First treestand buck

Positrac · #1 11-22-2017, 12:44 PM

Hey all,

I took a few days to go down Athabasca way on a Whitetail hunt.

First day I found a nice 1/4 of Crown land in the middle of a large area that was all private land. I tried to contact each landowner in the area to see if I could get permission to hunt their 1/4’s but was for the most part was unsuccessful. It was a new to me area and leaving it late like I did and this being the middle of the rut I really didn’t hold out a lot of hope. Most landowners said they already had quite a few different parties hunting their land which was expected.

First day I set a tree stand up in a little clearing in the middle of the Crown 1/4 where several deer trails converged.

I went back the following afternoon all bundled up for my first hunt out of a treestand. To be honest, it kind of left me with a bit of an uneasy feeling being 15 feet off the ground like that. I did a bit a rattling with a few grunt calls and within ten minutes a small 3x3 followed by a doe walked by. I decided not to take the small buck. He veered off but the doe walked right under me. She knew I was around but had no idea where I was. It was quite the rush and I can see how guys get addicted to treestand hunting.

Right at dusk I heard a twig break right behind me. My head swiveled around and I spotted a big bodied buck 60 feet behind me. There was no way I could shoot from the position he was at. He walked through some thick timber and when he came into a small clearing I was ready. A quick look through the scope confirmed that he was wide but with very short points. I decided to take him and after one shot high in the neck he was done.

He was an old bruiser. Busted up points, teeth wore down and his hooves were all screwed up. He would have had a tough winter. When I skinned him out he was covered in bruises and didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. His rack taped out at just over 23” at the widest.

All in all i’m quite happy with him....and quite happy with my first treestand hunt. I never knew treestand hunting was so easy. Lol.