Muzzleloader season for the centeral zone of North Carolina has ended and rifle season has begun. I spent a lot of time last week with a muzzleloader in my hand but never got the chance to shoot at a deer. Well I should clarify that statement; the does stayed out of range, big bucks never appeared and the little bucks taunted me almost daily. I have a couple of small bucks that have been around my stands and for the most part pretty bold. One of these bucks I’ve been seeing 3 or 4 times a day. On Saturday the opening of rifle season I saw both bucks and had an encounter with one that will hopefully make him a bit more cautious. The weather was rough, but I’ll do another post about that latter, that at one point I decided for my own safety I needed to get out of my stand.
Once on the ground I decided to check out my game feeder and see how low it was. I was just about to it when I noticed beyond it on the field’s edge an antler in the brush. My initial thought was it was a dead deer but I wanted to check for sure. I was about 30 yards away and I brought up my rifle up and almost immediately realized it was the small buck and he was napping with his back to me. I decided to sneak up on him and give him a bit of a scare. I got within about 10 yards of him when the wind switched and carried my scent right to him. I saw him spin his head around and he about jumped out of his skin when he saw me. He jumped up and crashed off into the brush and I hope he is a bit smarter.
While on our lease we try to take older bucks other neighboring lands may not be as friendly to the younger bucks.
Hopefully I’ll see his daddy or granddaddy real soon.
I’ll post some more stories from last week soon.
Story by Dan McLaughlin aka Moose
