Whitetail Journal: October 1st, 2026 Opening Day

There is nothing quite like an opening day sit after after 9 months since the last time on stand.  It was 65°F this afternoon when I arrived at the Hill Farm and started my hike in to a stand on the south ridge of the farm.  This is a small 60 acre farm we've been hunting now for 4 yrs.  I have heavy hardwoods and cedars to my north and a few hundred acres of standing corn to my south.  The spot sets up perfect for a NE wind in the afternoon and safe this time of year.  Easy in, easy out and zero intrusion.

Hopes were somewhat high of laying eyes on a buck we call "Duece".  I passed this buck twice last year as a 140" 8 pt. early season and boy am I glad I did.  Duece has blown up into a big 10 now with a big split G2 on his right and looks to be a shooter.  We've had several trail cam pics of him recently on the farm and fairly confident he was bedding on a thick cedar ridge in the center of the farm.  We have a few other bucks we have a long history with as well including one rightfully named "Lucky" who has been MIA since spring.  We know he survived the winter as we have pics of him late March just starting to grow in velvet and the bases were the size of pop cans, sense then....notta.  Regardless, the mission tonight was to hopefully lay eyes on Duece.

I arrived on stand by 4:45 pm and it didn't take long and deer were on their feet.  Two doe's would feed across the standing corn two my south and a small 2 1/2 yo buck would walk directly below me on the fence line.  A short time later a small buck worked his way across the grass ridge below me from the south east heading towards my stand along with two more doe's following close behind.  They would browse their way past my stand and enter the hardwoods just north of me.  Another nice 2 1/2 yo buck entered the standing corn around 7 pm and that's when things quickly got interesting.  The silence in the woods north of me was broken by breaking branches and the sound of movement.  A coyote had worked his way up the main ridge from the north and jumped a deer.  Both were now heading my way fast.  Just as I hit record on the camera out stepped Duece in a hurry.  Duece trotted into my shooting lane at 38 yard, I let out the "maaa", stopped him and let her fly.  To say I was worked up is probably an understatement.  Between the chaos of trying to quickly get the cams all running,  figuring out my range and the fact Duece was 15 to 20 inches larger than I had expected, I simply panicked and rushed the shot.  I ended up shooting just low, clean miss and would watch Duece disappear in the woods below.  

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I'd like to have some elaborate story about hitting an unseen branch, Duece ducking my arrow like a ninja, or a 1 in a million equipment failure to blame this embarrassing moment on but the fact is Buck Fever got me.  Even after 30 years of chasing they still get to me.  I guess if they didn't, I would have quit the chase a long time ago.  In the end, Duece survives another day and hopefully we get another chance at him soon.

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