Deer and Other Critters

Today wasn't the best day for Jer so far. Managed to bag some does for venison stew, but it just wasn't a good morning. It was just... how do I put this...?

Better start from the beginning, I guess.

Had to have been just about 5:00 in the morning - right at the crack of dawn - and I had just finished setting things up in my blind for the day. I'd just readjusted my compound bow the other night, and I had a whole quiver of the brand new broadheads I bought for it. I'd been having good luck so far. No big trophy bucks yes, but I did drop a doe with some good meat on her. She'll make some good stew, maybe some jerky.

Anyway, I was camping in the blind, and I heard a rustling out in the bushes, so I peeked out into the shadowy forest below. It was pretty hard to see though; the pines up here get awful thick. Sometimes they even block out light, it's like night in some parts of the forests up here.

That's when I saw him. A big, beautiful 16-point buck, absolutely beautiful. But for some reason, he looked awful skittish. Not common behavior for bucks during rutting season, or any season for that matter. Not to the degree that he was spooked.

I was tracing him with my eye when he stopped walking just long enough to stare off towards the tree line a moment. Just... staring off into the brush, like he was on his guard. Must've seen something he didn't like in his territory. But it gave me a perfect opportunity to nail him – his folly, my opportunity.

God, this still pisses me off: I had a clear shot, perfectly lined up and everything. Right at the base of the skull; it would've dropped him instantly. But then he bolted on me, just bolted into the undergrowth like all Hell's demons were on him.


"Shit," I murmured softly under my breath, putting the bow aside. It couldn't have been worse luck. I'd have to scout some more, see if I could catch another deer coming, maybe even put down some more musk.

But as I peered out of my blind to scout, binoculars in hand, I suddenly felt… watched. You know that creepy little feeling you get when someone's in the room, but you can't see them anywhere? Yeah, I got that feeling all over, and little chills down my spine. I'd be lying if I said it didn't freak me out.

And that's when things got sort of weird. After I'd been looking around a bit, I suddenly noticed something a little… off about the distant pines. Something wrong. Looked like a whitish blur in the trees or something. At first I thought it was the markings on a bird or something, seeing as it was so high up in the branches, but it didn't have the shape of any bird I'd ever seen. Not a lot of white birds around the Upper Peninsula, after all.

So, curious, I brought my binoculars to my face and adjusted them to get a better look.

I wish to God Above I hadn't. Because what I saw…

Hell, I'm not even sure of what I did see.

It was a man. Or at least that's what it looked like. Stood like one. Was dressed in some kind of pitch-black suit and tie like he was one. But thing was, he was kinda weird-looking. For one, he was taller than any man I'd ever met. My blind's a good eight feet off the ground in a beech tree. This guy stood at least thirty feet away and still could have looked me straight in the eye.

For another, he was so thin that "emaciated" doesn't even begin to cover it, and his arms were pretty damn long. Looked like they could have reached the ground, but I'm sure that was just a trick of the light or something. At first I thought it was a scarecrow on an adjacent farm or something, but no - I felt eyes on me. Its eyes, even though I couldn't see any from where I was. No, this was something living, of that I was pretty certain.

I'm gonna gut the two does I dropped this afternoon, then head to the butcher. Maybe I can get some jerky off the smaller one for later while I'm hunting, I could use some snacks.

Some Introductions

So I guess a few of the newer folks from the Bowhunting forums wanted to know a bit more about me. Wouldn't be the first time I was asked!

Name's Jeremy Anderson. I'm 25, live in Ypsilanti, MI. There's some great forests up here, good places to track, and the UP's just beautiful in the fall. Lake Superior in the fall, God, it's just gotta be seen to be believed. There's a little place called Sugarloaf Mountain you can hike, and you can see all across the forest and the lake. Damn, if that's not living, seeing a sight like that. My dayjob's at an automotive plant, I run metal-punching machinery. We've got hydrojet cutters for the more precise stuff, but I don't operate those. just the sheetmetal cutters. It's nice though, I have a window view, with this little weeping cherry tree out nearby. Small thing, frail and slender. Reminds me almost of a sad woman, but it's gorgeous in the spring when it blossoms.

That's another thing we have a lot of up here. Cherries! Enough that you could choke on 'em.

As you'd guess, I'm really not a huge fan of cherries. More of an apple kind of guy. Speaking of which, you can use apples as deerbait, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Most does won't go for it and most bucks... well, you all know how they get when they rut. Angry buggers, and if you use apples as bait, you'll need to get close. Deer can eat an apple quicker than you'd think; just the other day I saw a little fawn and its mother go across my neighbor's yard, grabbing the fallen apples like they were candy. The little fawn kept on trying to keep up!

Better cut off here, gotta pack for my trip up north and that's a day-long drive! I'll be tired just from going over the bridge, so I probably won't get back to you until a day from now, after I get some early morning hunting in.

Hunting Season

Name's Jeremy. Thought I'd start up a blog, maybe get some fellow bowhunters engaged in some discussion, maybe trade tips.

So, hunting season. It's coming up! Are you prepared? Got your bow ready? I know mine's been sitting in the shed since last fall, collecting dust. Been waiting to get back up to Rock and do some Whitetail hunting. Maybe bag a turkey or two, but mostly after that big trophy buck this year. Just went out and got some nice new broadheads to do the job too, since my old ones were getting shabby (and I broke one last year when I missed and it hit a damn tree - almost had him, too!).

Just a thought for you new bowmen (and ladies) out there - might wanna get your license a bit early this year. It's gonna be a rough season with the wasting disease that hit the deer last summer. Guess it's some form of encephalitis that only hits deer, elk, etc. Head shots should be safe, apparently it's not contagious to humans, but I wouldn't let the carcass set anywhere you store livestock for the winter, or with other carcasses. Best to keep an eye out for those deer with their head down, the ones that look sick. You'll know when you see it.

Good luck on your hunts, maybe I'll be seeing some of you folks out there in the forest.