BOWHUNTING RIDGES
Number five fell to my arrow on November 6, 1994. I was hunting a really long ridge that was open on top with timber on the side slopes. The farm I had permission to hunt was a cattle pasture so there was no specific deer food on it, but there were a couple of really big, high yielding apple trees along the slope.
I shot this buck on November 6, 1994 as he was working along a brushy fence line that crossed the top of an open ridge. This is a classic rut pattern.
As I mentioned when writing about Bucks # 1 and #2, I started to really key in on brushy fence lines when selecting my stand sites. It was one of the few patterns that I could easily find and hunt without having a great deal of knowledge about the deer in the area.
When the rut comes, bucks use those brushy fence lines as they travel across open areas. I know I scouted the farm a bit, but it was more of a token effort because I knew when the time came to pick my stand site, it would be in the brushy fence line I saw on the aerial photo.
I hunted that spot a good bit and so did my friend, Mike Sawyer. Mike had a really good buck come up from the north and jump the fence out of bow range and head out into the field to the west during the last 20 minutes of an afternoon hunt.
The fact that the buck got away might seem like bad luck, but I knew it was more than bad luck. I had not foreseen this event as I should have. It bothered me that I had selected a stand site almost at random on the fence line.
I learned a hard lesson at Mike’s expense that day: never hunt just one travel route when you can just as easily hunt two.
I should have placed the stand not only on the fence line, but also within range of that well worn trail that obviously some deer used to cross the fence.
Since then, whenever I set up on ridge-crossing fence lines, I always look for a heavy crossing to cover as well as the travel route that borders the fence itself. Had I done that back in 1994, Mike would have shot a whopper.
It is amazing how much different this spot looks now (recent aerial photo) that it looked 27 years ago. There wasn’t near as much timber along the fence line back then. Different landowners and way different land practices since I hunted there. The cattle are gone, the ag fields are gone and the farms that border my fence line are obviously now deer hunting (or at least recreational) farms. They were working cattle farms in 1994. The blue line is, of course, the path the buck took as he approached to within 30 yards of my stand and the red line indicates the blood trail.
The buck I shot came past in the middle of the morning and offered a 30 yard shot. I remember missing my aim point slightly, drilling the buck squarely in the shoulder. But I was shooting a pretty high draw weight bow back then (80+ pounds) and the arrow had full penetration, resulting in a very quick kill.
LESSONS LEARNED
You have already read my two most important lessons learned from this hunt.
1. Don’t hunt one travel route when you can hunt two from the same stand. Now I always try to get as many possible buck travel routes within bow range as possible when choosing a stand site.
This works for all kinds of terrain and cover features. Spend the extra time to get the perfect spot, not just the first one that looks good.
2. I shot (and still shoot) the highest draw weight bow I can handle accurately because if I accidentally pull the shot just a bit, and hit the shoulder, I want to be able to kill the deer.
