I had been sick for a day and a half, spent 20+ hrs in bed, and the prettiest day of the wk was upon us. So at 2:35 I slipped into the new box stand overlooking some wheat. I settled in, getting my gear set up and made a few light grunts on the tube.
Within 5 minutes a doe appeared to my left, less than a hundred yds away, feeding in the wheat sprouts. I figured her to be a good decoy, but also figured that if she was still out there just before dark, which was 2-1/2 hrs away yet, I might just fill my doe tag.
Well, not 15 minutes later a good buck came into the field from the same route the doe had traveled. He was at a brisk walk coming in my direction and never paying attention to the doe at first. I thought he might just walk to me, so I readied the Encore in 7mm-08.
Then he stopped as he was even with the doe, about 75 yds out, and stared right at me, even though I knew he couldn't see me in the blind nor smell me due to the wind direction. I had to wait a minute for him to look away in order to move my pistol and clear a tree before I could take a shot.
This was the first time in years that I remember getting a little shakey, I thought that was pretty cool. But I settled down properly for the shot as he turned with an outstretched neck toward the doe.
At the shot, he ran about 30-40 yds and piled up. This was at 3:02. You just never know when you might experience some action and I hadn't anticipated any really for at least another hour.
