SCOUTING TO FILL TAGS

I’d known the small water hole was about a quarter of the way up the ridge. Frankly, I knew the farm very well, but the water hole just wasn’t positioned right. It was on the opposite side of the crop-filled valley from where the bucks bedded, and they had water on that side, too. Why drop down a steep ridge, cross a bunch of open food, only to climb a quarter the way up the opposite side to get a drink, when a great water source was right near their beds? I’d pretty much ignored that side, as the big boys lived on the other ridge.

Fast forward to late October the following season and I was just climbing up the stand I’d set on that pond. Just having strapped my Hunter Saftey System in, before even getting the bow up, I heard him coming in fast! The following 90ish seconds were about as high stress as they come, as I had to get the bow up, in hand, knock an arrow and pull off