I returned on Monday and met my nephew Noah and his buddy Brad, who ended up adopting me as his uncle. I was happy to see the two young hunters in camp. They always provide some entertainment. Brad also makes some mighty good coffee in the mornings and his wife sent some delicious gumbo to heat on the fire.
We hit the woods that evening and did some major scouting. Brad located several scrapes near the road and backed off into the woods to hunt. He saw three deer that evening, but didn't get a shot. Noah stayed with me until we found a place with a lot of promising sign. We didn't see anything that evening.
("No Primer") Shannon and the only man to ever beat me in a state archery tournament, ("Number One") Ian showed up the next day. We decided to pull an all day hunt.
I gave No Primer and Ol' Number One an extra GPS with the waypoints stored showing good stand locations in piece of woods choked with briar patches. They got an early jump on Noah and I since we were running a little late after dropping Brad off on the other end of the reserve. Arriving minutes before daylight and not wanting to take the same path Shannon and Ian did, to scare their deer away. I decided to wait until daylight to be able to take a different approach to our stands.
Daylight broke on the cool-crispy morning and I told Noah we would follow the nearby bayou to get to our stands. It was in drought conditions and the water was very low. The normally ten-twelve foot dept had shrank to a low enough level to allow crossing in knee boots. The alternating high and low banks lay exposed on both sides. With the banks normally covered by water there was no accumulation of dry leaves to crunch underfoot while walking.
I had an idea. I decided to do something I've always wanted to try to do, but have never had the right conditions, as this. I wanted to see if I could out fox an old wiley whitetail buck by convincing it I was another buck invading his domain. I explained to Noah what I intended to do.
"Hey Noah, we're goin to try something. I want to sneak up on an old buck and shoot him where he stands. I think we can do it. Want to give it a try?"
He gave me a brief look that conveyed to me he thought his old uncle was going crazy, but being a nice guy he responded.
"Sure Uncle Rodney, that sounds like fun."
"Okay then, here's how we'll do it. I'll begin by walking quietly in the dry bed of the bayou while you keep a sharp eye out for movement in the woods along the bank. When I reach a spot where I can see on either side, I'll give a grunt on my deer call. That's when you begin to move forward. Continue past me until you find a good place to stop, grunt and I'll move forward. It's kind of like playing leap frog. Got it?"
"Yes sir," he said a little dubiously.
"Okay, here we go," I said and moved off into the quiet-dry bed of the bayou. Occasionally I would find myself obstructed by a fallen tree or some other type of debris and forced to move up onto the dry leaf covered forest floor to maneuver around it. There was no quiet way to do it, so what I did was vigorously kick the noisy leaves around and grunt several times as I did so, hoping to confuse any old buck in the area. Afterwards, I dropped back into the creek and continued on my way.
We were doing this for two and a half hours when I stopped and grunted for Noah to begin moving. I glanced at him to see if he had heard me since I had traveled a little further than normal. To my great surprise I saw him with his rifle raised and his head was down. His eye was aquiring the sight picture in the scope and his finger was on the trigger!
"Yay! It worked!" My happy mind screamed as I waited for the loud shot to sound out. I was a little confused when it didn't happen right away. Over the next five minutes of so, Noah looked through the scope, raised his head to stare at me with eyes as big as saucers, lower his eye back to the scope and repeat the process over and over. I knew right away my little buddy was suffering with a horrible fever and tried to search the thicket for the buck to shoot for him, but I couldn't do it.
The torture finally ended when Noah lowered his rifle and started to take a step toward me. I held up my hand to stop him and quietly made my way back to his location.
"Noah what happened?" I whispered.
"Uncle Rodney, it was a good buck!" he said and held up his spread hands indicating main beams extending past the deer's ears by eighteen inches or so. The spread hands told me it was a verry goood buck, at least eight most likely more points.
"It was a six point Uncle Rodney! And it was following us!"
"Did it act spooked or scared?"
"No sir, it just casually walked over there taking its time and stood around for a few minutes."
"Noah, why didn't you squeeze the trigger?"
"I didn't have a good shot."
"Noah, don't tell me that. I know you had those cross hairs on his body, didn't you? What you had was a case of buck fever."
"Well, I was a little excited," he finally admitted.
"Aw, don't worry about it, Noah. I'll let it go this time, but you better not let it happen again. Just remember you have to squeeze the trigger. Squeeze the trigger Noah, do you understand?"
Yes sir, it won't happen again. I promise."
"Good, here's what we're goin to do now. You've said the buck slowly walked away, so you stay here for the next hour while I continue alone. I'll try to either shoot the deer or push it back to you. He'll use the same trail and come back to you. It's nine o'clock now. At ten start moving up to meet me. Okay?"
"Yes sir," he responded and I started to move away, but paused. There was one more thing I needed to say to my young partner.
"Oh yeah, one more thing Noah."
"Sir?" he asked a little bewildered.
"Don't you dare miss!" I informed him and trned away to start my journey, alone.
An hour flew by and I knew Noah was starting move. I hadn't seen the deer or heard my little buddy shoot, so I exited the semi-dry bayou moved a short distance into the woods where I could a little ways. I found a comfortable tree to lean against and place a fallen tree branch still covered with dead brown leaves next to me, to serve as a blind.
It didn't take long before I saw Noah creeping along the bank of the bayou, on high alert looking for the buck. Being behind the fallen tree branch covered with leaves the same color as the deer, I didn't want to make any sudden movements for the hunter to make a possible mistake. And I didn't want to make any loud noise by calling out to him where I was or it would have scared the deer away from the area. So I just waited for him to come closer, but he stopped way off to my right and remained rooted to the ground. His eyes searching the thicket. I heard an animal trotting through the leaves to my left, hidden from sight by the tree I was sitting against. I just knew it was the buck and began to get ready while the tree blocked me from its view. The sound grew louder and a brown body came into view, only twenty-five yards away. It was a fawn-eating coyote. It didn't take me long to jump to the conclusion to take him out. I'll save the buck for another day and possibly save a few other wild critters in the process. It was time to contribute and make a sacrifice.
The coyote sensed something wrong and stopped in its tracks to peer at me. I squeezed the trigger and dropped it instantly. I couldn't help but laugh a little as I knew I had just scared poor Noah out of his wits with the loud report!
I had to call out to him several times before he answered and came my way.
"Sorry I scared you Noah, but I just had to shoot it."
"That's alright Uncle Rodney, but I have to tell you. I jumped nearly six feet and almost ruined my pants!"
We made a memory together. One I will definately cherish for a lifetime. Thanks Noah, for being such a good sport, a good person and a great hunter!
P.S. Noah relocated his stand to where he saw the buck and harvested a fat doe, later that evening. He didn't miss and I doubt if he ever will.
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