|
The Booner's Early Years Part III
By Brad
“HawgHunter65” Gordon
Realizing my
sanctuary was now discovered I began to plan
instinctively for other secluded bedding areas
that would ensure my survival and give me the
advantages of wind, vision, hearing and escape
routes. The early snow melted that day and I
spent most of it awake watching to see if the
man returned. Night descended and during my
nightly forays into the fields of food I was
using, I would eat quickly, gorging myself and
then spend the rest of the night looking for
thick impregnable pockets of cover out of the
way. These new bedding areas needed elevation,
primarily wind direction, multiple escape routes
and thick cover at my back with the new ability
to see great distances of half a mile to a mile
unobstructed. Knowing that thick cover was a
must for me to escape into and it would allow me
to outmaneuver predators that sought the antlers
upon my head or the flesh of my body.
Finding a new site
for daytime hiding in my journeys, I spent a
nervous first day napping on top of a new high
ridge bramble filled bedding area of almost two
acres in size. To my back were several
drainages leading into a thick water filled
swamp that was at least two hundred acres in
size with a series of small streams draining the
swamp into a large river which formed the
boundary of the swamp’s back edge. Most
important of all, no scent of man in the area
and a view that allowed me to gaze out in front
of me over a valley filled with small picked
fields of corn and soybeans at least a half mile
away. My eyes searched for the bright lighted
predator trails and there were none as far as I
could see. I did notice as I climbed the steep
ridge for the first time several brightly
colored horizontal lines on tree trunks that I
was to learn said, “Nature Center-No Hunting.”
Behind me as I turned my head in the brambles on
the other side of the river I could see several
standing unpicked corn fields, picked soybean
fields, and joyously a large clover field which
was my favorite.
After about a month
I began to come off hyper alert status in my new
bedding area as I learned that by wading the
various small streams in the swamp and swimming
the river nightly, I could come and go to the
different fields without leaving a trace of my
sign except in the fields themselves that I fed
in. My entry trail and exit trail was covered
by running water even as winter came and went.
Several times during nightly travels I saw
single, pairs and family packs of coyotes which
did not test me probably because of my body size
and large antlers on my head. Being in my early
prime of life and not weakened in any way the
predators recognized I would be a severe test
for them and far weaker prey existed for them
without risk of injury or death.
Winter passed
without predator incidence of any kind, my right
antler fell off one late January night on the
way back from feeding in the unpicked corn field
as it brushed against some low hanging branches
over a scrape I was checking out. The unbalance
of my drop tine left antler felt unnerving to me
and I pushed it against a sapling on the stream
bank until it too fell off into the water about
100 yards from the swamp edge before my elevated
ridge climb on the back side of my bedding area.
Spring came slowly
that fourth year of my life but my antler bases
exploded with growth with numerous sticker
points, split brow tines and my main beams
stretched out 25 and 26 inches in length with
again a main frame 5x5 with a large left drop
tine and the beginning of a 5” drop tine on the
right antler. My weight exceeded 250# that late
spring due to my unpicked corn field, a mild
winter and minimal energy expenditure during the
winter. I was the largest and oldest buck in my
territory as the deer season was long and there
was no quality management of deer in my
surrounding area. When I met other bucks in the
fields or my travels at night they gave ground
immediately as I out weighed most of them by
over 100#. I was king of my domain that summer,
deliberate and calculating in movement, regal in
gait, always on alert, twice the size of most
does, with a crown of horns on my head that
dwarfed the other bucks present.
Fall came with its
glorious color hues of red and yellow in the
tree leaves above my head and the first frost of
the year. Danger came to me from two separate
angles of attack that fall, a challenge from
another buck and the renewed hunting of man. My
first test came in early October as I left the
soybean field a bright flash of light exploded
in my face at about 20 feet just ahead of me and
I left my exit trail with a bound. Standing
motionless after my first bound I searched the
woods and trees in my immediate area for
anything unnatural for over ten minutes. Slowly
I circled the tree where the flash originated
and about 10 feet up noticed a projection from
the trunk with a small camouflage box pointing
down at the trail I had left. Further up the
tree about five more feet was a horizontal see
through platform that had not been there 3 days
ago when I had used this trail.
I carefully moved
towards the trunk of the beech tree and saw
several small projections sticking out of the
tree trunk leading upward towards the platform.
I stretched my neck slowly and curling my upper
lip sniffed the head high first projection and
picked up the faint odor of man. This man was
clever as the concentration of scent was to
faint to have occurred three days ago. I
instinctively realized he had covered his odor
somehow to lessen the strength of his scent as
to stay undetected. Turning away from the
trunk, I mentally marked the spot and vowed
never to use this trail again unless I looped in
from the downwind side past this beech tree.
Putting my nose to the ground I looked for the
man’s approach and exit trail as my mother had
taught me when I was so very young.
One needs to know
his enemy well and gather as much information
about his movements as possible. Like a bird
dog with nose to the ground I deciphered his
entry trail crosswind of the trail I was using
and his exit trail looping around the tree as to
not cross any part of my exit trail before
changing direction back crosswind to the
approach trail. The trail was faint but he had
touched a sapling and brushed against some of
the ferns in the area more than once. Some
scent particles had come from the tops of his
boots when he stepped and settled on the leaves
of small plants in the area. Several of the
trees had fresh branches cut at different
heights and when I looked back at the platform I
could see straight up without interruption of
branches or leaves. None of the branches were
left in the immediate area that I could find as
he too was clever and had carried them away.
This predator man was crafty but he had left
behind his sign for me to find and solve the
riddle of his ambush. Immediately, I avoided
this area for the rest of my life and would only
circle downwind at night at about 100 yards
checking for his scent and visitations. I would
find other tree stands of his over the next
several years, but he never learned any
different techniques in his attempted ambushes
or bright flashes that he used and I was able,
being nocturnal, to avoid him always. I learned
to stop using any existing deer trails and would
travel parallel to them just passing through an
area. I would only approach trails in the
future by looping in occasionally to scent check
to see who or what had used them.
I packed on
additional pounds to almost 300# that fourth
fall as it was a white oak acorn year and next
to young clover buds, acorns were my most
favorite food to eat and digest. My antlers
were now hard and sharp after shedding the
velvet in September and I gross scored over 190
non-typical points. My rack weighed over 12# of
solid bone as my bases expanded to over 4 inches
in diameter. At times, in the swamp’s heavy
brush or entering my bramble patch to bed my
rack would get caught and with a shake of my
head and strong neck muscles I would be able to
free myself easily. A monarch, I was to the
deer herd members, until one night in late
October, I met another traveling dominate buck
from another territory over 3 miles from my
bedding area and swamp. He was in the chase
phase of the rut and was invading my area
looking in anticipation for does in season which
still didn‘t interest me. It was about midnight
of a new moon and I was out feeding in the
clover field when he stepped out of woods
downwind of my position. His body language
showed aggression with his head down and the
hair standing up on his neck and shoulder mane
as he stiff legged his approach towards me in
the field. My second challenge of the year was
closing the distance between us quickly as I
surveyed the situation. Fight or run were my
two options as he now was 50 yards away deeply
snorting and closing fast as he turned to come
in face to face. Instantly, I saw a problem
with his rack as he was only a spike with rapier
like points almost 14” in length which with my
wide rack would be difficult to catch or lock up
with his particular antler configuration. His
weight was over 200# and his age at about 2 ˝
years, faster reflexes than I and scars on his
neck and shoulders from other fights that showed
he had more experience in combat than I.
Instincts governed
my reaction and I lowered my massive rack to
take on his spiked rack at an angle and prepared
myself for a fight to the death. We came
together with a crash and his right spike
narrowly missed my eye going through my rack as
my right beam passed below his neck. Twisting
to maintain lock up with him I strained mightily
and rolled him due to my bulk and strength onto
his left side. Instantly, he was back onto his
feet and throwing his head upward attempted to
impale me in the chest with his spikes. He
missed the target of my chest but his right
spike was driven almost 3 inches into my lower
neck as I twisted free. Dark blood gushed from
this wound and I was shaken from the impact of
this blow to my neck. Warily, I circled around
him to his left to avoid that right spike as he
seemed to favorite that weapon over his left.
His eyes rolled back into his eye sockets and I
knew he was coming again. I feinted back to my
right and as he lowered his head and lunged to
thrust with his left spike deep into my left
shoulder, I dropped to my front knees and drove
my left antler’s two longest tines deep into his
soft flank as his weight and lunge carried him
past into my rack. Ripping upwards with all my
strength in my muscular neck I opened his flank
wide. His blood and gore now gushed onto my
rack and head as I quickly regained my feet.
Grunting with pain and shock he turned slowly to
face me, chest heaving with each breath and
intestine protruding from his side.
To be continued....
Brad “Hawghunter65”
Gordon
This article is the property of TalkHunting.com
and cannot be reprinted or reproduced without
the express written permission of
TalkHunting.com
|
