Cazual Conversation

The morning is cool and crisp, light is invading the night, the tree is begrudglingly giving in to a light wind, and, holy smoke, there’s a Big Buck walking out on the second day of archery season!

I love bow season.

After working hard all year tending food plots, sweating, falling off tractors, chasing bees out of stands and making sure the pinestraw pickers picked up their trash, it is time to hunt.

Two years ago, my first bow season, I had a nice buck come out and never got off a shot. I was so excited I drew back the bow and forgot to stand up. The clank of bow on metal ensured that buck would never come that away again.

Last year, in the same spot, an 8-point walked out and I shot over his back, ensuring he would never return.

The opening weekend of bow is the best, because the deer are not yet on full alert. Two weeks ago, a little 5-point and a doe walked out and fed near my stand. My range is slight, maybe 25 yards, max, but these were not takers.

The next morning, here he came. Buck fever set in as he worked his way withing range. I saw four points on the side facing me, the buck gave me a side view, and I let fly. The arrow hit home to the right of where I intended, embedded in the shoulder as the buck fled.

He went a quarter mile, jumping a creek in the process, and I found him about an hour and a half later with help from my buddy JR Newell, who had found my dog, who got lost when he lost the deer’s scent at the creek.

The buck turned out to be a 7-point, not one I would take with a gun, and not one I would take again by bow. But it was my first “bow buck,” and I am happy.

Send me a picture of yours and we’ll post it.

ERIC RANKIN knocks one down.

Will Dyer says Eric Rankin harvested this fine 8-point around 5 p.m. on a Wednesday on a Bay County property.

They’ve had bear trouble - we need an open season on them before they take over - and on this day there was  bear on Eric’s food plot when he approached his stand.

Eric, Will reports, being not very fond of bears, fled to his truck and drove back to the food plot to scare off the bear, then climbed into his stand to hunt and killed this big buck.

Go figure, and congrats to Eric.