That's Just The Way It Goes

I recently became a member of the Frontier Wildlife Association in Manitoba. Members pay an annual fee and have access to an old one room school house that has been converted into a hunting lodge of sorts. I had only been to the place once before to check it out when I first joined and had never seen any of the trails or hunting areas before this weekend.

After a few delays due to a nearly blown truck tire (and possibly a hangover or two) we headed out around 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon, arriving there at about 4. We hauled in all of our gear and jumped back in the truck to go check out the area. Before we even made it to Crown land we spotted a deer in an alfalfa field that was one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen, a true monster. We excitedly drove around the corner and up the edge of the field to see if we could catch a closer glimpse of him. There was a bushline separating the road from the field and we actually drove up right beside him and saw his rack through the brush, for about half a second before he took off.

We continued on up the road where all the trails branch off of and checked out a few spots. There was tons of bear sign and deer tracks galore. Most of the people out there use the area for rifle hunting so none of the existing stands were really suitable for archery use. I had brought a hang on tree stand but I decided I wanted to try to hunt from the ground since we were only going to be there for two days. On our drive that night we saw 14 deer with a possible second sighting of the monster back in the field with some other deer later on.

All day sunday and monday morning I sat or stood under cover with packed down deer trails in sight but nothing came my way. I only saw two deer while I was actually in the woods hunting and not driving in the truck (which annoyingly always seems to be the way), and I totally blew my chance with the two bucks. It was the Sunday morning and I had sat for about three hours and was slowly stalking my way back out of the bush, still on the lookout for a bear or deer that may happen to pop out. I made it to the point where I could see my truck about a hundred yards in front of me and figured I was done. I was looking down unclipping the buckle on my pack and let out a little cough. The next thing I know I hear loud blowing and whistling and stomping feet. I snapped my head up and watched two tails twenty yards in front of me bound away. I could still hear them snorting away in the bush where they went in heading for the road by my truck. I started for the road then something in my head told me to go back the other way and down the other side of the 'y' intersection I had just come out. I put my pack down and tried to quickly get down the other trail. They came out right in front of me about fourty yards away just flying over the trail still blowing and snorting. I tried a little whistle to stop them but it was futile. They were gone.

A little disappointing missing the one chance I had at a shot but all in all still a good weekend. As my friend Tom would say, "That's just the way it goes!"

We are heading out to Tim's cottage now where I have a stand up and ready to go. Maybe I will have some luck there. I'm hoping to see a particular buck that I saw on 3 seperate occasions last year. We shall see.