Outdoorsman and columnist Eric Davis

When it comes to hunters, many of us like to have a plan. The plan can be a simple as “Tomorrow I’m going to sit in the stand in the oak flat.” Or can be complex, like ‘I’m going to go on a 5-state trip turkey hunting next spring to shoot a Grand Slam.”

The issue is when something comes up and disrupts that plan. Just like in every other aspect of life, it not getting knocked down that is important, it is getting back up.

Almost 10 years ago when I was fresh out of college and living back at home, I decided to go deer hunting on a weekday when I was off from work. I did not get out of bed right when my alarm went off but rather laid around for a bit before heading to take a shower. This snowballed into me getting to the winery where I was hunting about the same time as I wanted to already be in a stand.

So, I decided to go to the stand with the shortest walk from where you park. As I rounded the bend in the private road where you park for that stand, I saw an SUV parked there that belonged to an older guy that knew the winery owners. I knew he was in the stand I wanted to go to. I almost went home after seeing that, but I kept on going down the road and parked at the very bottom. It had a longer walk but I decided to go to a stand we call The Stone Wall.

It was the coldest morning of the season and had no wind. I felt like I had to be scaring away every deer within 10 miles with how loud walking on the frozen leaves was. I wanted to go slow to minimize noise, but I was so late that I wanted to walk fast at the same time. After what felt like a half hour of slowly walking, I made it to the stand. Once up in the stand I realized that in my rush to get out of the house, I forgot my binoculars!

After a while, I started to hear footsteps coming through the frozen leaves above me on the hillside. I scanned but could not see what was making the noise. The walking was getting louder so I knew it was getting closer. I grabbed my rifle down from the tree hanger and turned the power on the scope up. Finally, I spotted some movement and could make out legs coming through some bushes about 80 yards away. The deer walked out from the cover, and I could tell it did not have antlers. I had a doe tag and was thinking about filling it when I heard more footsteps while watching the doe stay still. I decided to hang on and to try to see what the second deer was before shooting the doe.

After a little bit, I could see legs again in the bushes but couldn’t make out the body or head. “What a great day to forget your binoculars,” I said to myself as I squinted. The doe kept walking and made it through all my shooting lanes before dropping down a small ravine to cross a stream. I saw her come back up on the other side and knew my chances to shoot her were gone.

However, the second deer managed to walk perfectly behind bushes until the edge of the ravine. Before it could start to drop down, I pulled out my grunt tube and grunted a few times. I saw its legs all stop as soon as I called. I shouldered my rifle and tried using the scope to see if it was a buck, but it was perfectly behind a bush. I heard a twig snap in front of me and looked up to see the doe had come back to investigate the grunting.

With the second deer not moving an inch since I grunted, I said to myself a filled doe tag beats unfilled tags. So, I shifted to my right and shouldered my rifle as I took the safety off. I aimed at the shoulder of the doe and squeezed the trigger. She fell to the ground and was done for.

The crashing in the leaves from this was enough to get the second deer to take a few steps to see what was going on. When it did this, I could tell it was a buck with a good-sized body. I ran the bolt of my rifle, put the crosshairs on his shoulder, and squeezed. I watched as he too fell like a pile of bricks to the ground but rolled over the ravine edge out of sight. I gave it a few minutes and I climbed down out of the stand.

I walked up to where the buck had been since I could see the doe on the ground from the stand. I got to the drop for the ravine and saw the buck 10 feet away in the middle of the stream.

I took off almost all my clothing that I had layered up to fight the frigid temperature and dressed out both the buck and the doe. I then made two very hot and sweaty trips dragging the deer back to my vehicle. When I was all done, I was glad that I didn’t go home after seeing the other hunter’s vehicle first thing!