Two from
Montgomery County
By
Tony Sanders/aka”SNUFFER”
The
2006 bow
season started out as usual for me, with me heading
to one of my favorite bow hunting spots in Anne Arundel
County not too far
from
where I live. I started the season off by taking a couple of
anterless deer.
Up to this time I have never hunted in Montgomery
County, but knew
it is one of the
premier counties in Maryland
with a lot of deer. I have a friend that bowhunts, who
lives in MC and he had
been at me for the past couple of years about hunting this nice spot
that he
bow hunts. His name is Kenny. Now Kenny hunts with a stickbow, even
though I
think he would be better off hunting with a compound with one sight
pin, and
the reason I say this is because he don’t pick the bow up until hunting
season, and as we all know if we want to be proficient at shooting a
bow we
have to put in practice time, especially shooting traditional
equipment. He is
more of an avid Fisherman than an avid
Bowhunter and I always get the sob story
of how he sees and misses all those nice bucks that he see on
this piece of property,
and he have yet to close the deal with one put on the ground. In most
cases
from what he tells me he seems to always shoot over their back. Of
course I
tell him he needs to put in practice time if he wants to be proficient
with a
bow . So this year I take him up on his offer and went to see and look
over
this property. Let me tell you when I set foot on this place and saw
what was
there, it have to be one of the nicest places to bow hunt I have seen
in my 30+
years bow hunting. And no one hunts it but him. So on the Friday that
he showed
me the property, we put up his hang on stand and I was to come back
that
evening and hunt that stand, but I decide to come back in the
morning.
Saturday morning 11/4/06 I am up and heading to MC at 5:00 am. I
get to the
place and park my truck and there is a young buck standing
near the gate( I
took this to be a good omen). By the time I get to the stand and get
settled in
its about 6:30 and beginning to get light. It is about 28 degrees
this
morning. I sit for about 2 hours with out seeing anything and my feet
gets
cold,(didn’t have my insulated footwear on) so I decide to leave and
get
breakfast and warm up a bit. I have a habit that before I descend the
tree, I
take a practice shot with my judo point. I look around and I don’t see
any deer so I take the shot. I climb down walk over to retrieve my
arrow, I
turn to leave and there is a 8 pointer pushing a doe my way. I stop and
freeze. Of course they see me as well as I see them, but they
don’t seem
overly alarmed. I began to close the distance between us using
the trees for
cover and I make it to about 30 yards. The doe is standing over to my
right
about forty yards or so through the trees and the buck is out in front
of me
with his head and chest sticking out from behind a tree. He stands
there and
watch me as I raise my 65Lb Robertson Recurve, come to full
draw and release,
the tree is close to his chest, so I try to hug the tree a bit, but I
hugged
the tree just a bit too much and my arrow embedded in the tree,
he
didn’t even move until that arrow hit the tree. They both run off a
ways
and kept looking back at me. The buck then began pushing and chasing
the doe
again through the woods, but not in my direction. So I stash my
bow, fanny
pack and coveralls in the
woods under a brush pile and head out. I came back
about 3 hours later and decide to scout a little before I climb back
into the
stand to hunt. As I was walking and looking around and checking out the
sign, I
walk up the hill to the right of my stand and I bump into 2 bucks
and 3 does.
I played the cat and mouse game with them but could not get in position
for a
shot. After scouting for a while longer and jumping 2 more deer in the
process,
I also locate a couple of other nice spots where I want to come back
and hang
my stand. I head back and I get into the stand about 2:30pm. I settle
in for
the evening vigil and wait but not seeing anything. At about 4:30 I
stand up to
stretch my legs and just as I turned to my left to look around here
come this doe
on a full run and right behind her is this buck. They pass by my stand
at about
15 yards, but pulled up when they hit my scent trail where I had
crossed this
stream to the right of the stand during my scouting foray. They were
really
wired up and trying to figure out which way to go. The whole time the
buck is
watching the doe and turning about to see which way she will go
and I am
watching the buck to try and get a shot off. They decide to head down a
trail
beside the stream, they are out about 25 yards, as the buck turn to
leave, I am
timing my shot and let fly when the buck is broadside and slightly
quartering
away. The arrow hits him in the chest area and to my surprise it does
not go
all the way through. The buck kicks in the after burners and I can see
my arrow
hanging out, then falls to the ground as he is going away from
me. I watch
until they are out of sight, I sit down and wait. I can see and
hear cars
going down a nearby road. I am about a 1/2 mile or more back into the
woods
from where my truck is parked. I wait approx 10-15 minutes and then
climb down.
I walk to where the buck was standing when I took the shot and just a
little
farther I see the first drops of blood and my broken arrow. I
take up the
blood trail and there is not as much blood as I am accustomed to as
when an
arrow goes clean through a deer, but there is blood none the less and I
continue tracking. I go approx 100-150 yards and there is the buck
expired not
far from the stream(you can stream in the pic). After finding the
deer and
taking a few pics and field dressed him, I see why my arrow did
not go all the
way through. The broadhead end lodged into the off shoulder bone and as
the
buck turned to run it sheared off. It is now approx 5:15 and began to
lose
light. I then realize how far back in the woods that I am and I do not
have my
deer cart, and its no way I am going to drag a 200Lb deer over a 1/2
mile back to
my truck. Because of the lay of the land and the woods, I
could not get
through with my cell phone to check the deer in, and to make matters
worse my
deer cart was on a farm back in Anne Arundel County about 45 miles from
where I
am at. I am dreading the fact that I would have to drive all the way to
the
farm and get my deer cart and then return to try and get the deer out
of the
woods. So I gather my equipment and head out of the woods, of
course its dark
by the time I get to my truck. As I am heading down the road I pull off
and
stop at a 7-11 and made the phone call to check my deer in and received
my
confirmation number. I then called the Montgomery County DNR Police to
see what
the law says about bringing out the deer whole, or if I could quarter
it up and
bring it out. They came back to the phone and told me that as long as I
had my
confirmation number, I could quarter it and bring it out, man this was
good. I
stop by a local Safeway to get some trash bags and a roll of paper
towels and
head back into the woods with my head lamp.
By the time I get that deer
quartered up and make about 4 trips in the dark it is now about
8:30 pm, and I
don’t get home until approx 10:00pm. I call my friend Kenny the next
day
and told him about the deer I took out of his stand. He have allowed me
to hunt
there when ever I want to. So I will certainly be back in that area in
2007
during the rut to try and get one of those big bucks that he tells me
about.
Six days later I am back in Montgomery County
on another piece
of property that a co-worker and home owner gave me permission to
hunt. He have
been asking me to come up to his house to hunt deer because the deer
continue
to eat up his crops and fruit trees and biting off the buds on
some of his
other trees. He also went and obtained written
permission from 2 other home
owners within this suburban area to allow me to bow hunt behind
their houses
as well. To make this short. I go to this property on 11/10/06, I
have a
ladder stand already set up. I get there before first light and as soon
as it
is light I can see bucks chasing does, but nothing come near my
stand. An hour
and a half later I see 4 nice size does coming my way, but they stop
before
they get in shooting range and mill about before heading back the way
they
came. I sit down and continue to hunt. A few minutes before 9:00am my
wife
calls me on the cell phone so I decide to leave the woods at 10:00.
While I am
talking to my wife I am facing the direction where I saw the 4 does
earlier.
After talking to her I turn in the stand with my face now facing the
tree
looking down the hill behind my stand and my Robertson Recurve is
hanging on a
hook. I look in that direction for about few minutes then turn back
around, and
right there at almost the foot of my ladder stand is a 8 pointer
hounding this
doe, I never heard them come in. They catch my movement and move off up
the
hill to the right of my stand. I can see the home owners house from my
stand
and the 2 deer are between me and the house , but I am about 150 yards
down the
hill from his house. The buck resumes hounding the doe, by this time I
have my
bow in my hand and as they move from my left to my right I decide to
take the
doe and at 25 yards I let fly with a 4 blade Zephyr Sasquatch
broadhead. The
arrow takes her through the front chest completely. Now there is a
chicken wire
fence around part this property and the mortally hit doe ran towards
the fence
and I thought for sure she would turn left and follow the fence line,
but to my
amazement she bored right under the fence and right across the home
owner nice
lawn right past a child’s play set and dies right at the far end of his
yard. And believe me there was a swatch of blood from where the arrow
took her
right to where she expired. After retrieving her and dragging her back
into the
woods to take a few pics and field dress her, I saw the reason she bled
so profusely.
The big 4 blade sliced right through the top of the heat cutting the
aorta.
Needless to say both homeowners saw the deer and was glad I took one
and wants
me to come back and take more. That particular morning I saw twelve
deer and I
have seen deer every time I hunted there except twice. So now I have
two good
places to bow hunt in MC and these places are closer to my job than my
home, so
I can make it there in the evening and hunt there. It have been a good
year.
But hopefully the best is yet to come.
(Images Courtesy of
Tony Sanders.)
To see larger images, go the 'Photos'
link below and check out the 2007 Photo Gallery.
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