Not an exact science

Several trucks rolled down the highway behind me and onto the gravel drive that extended to the yellow gate. I knew what it meant. A dog drive was getting underway on the adjoining property. From my elevated stand, I could see the orange clad hunters taking their positions out in the clear-cut.

Doors slammed, tailgates dropped, and a few hollers of encouragement were offered to the hounds. It was just now good daylight, and I had a decision to make. Should I stay here and hope that the hounds chase a buck in my direction, or should I move, I wondered?

I checked the wind again. It was out of the southeast, blowing directly toward the dog drive. If a buck was roused by the hounds, or even if one tried to sneak out in my direction, the wind would reveal my presence. I thought it unlikely that a deer would get on it's feet and stroll in from another direction with the drive going on right next door. I elected to move.

After a brisk walk back to the truck, I drove around to another section of the club. On the way, I got a text from Shannon. He had seen a monster buck chasing two does just down the hill from his stand, but he couldn't get a shot. The stand that I was headed to was next to his location. Maybe that monster buck would come my way.

Walking to the stand I got another text, "Someone just shot." Then, "I heard dogs, and another shot." He was hearing the same dog drive that I had moved away from. Shannon is from Texas and has never been exposed to a deer drive with hounds.

The drive was across a wide swamp from him, but the wind was blowing in his direction, and it made their hunt sound much closer. "It sounds like they're right on top of me hollering," then "mind if I sneak into your other stand for a few minutes?" I answered "go ahead."

I couldn't hear the dog drive from my new location, and I was hopeful that the big buck might chase a doe in my direction. The morning was cool and bright. The woods were beautiful, and I felt like I could sit there all day. Then "boom," a rifle shot startled me. It was toward my other stand.

There are trail camera pictures of two good bucks coming to that stand, but I had hunted there a half dozen times, without seeing a single deer. I texted Shannon "did you just shoot?" He sent me a picture of a big buck, then added "I walked up the road to your stand, and he was coming out." What luck!

I got down and drove around to Shannon's location. He was loading the buck on his four-wheeler for the short ride back to his truck. We admired the buck and took some pictures. Shannon offered to let me hunt his stand just down the road that evening, and I accepted. I was anxious to see his set-up at one of our food plots, and I was doubtful that another buck would come out at this location later the same day after all this disturbance.

After Shannon left with his buck, I drove around the neighborhood and encountered some of the dog drive hunters. I had a nice visit with Jason and his daughter on the power line, where our properties meet. We had hunted together in Clarendon County years ago. Later, I picked up a couple of their tired hounds trotting down the road and returned them.

That afternoon, I returned to hunt Shannon's stand. I drove the little woodland road past my stand and stopped at the bottom of the hill below the food plot. I sat in his double ladder stand until dark and saw two does out in the surrounding piney woods, but no bucks. It was nice to look at a different landscape, for an afternoon.

The next day Shannon sent me a picture from the camera at my stand. The one I had driven past. It was the monster buck in my corn pile at 6:37 p.m. He was there while I was sitting in Shannon's stand just down the road. Well, I guess it's not an exact science; it's hunting.