Saturday morning I went to my 80 acre patch of land that a friend lets me hunt. The drop off from the shoulder of the road to the gate is kind of steep and without 4 wheel drive I actually had concerns about getting back onto the road before I went down the short but steep grade to the gate. Once inside the gate I knew I wasn't going to drive any further so I backed up side ways to the road to provide an easy turn around to get back out after the mornings hunt.
As I stepped out of the truck it was obvious to me that the swampy ground I was on was relatively dry compared to the next quarter mile to my stand. To get to that stand I'd have to walk to the stand through often standing water particularly in the low-lying area that had a small creek in it. I knew walking was not that big of a deal but I also thought man I do not want to drag a deer through that wet muddy mess if I did kill one.
Knowing both of my ladder stands were now out of the question I got my torque seat out of the truck storage box and planned to hunt from the ground a whole lot closer to the truck. This is an older picture but wanted to show what it looks like. It is really easy to make, set up and highly mobile.
Last week as I walked from the truck I had only gone about 50 yards when I saw a buck cruising on my side of the creek. I had just shot a buck a week before so I decided to let him keep on going. My hunt would have been over 5 minutes after parking the truck and what fun would that be? Now with the swampy mess I now faced I began thinking if I can get this buck this morning I'd be really close to the truck.
I had to wade through boot deep water in the bottoms near the creek but I made it to the bridge and didn't actually have to get my feet wet to cross the creek. Once on the other side I found a bit of high ground and set my torque seat up. It would be getting light in minutes and things were looking good. As dark turned to light I began seeing a bunch of squirrels in the treetops and though hmmm after deer season I need to come back down here with my still in training squirrel dog. If I did manage to get a deer I was maybe 200 yards from the truck. That was a drag I could do much easier than the quarter mile from the tree stand I can normally drive up to.
At 7am I heard the splish splash of a deer coming up from behind me. When it got straight off from my left shoulder I slowly turned my head. Low and behold maybe 30 yards away was the same buck I had walked up on the week before. The torque seat is great but it's only flaw is any movement on your part can't be hidden without proper brushing in. As I slowly turned my head the buck almost instantly picked up my movement. He turned around to head back but stopped and turned back around to take another look at me before making his escape. The old Winchester 94 boomed and the 50/50 ww and pure lead NOE 311165 was on the way. I knew it was a good hit and watched him fall after running about 40 yards.
The bullet went in at the shoulder and came out on the back ribs. He was dead in maybe 5 seconds. Since I watched him fall there was no need to blood trail him but I did to see what kind of blood trail the NOE had caused. Easy to follow about like all the others with the exception of two that were a bit harder to track due to high hits while I was sitting on the ground. Didn't recover the bullet as it kept on going.
Now that I am tagged out on bucks. I'll be going to some public land next week on doe patrol.
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ammohead
