Starting the back half of my six-day hunt at Giles Island, it rained all day. We got in a funnel stand at 3 pm due to a lightning delay. It was still raining the next day as we arrived at our climbing tree, and already there was a 17-inch, 3-yearr-old 8-pointer eating pecans in the road 80 yards ahead. We determined he was not a shooter so we hooked up our climbers to the tree without spooking the buck. We saw four more does that afternoon.
The next morning, Tuesday (Dec. 15), we saw 15 deer, three of them shooters; however they never came closer than about 80 yards.
That evening, the Mississippi River was rising fast (about a 1 ½ feet per day). The river was getting too high in our funnel, so we had to move over 20 to 30 yards.
We made a scarecrow out of stakes and a rain coat that we placed along one of two exit corridors in order to push the deer toward our stand. We ended up seeing around 40 plus deer, including a 4-point, a 6-point, 10 8-pointers, a big 138-inch 9-pointt that was 3 1/2 years old with a split G2, and an 18-inch-wide 3-yearr-old 8-point. Both of those big bucks were inside of 20 yards.
No shooters that afternoon, and this was our last hunt in this funnel due to the high Mississippi water.
Wednesday morning, we got in tighter to the thicket where we saw the three shooters the previous morning. We saw 40 deer: 10 racks (mostly 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds) and a big 140-inch 10-point shooter at 50 yards in thick cover chasing does. No open shot. We’ll be back tomorrow morning.
Wednesday evening, after a week of bad weather, we finally had a clear, blue-bird, cold day. Deer movement and rutting activity was high.
Knowing that Giles Island deer love green fields on this kind of day, we decided to bowhunt the food plot in our area known as “The Monument.” And it was awesome.
We saw 45 deer in our plot, half of them racks. We saw four different buck fights, five scrapes being made and four shooters – everything within 90 yards. I shoot a great management 8-point that was 220 pound, 4 1/2 years old and scored 117 Pope & Young.
I was pumped and couldn’t wait for our last hunt the following morning.
Thursday morning, we moved in even tighter to the cutover and the previous day’s deer activity. Before we could even get the camera gear setup, we had three does and four racks right on us from 30 yards. One had half a rack, and there were two 10-points and one 8-point.
The wind changed and blew out the does that winded us, and the bucks followed. We ended up seeing 20 more deer, including a nice 10-point and a big 8-point. Both were chasing does and fighting before they wandered off.
Then all of the sudden the two bucks came back in alone. The smaller 10-point bedded down at 25 yards in front of us, and the big one stood there at 44 yards and made two scrapes.
Then he walked to within 40 yards, but there were vines and limbs in between us. At that point, a few does came running in from behind us and the big 8-point wheeled around to follow them.
I knew this was my last chance. So I leaned out and found a hole between the trees quartering away at 40 yards, and I drilled him.
He was an 8 ½-year-old 8-point that weighed 230 pounds and scored 132 P&Y with a broken brow and G2.