It was an eventful week that saw the Big Island open after being closed for the October youth hunt. We also got some cooler weather, and the deer were definitely on the move. On the Thursday (Oct. 28) before the Big Island opened, my buddy Scott Dupre arrowed a beautiful 8-point buck. (See picture.)
It went 175 pounds and had a nice spread also. Congrats Scott!
Here is how I did on my hunts:
First a few notes: The water lilies currently are restricting access to both ditches and the cul-de-sac on the Big Island. This changes daily as the tides and winds change. Also, even though the tide ranges are always brutal at the Delta, right now with the north wind that has been blowing (combined with tides below 0.0), the result has been sand bars we hadn’t even seen before. Be very careful and, even if you use GPS, stay wide on the “safe” side of your track.
Day one – a.m. hunt
At 7:30 a.m., I had a 4-point come within 17 yards, but I chose not to take the shot.
Day one – p.m. hunt
A spike came by at 15 yards around 4:30, but again I did not shoot.
Day 2 – p.m.
At 6 a.m., a nice doe was coming through the myrtles; I drew back, but she busted me at 15 yards and I could not get the shot before she bolted. At 6:30, a beautiful buck with a nice rack (maybe more than 8 points?) gave me a quick look before he stepped out of sight. I grunted and, after about a 3-second pause, he blew and ran off.
Day 3 – a.m. hunt
Zero sightings
Day 4 – a.m. hunt
Very strange how I came to get this deer.
At 8:30 that morning, a deer comes out at 20 yards and begins feeding. I thought it was a doe, but after looking closer it appeared to be a button buck. I put my bow down and filmed him with my video camera for a few minutes. He hung around for about 20 minutes total, and then faded away.
An hour and 15 minutes later, I hear another deer approaching from the opposite direction from where I had been watching this one. This one does not have horns and, as I hadn’t shot a deer yet this season, I was more than anxious to get my first doe. Coming out of the shadows of the myrtles, I was at full draw, and at 30 yards I let an arrow fly. It was close to a perfect shot, with the deer jumping up on impact, running about 25 yards and flipping over dead.
Always a relief, when you don’t have to track them. Ha ha!
Anyway I get down, walk over to where the deer lay and I was shocked to find it was the same button buck I had been watching earlier. The only difference in my view was that I had seen the deer in the bright sunshine earlier, and when I made the shot this time it was coming out of the shadows.
The antlers had not yet broken through and, of course, I was able to claim it with an antlerless tag. I would have been some hacked off if it would have had little spikes and I would have lost a buck tag on him.
Anyway the first one is down and sitting in my freezer.
Day 4 – p.m. hunt
After my dad and I raced back to Morgan City to get my deer cleaned and on ice, we hurried back down to the Delta for the afternoon hunt.
I did not see anything, but at 6:23 my dad had a doe feeding at about 50 yards. She fed for about five minutes, and then faded away.
He turned to look behind him and was surprised to see three deer feeding together at about 70 yards. One was a big-racked buck; the other two he could not tell in the fading light. He tried the grunt call, but it was ignored and they continued to feed until he could no longer see them.
Day 5 – a.m. hunt
We were very excited to get back out there after all the action. We hunted until 11 and saw absolutely nothing.
As a matter of fact after all that action, we saw not a deer on our next thee hunts despite hunting on three different islands.
Still it was an exciting week. I still have a few more days of this week to get back out there and see if I can find them again.
I’ll let you guys know how it goes.
