Biscuits and Gravy a view from Ohio

Friday in Ohio was rainy and cool. The forecast for the weekend is for clearing skies and cold nights and warm days. Perfect for a weekend hunt. My brother John and I leave Dayton around 5:50 PM with my beagle Gravy riding shotgun with me. We arrive a couple of hours later in camp in Chillicothe.

Saturday morning starts at 5:15 am. I fix some coffee to get the day started off right. Jeff stops buy on his way in to hunt turkeys. It is quit cold, around 35 degrees, and so foggy we can hardly see 5 feet. Time to go, Jeff heads for the food plot to the west, John heads past it to the north, as for myself I am going to do some scouting around the food plot at the �Y� area. I really did not find much of interest in that area. Very grown up and very hard to walk through. I went back to camp and started a fire. John and Jeff came back to camp. Jeff did not have any luck with the turkeys; John saw a couple of coyotes run past him. Jeff headed home and John and I went for breakfast at Grannies restaurant. When we got back, John decided to hunt up on his stand on the north food plot, and I decided to head up north to hunt for the evening. This will be the first time actually getting into my tree stand this year. I take everything to my tree on the quad, then take it back up the trail about 200 yards and park it off the side of the trail. When I reach the area where I had off loaded my equipment, I sprayed some fox urine to help cover my scent. I am finally set up by 3:30, and settle in just to watch and wait. I really love the smell of decaying leaves in the fall. It is v-ery peaceful, so I take a short nap. About 5 PM I look down the trail to the north, and there stands a deer with its head down. Slowly as it comes towards me, I can see that it is a very small spike buck. I decide to take his picture. Just after snapping the first shot, I notice another deer behind him. Both are traveling towards me really slow. I can hear a turkey off to the south of me gobbling, and coming my way. The second deer must be his sister. Both are very small probably yearlings just kicked out by their mother. I spend some time taking pictures of them as they stay right in front of my stand about 25 yards out. The little buck catches me with the camera taking his picture. He can not figure out what I am, but he decides to head back the way he came. The doe stays and nibbles some vegetation and wonders where the other deer went. She keeps looking for him. Finally he returns, and again I try to get his picture. I tried to zoom in on him but hit the button that turns on the flash. This he really did not like, and he started down into the creek bottom. I took another picture, and another flash, and away they both went now off to the west at an easy pace, but moving away. Once again all is quite. Again I hear the turkey. This time he is noticeably closer, but still quit a way off to my left. I relax and enjoy the scene. From out of the creek bottom to my left comes a very load gobble from that turkey, he is coming straight up the bank towards me. I reach for the camera. He gets to the trail, gets one whiff of that fox urine and goes bananas. Clucking and running he heads north, making a very distressed sound. Finally he calms down and so do I. I have been watching several squirrels in the trees and on the ground all afternoon. There was a noise behind me, probably that squirrel again. I turn around slowly only to see a huge 8 pointer slowly walking behind me. This is not good, as that is the direction my scent is going. I think he is going to wind me at any moment. He is heading off now to my left following a game trail to the woods. I decide to at least try to get his picture. I know everyone back in Dayton will want to see this big guy. Just as I am raising the camera to shot he turns to his right and will be passing my stand within about 25 yards. Oh no what to do now. I try to put the camera away. He snaps his head up and looks directly at me. Eye to eye we stare at each other. He puts his head down, then snaps it back up and again we stare eye to eye. I still have a camera half in my pocket and my crossbow is laying on the stand in front of me. Finally he puts his head down and starts to walk on down the hill. I finally put the camera away, and slowly reach for my bow. I find a shooting lane he will cross as he walks step by step, finally I have him in the scope, I lead him as he is walking. I take the shot, watch the arrow in the scope hit the mark. Crack the sound of a broad head hitting bone. He had stopped just as I released the arrow. This caused me to still be leading him too far forward and to miss an excellent shot. I can see the arrow sticking out of his shoulder as he darts across the creek and off into the woods. I hear what sounds like him crash. I hope it stopped him. I wait awhile, then climb down the tree. I make my way back to my quad and retrieve a large flashlight. It is now dark and about an hour after I took the shot. I work my way over to when I heard him crash. I can not find anything. No blood, no arrow anywhere. I try to see where he tried to cross the fence. Suddenly there is a deer in the dark blowing at me about 10 yards away. I turn off the light and sneak out of the woods.
I arrive back in camp, and tell my story to John. I decided to let the deer lay all night as it is supposed to be in the low to mid 40�s. We headed off for supper. Finally lights out around 11 PM.

The next morning, more coffee and I am off to the tree stand. I decided to hunt until around 9 AM, then look for that buck. That little spike buck comes in behind me around 8 o�clock. He walks directly to my stand, and then finally he winds me. Off he goes, and a couple of snorts and blows latter he is gone. I do not see anything the rest of the morning. I get down and start over to where I figure that buck went. There is nothing. There is not a sign of anything anywhere. I look everywhere and there is nothing. I have reached the point of giving up when John calls on the radio to see if I have found him. I tell him that I have not seen a thing. Oh wait just a minute. I have blood. Come on down here and help. I found a very clear trail leading out to the west. This trail is very easy to follow. By the time John arrives I am about 250 yards away half way up a hill. I tell him to bring a hunting knife to field dress this deer with as I do not have one with me. He thinks I am too confident, but he has not seen the blood trail I have been following. He catches up to me, and together we continue the tracking. Finally at the top the trail runs out completely. We had tracked him for the best part of three hours before we called it quits and headed back to camp. Damn.