Thought I was going to get it done this evening going in blind on public land. This is my first year to ever hunt public aside from one short hunt last year on Barbour. I'm attempting to learn something new by trying public land. First spot I wanted to go, gate was locked. Dangit. I wasn't about to walk mile and half to get back there.

Headed to spot number 2 much later than I wanted to be. Eased in and found very little sign, but it was after 4 by this point and I needed to get in a tree. Jacked up in the climber and started counting white oaks within bow range. 13 of those suckers and hardly an acorn falling.

I set up facing east, expecting deer to come from behind me. About 5:15 I heard a squirrel barking up the ridge behind me and to my left so I started watching that direction. I saw the leg about the same time I heard footsteps. Something satisfying about going in blind and seeing a deer, so my hunt was pretty much made at this point. Saw it was about 100lb doe and she was feeding parallel with me about 50 yards out. She got to the creek and I knew she was going to have to go right (towards me) or left. Guess what she chose? Left, of course.

She eased off and I heard another deer following her same trail up the ridge. I made a couple of soft grunts with my mouth praying she would come my way. I knew she was probably going to follow doe #1 away from me when she hit the creek, and she was headed that way in a hurry. Dang if she didn't start my way after the second grunt. I thought to myself, "this might just happen." She eased my way and gets to 40 and locks up. There is a draw between us and I believe she got to where she could see in it and didn't see a deer. She stood stock still for a solid 5 minutes scanning that draw. Finally I saw her flick her tail and she started working a 45 to me back up the ridge. She went behind a good size oak and I came to full draw. When she cleared that oak she started coming right at me. She got to 30 and I had my all 5 pins burning holes in her from her head to her brisket. I just couldn't make myself take that shot as there was a little bit of brush between us. I probably could have snuck one through there but didn't want to take the shot.

And then at about 25 yards she just locked up. I didn't move, flinch, wind was calm, I'm still at full draw going through my pre shot checklist...but she just decided to do what deer do. She never looked directly at me, but she just stopped, wheeled and trotted off in one motion. I let down and was shaking like a leaf. The day I quit getting that rush is the day I'll hang it up.

I'm sure some of y'all are wondering why the heck I spent time typing out that I saw 2 measly does. I actually wondered that as well when I was typing it. I was fortunate to grow up hunting one of the highest deer density areas in the south and it was nothing to see 50+ deer/day. So having to learn something new, to actually take a map and study it for hours, and put boots on the ground looking for sign, just hoping, praying that you've read all these puzzle pieces correctly is something I'm having to learn in my mid-30's. It's really energized me as a new way of hunting. Sorry for the long post.