Well, last Saturday was an interesting bow hunt in the MS Delta.
I have been hunting a new property that I have access to. It is a 400 +/- acre block of woods that borders a WMA. I have scouted it some, not much, but some and found some promising areas.
I got to the stand well before daylight and climbed the tree up to about 22 feet. And as with the last few hunts that was the extent of it for the next several hours. No squirrels, no birds, and not much of anything moving. I was so bored I started to play solitaire on my phone. The boredom surmounted at about 8:45 when I put a deadline on the hunt. If I didn't see anything by 9AM I was leaving.
When 9:05 rolled around, I was so disgusted with my luck I decided to throw all my preparations out the window. All the scentless soap, shampoo, deodorant, clothes detergent, etc. It was obviously not doing me any good. So I decided to light a cigarette and then leave (I know, smart). No sooner than I let the cig, and sat back down to enjoy the last few minutes in the stand, than I see a bobcat. A big bobcat.
This little sucker came into the finger of woods I was in, out of a 4 -5 year old pine thicket. I saw him at about 60 yards and drew on him at about 50. Luckily he decided to come my way. He stopped, peed on a stump, and came in to 15 yards. He stopped at 15 yards, and I RELEASED MY ARROW. It was no more than an inch over his back.
He jumped and ran to about 10 yards in front of me as I tried to get an arrow out of my quiver that is tied to the side of my climber. There I stand with cig hanging out of my mouth, smoke in my eyes, and him glancing at me. He looked at me 2 or 3 times as he casually walked off. I finally got an arrow out and knocked it. He stopped at 30 and turned broad side behind a small branch to see what the deal was. I had to shoot thru some small twigs and leaves, but heard the arrow hit home. He then bolted, ran about 40 yards and piled up.
So, I sat back down to wait my 30 minutes to make sure he was dead. No more than 3 minutes later, here comes another one from a different direction. I only assume that the squirrel hunters were getting to close for his comfort. This time was basically the same story with two misses and no cig. He came in, I missed at 15 yards, he jumped a few yards and stopped at thirty. He jumped the string and ran before the second arrow got there.
I searched for 30 minutes but could not find the big cat I hit, so I went to the house to get the dog. We found him after about another 30 minutes of looking. He was 31 inches from nose to the base of his tail and the second one wasn't too much smaller. He is at the taxidermist now getting mounted in an attack position that I am going to add a wood duck to later. Hope it comes out as good as I think it will.
