I hunted the M1 stand this afternoon. Arriving just after 4:30pm in the afternoon, and staying on stand until roughly 7:45pm. After climbing up into the stand, I screwed in the bow hanger, pulled up my bow from the wet ground below, and began putting up the treestand umbrella ($20 well spent!).
As I was putting the dry seat cushion onto the cold, metal seat some movement off to the right caught my attention. A doe was standing not 10 yards to my right, carelessly browsing between the still-standing corn and miscellaneous field grasses lining the field. I could see the water droplets fly from her fur as she shook off like a dog. When the deer was distracted by the agricultural buffet around her, I cautiously turned, grabbed my bow, attached my release to the string, and drew back all in one motion. Too late. She had already unknowingly taken a very fortunate step into a row of corn, and a clear path for my arrow just wasn't available. I held the string back for another minute until it was again safe to let down without alarming the deer.
That was the only opportunity I had at that particular deer. An hour later a fork horn buck came in from the same direction as the doe did earlier. I took a shot at him, but only with the camera on my phone. Then, a little after 6:00, a buck I've decided to call "Mo" made his way by my stand. Unfortunately he came through without presenting any chance at a shot opportunity. The good news is that he came through unaware of my presence, and the rain that fell after I had left the area for the night will hopefully have washed away any traces of odor that may have been left behind.
Here's a picture of "Mo." He's the largest of the 3 stooges that I have several trail camera pictures of from this property.
I pulled the SD card on my trail camera, and made my way home in the rain. All in all, it was a great hunt.
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