Don’t Skip That Hour-Long Hunt!

You know those afternoons when you think, “I’ve only got an hour to hunt. Might as well stay home.”

If you’re skipping those hours this time of year, you might be missing out.

Michelle — that’s my wife, I’ve written about her a bunch — is a school teacher. During the early bow season, she’s able to hunt a full sit virtually every day if she wants. But after the time switch, her daylight is fading fast when the end-of-day bell rings. She had a west wind Monday evening, though — the first one since Kentucky’s gun season had been open — and she had a stand where she wanted to sit. We’d gotten trail camera photos of a good buck in there on several consecutive days last week, but it’s a touchy, west-wind-or-nothing spot.

She rushed home, and I had her rifle and gear waiting for her. She texted me 45 minutes later, saying she was in her stand, and that a big buck had already slipped through the clear-cut in front of her not 50 yards away. I texted her back, telling her to stay on her toes. Twenty minutes before dark, I got the phone call I was hoping for. Her buck was dead 40 yards from the tree.

That stand is overlooking some open hardwoods that adjoin that nasty clear-cut. We’ve had a bait set going in that timber since last summer, but haven’t shot anything over it. That farm is a small one — 30 acres — and the idea was to keep enough does using the area so that the bucks would make it a regular stop during the rut. It worked.

She said the buck came trotting through the cover, downwind of the bait and obviously looking for does, but was out of sight before she could get a clear shot.

“He sounded like a freight train coming through there in the dry leaves, but I never heard him leave after he disappeared from sight. I was hearing deer running around in that clear cut the whole sit, so I just stayed ready,” Michelle said.

Staying ready paid off. A doe popped out and headed straight for her tree.

“She was right underneath me, and even circled downwind. She started doing the head-bob and stomping her feet, and it was everything I could do not to move,” she said. “I could still hear more deer in the thicket.”

Soon another doe popped out and walked to the bait, and Michelle caught a glimpse of a third deer moving behind it.

“I saw a big main beam and knew it was him. When he came walking out, I picked an opening where I planned to shoot him. But he stopped just shy of it, behind a tree.”

It was a tense moment. Michelle glanced up from her scope and spotted the buck moving away, back toward the thicket. A small opening in the timber revealed his shoulder, and she didn’t hesitate. Her .308 dropped that buck — a 10-pointer with a double G3 on one side — where he stood.

That’s what you call a textbook rut hunt. Such plans don’t always come together, of course. But when they do, it’s a pretty good feeling. And that’s why you’ve got to love hunting this time of year. Even if it’s only for an hour.