get him closer to get an ethical shot off. He turns and starts walking away. I had no shot because of the horses, so I jump out of the blind and am standing in the trees, dial in 50 yds on my sight and held on his left shoulder and let'r fly. He jumped as if I may have hit him. Turns out I missed him by 3" low. Freaking shaking and about to murder two horses....I walk back to gather my things and head in. 15 doe and 2 bucks still standing in the field as I walk by them at 40 yds. Not a care in the world...the two bucks finally blew at me and ran off.
I went from sweating my balls off, sore a$$ from 8 hrs on a stupid bucket to 10 minutes of my heart beating out of my throat and a missed opportunity.
That's why its called hunting I guess. Took two beers and about 30 minutes to settle down. We all lived to fight another day. "A bad day hunting is better than a good day at work"
I've got my horses listed in the classifieds if anyone is interested. Free delivery.
(I'm fist bumping everything today)
