I got to the lease early again as is my habit.  I like to get my choice of stands.  The stars were still bright in the sky when I signed in, so I sat in the warmth of my truck for fifteen minutes just relaxing and anticipating the hunt.  When it was time to go in to the woods, I drove past my stand and parked my truck a good bit up the road, out of sight of the tree that I would be hunting from.

As soon as it became daylight, I saw a big doe about 100 yards out in front of me.  I wanted to take her, but she didn't linger long enough for me to confirm that she was a doe and not a spike.  As she passed from view, I looked down into the pines to my left and saw another deer.  This one was a spike, so I had to leave him alone.  I watched him feed for awhile, hoping that something bigger would come out, but he soon left on his own.

As things settled down, I glanced back up the road over my shoulder and saw another buck heading my way.  This one was a big four pointer, and he was traveling the wood line to my right.  He never hesitated as he made his way along the edge of the woods, and once I saw him leap over a cluster of young gum trees.  He was soon out of sight.

A bit later, I caught more movement in the road at the far end of my viewing distance, and through my binoculars confirmed that I was looking at two does.  They were partially obscured by brush, and I had no shot opportunity.  They soon disappeared, heading down the road away from my stand. 

Things were quiet for the next hour or so, and as 10:00am rolled around I was about ready to get down from my stand.  I decided to try my "The Can" call a few times just to see what would happen.  The rut should be here soon, and this is a great call that mimics the bleat of a doe that is ready to breed.  I sounded the call four or five times, then set it down and looked around.  Almost immediately I saw another doe way out at the far end of my view.  She looked like a decent sized one, so I raised my rifle and fired.  She fled, and as I watched through my scope I saw one, two, three more deer follow behind her.  Seconds later, I heard a crack that I hoped was the deer that I had shot at crashing to the ground.   

I couldn't tell from the doe's reaction if I had hit her or not, but I felt good about the shot, and the sound I had heard added to my hopes.  I raised my rifle again and looked through the scope, finding the spot where the deer had been standing when I shot.  I was looking for a landmark; something to use to try to find the start of a blood trail.  There were no distinguishing trees or bushes in the general vicinity of the shot, but I noticed the sunlight making a peculiar splash across the ground right about where the deer had been standing.  I knew this would only last for a few minutes, so I gathered my gear and lowered it to the ground, climbed down and walked back up the road to my truck.  Once there, I stripped out of my heavy camo overalls because I knew I had a tracking job ahead of me and didn't want to get overheated.

I parked down near the sunlit patch of ground and began a slow walk down the road looking for blood or fresh scuff marks in the dirt.  Finding nothing, I kept walking, glancing back occasionally until the stand was out of sight.  I turned and started back toward the truck, this time moving a little more slowly.  I offered up a quick prayer asking for a recovery of the deer, and almost immediately saw a thin line of blood on the ground. 

Ok, here we go, I thought.  I marked the spot, then entered the woods.  Once I got a general direction of travel established, I stopped looking for individual blood spots and instead began to look for the deer.  The crashing sound I had heard was not real deep in the woods, so when I had made a 50 yard loop without finding anything, I went back to the last known blood spot and inspected the ground.

The blood was bright red indicating a good hit, and although the trail was not heavy, it was pretty constant.  Picking it up again, I found where I had made my mistake, and soon found myself looking at my deer laying dead on the ground in front of me.