The King of the swamp

[stonykill]

  A short story about the first few hours of my morning today.

   One piece of my property has a section of swamp. Thick stuff. There is a stream that divides it from woodlands. The swamp is 15 or so feet down a steep enbankment with a few natural funnels that deer use to either exit the swamp or the 6 acre field also right there. It is simply one of my favorite spots to hunt. Most of the nutters I killed so far this year were from that area, and it is one of my favorite spots to crossbow hunt. And it is a 5 minute walk from my front door in the dark.

  I walk out a few minutes after 6 this morning. Just light enough to walk the paths I have walked for 25 years now, but not really light enough to see anything. Yesterday I kicked out a new spot to sit. I ground hunt exclusively. No tree's for this guy. I don't like the feeling and I like to move if I need to to get to the game. I have belly crawled more than once to get closer to game.

   I found my tree, situated about 12 yards from one of the natural funnels at the top of the hill above the swamp and about 30 yards from the field edge. A few days ago while taking care of my chickens I saw a big old buck about 100 yards out, walked out of the area I described and casually into the field. Big old buck. Even at that distance I could see he was a big boy. I set up the new spot where I thought he would come up, and I shot a doe last year with the crossbow at.

   I'm sitting for a few minutes and to my right something catches my attention. An owl swooped in, maybe 15 yards to my right, goes to the field edge, swings around and is now flying 6 feet off the ground and right by me. If I had held the crossbow in my right arm and extended it, he would have run into it. He flew by me that close. He momentarily landed in a tree behind me, and flew off without a sound.

 

  This took place as you can see in the pic before sun up. That magical time of low light where everything looks like something else. " Is that a deer or a tree?" " What's that moving? A deer or leaves in the distance". If you have ever been in the woods at that time of day, you know what I mean.

   Maybe 30 minutes pass , it's about sun up. Everything is clear now. Far off, well maybe 100 yards off, where the field and the swamp meet below me, I hear him. Crash, bang, snap, and not running either. The sound of a rutting buck. I hear him thrashing tree's with his antlers. Once in a while I catch a glimpse of him. Big bodied deer. Points, I don't care about points. Meat is my thing. The rack is nice after the fact. I see glimpses of rack as well. Nice older deer, who would have had a bigger rack a few years ago.

  Slowly over the next 10 minutes or so he is working his line zig zagging through the hedgerow that separates the swamp from the field. I'm asking myself, as I am enjoying this moment, "is he coming this way? or heading to the field?" . Now I can't see him, but still hear the freight train rolling through the brush. There he is! Base of the hill, RIGHT where I want him! He paws the ground, nibbles a little and GOES THE WRONG WAY!. Now I can just hear him again. He is comingup on my left, and I'm left handed. This requires me to move.

   I hear him and he is coming up right next to me. Still can't see him. I slowly, gently move. My back tag makes a noise on the bark. I won't tell you the words I thought. He is still coming so I move as much as I dare and scope the area just passed the 3 foot diameter pine tree blocking my view of him. At 15 feet away I see an eye and a piece of antler. FIFTEEN FEET! He snorts, swings around and gives me the Buck middle finger with his tail as he disappears to the bottom of the hill.

  I'm frozen. I can tell he is still 20 yards or so away. The noise has stopped. Then it started. Stomping the ground. Snorting . I stay frozen, keeping my breathing slow. He stops his little rampage and I settle back in more comfortably. It's clear to me, he does not know what I am. I was an odd shaped camo stump that should not have been in his living room. And all he can think of is getting passed me to continue peeing on the ground and destroying saplings.

   Now he is still out of sight, but doing the slow, almost silent buck walk. Once in a while he makes just enough noise that I know he is still there. Going right passed me and there is nothing I can do about it. For at least the next 5 minutes he walked the 30 yards to get passed me, all the time below me, out of my sight. He got to the hilltop and picked up the pace. I turned my head to watch him leave. Big boy. Big bodied, probably 170 lbs and a tall, wide rack. For this area a really nice buck. And a freezer filler.

   Again, he got out of my line of sight, down a slight ravine and stopped and snorted, stomped the ground, then silently disappeared. I told myself, sit here 10 minutes, then move 30 yards that way....... he returns that way. But I could hear other deer in the swamp. Never saw them, but heard them. I sat relishing the morning for the next hour plus. Then kicked out a new spot for the morning, and walked home to do my morning chores.

   The king of the swamp. What a majestic creature.He will be a hard one to outsmart. They don't get that old by being dumb. But the king, is on my radar. Maybe I'll get another go at him in the morning.

   Mornings like that make me feel ALIVE! Heightens the senses into laser sharpness.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[dk1677]

Great story Tom! Hope you can bag 'em

[BenjiHunter]

Nice story!!

[amb5500c]

If that don't get your blood boiling, nothing will.
Richard

[bavaria55n]

Great story.
I have never been that close to an owl. That is fantastic.
Had two coyotes walk under me but nothing like that.
One of the things I liked best about deer hunting was all the animals you got to see or sometimes just hear.
A friend of mine had a doe walk up on him while he was eating a sandwich. Didn't notice her till she stepped from behind some brush about 20 yards away and just stared at him. He 'blinked' first. After about 5 minutes he dropped the sandwich and grabbed his gun off his lap, the doe was long gone by the time he got it to his shoulder.

[stonykill]

  Thanks guys! Richard you aren't kidding!

[stonykill]

Great story.
I have never been that close to an owl. That is fantastic.
Had two coyotes walk under me but nothing like that.
One of the things I liked best about deer hunting was all the animals you got to see or sometimes just hear.
A friend of mine had a doe walk up on him while he was eating a sandwich. Didn't notice her till she stepped from behind some brush about 20 yards away and just stared at him. He 'blinked' first. After about 5 minutes he dropped the sandwich and grabbed his gun off his lap, the doe was long gone by the time he got it to his shoulder.

  I was on a different piece of my property on 2 different occasions and had real close encounters with yote's. The 1st time I'm on the ground as always in a natural deadfall blind, and I keep hearing footsteps. Coming in right behind me. Finally the sound got close and I felt uneasy. I turned around and less than 10 yards from me was a yote. He could not run away fast enough. I freaked him out.

  The next real close coyote while deer hunting was right after I got in the woods. A real good buddy of mine was there at sun up and I could not hunt until 9. I radioed him , before cell phone times, and let him know I was sitting in the woods. I sat at the base of a tree and took a sandwich out of my pocket, took a few bites and I hear something on a dead run. Coyote running @s$ over teakettle directly at me. I scoped him, dead run, but coming directly in line with me, running in a perfectly straight line. He got to 20 yards and I squeezed the trigger on my Savage 99 .308 and he was finished. Shot him between his front shoulders. He swung to his left and went a few feet and piled up dead.

   I've had so many close encounters with all kinds of critters over the years. Ground hunting and good still hunting skills get game all over you. I love it.

[stonykill]

 Many years ago, when my daughter was 7 maybe she wanted to go spring turkey hunting with me. I set us up in a nice spot where I knew the deer passed through all of the time. We never saw a turkey other than my decoy, but we saw lots of deer. One doe walked up maybe 10 feet from us. Snuck right in, never saw her coming. She is staring at me. I get my daughters attention and show her. The doe is still just staring. We are only moving our heads. My daughter looks away from the doe. I told her " You might as well enjoy looking at her, she knows you are here" and she did just that. Just enjoyed the moment. Finally Miss doe had enough and blew and bolted about 30 yards. Blew a few more times and finally ran off.

   

[avator]

Good story Tom, You'll get him. We have a big ole owl that hangs out at our place. He dropped right into the back yard the other night. We were at the shooting bench and he came in about 15 ft. from us. So silent, we almost missed seeing him. Then he flew back off into a tree about 30 yds. away and sat there, turning that head from right to left. We have 2 large street light in the back and he was clear as a bell. He hooted a couple times and flew off. I always toss my pest kills up an the lean-to roof for him and the redtail hawk that visit. That 4 wheeler I bought today is really gonna get us out there where stuff is. Here's a sat pic of my stompin ground. The area where the garden, house and barn on the left is 8 acres. So, you can imagine. I even blew it up to show the home property. It goes for miles. Just out of the picture to the right is a river and creek. The area in the center is swamp.

[shadow]

Great story brother and from my experience with those swamp deer, their smart. Ed

[stonykill]

Great story brother and from my experience with those swamp deer, their smart. Ed

 thanks Brother Ed! Indeed they are. I have lived here 25 years and grew up here before that. This was my grandparents place. Once I saw the big buck that was probably this guys grandfather. This buck is probably 5 or 6 years old and I have seen him twice. Once by accident, once on purpose. Chances are the other day was my one run at him.

   But time will tell. Gotta fill all my tags and hopefully he will be one of them.

[yak]

That was a GREAT story.. It got my blood going.
Thanks for that.

Bob