Post by dreamrider on Apr 18, 2020 17:53:55 GMT -5
GHOSTS IN THE BUSH!
It is two days after the experiences I had with the short story of NEVER SAY NEVER, and decided to do an evening hunt from a tree stand on another property. I Arrived mid-afternoon in time to meet the land owner and as always asked him about the “do’s and don’ts” while hunting on his property. Even though I had hunted there for many years and knew my way around, and what the land owner expected of me. I always, used common courtesy by asking the same question. I felt it gave the owner a chance to feel included in the hunt, it also gave him the opportunity to change the rules as he, and the changing seasons dictate. He smiled and said “if you get a chance, take out Nuisance I would appreciate it”. Nuisance is a two year old scrubby buck with an attitude. Much to the owners annoyance Nuisance could be found anywhere on the farm, usually somewhere he was not supposed to be. Like in the middle of a valuable crop, gorging himself. He was so blatantly cheeky about it one could almost imagine him laughing as he trotted off to the nearest piece of bush when the owner vented his spleen. Only to emerge shortly after the coast was clear and resume his feast without a care in the world. He had been doing this since he was a scrawny spiker. Last year I had drawn back on him several times, but he had been such an endearing little runt I just never had the heart to put an arrow in him. Well now his days were numbered. “Take him out Ray if you get the opportunity. He is never going to amount to much, besides he is so scrawny I don’t want his genes running around in the future”. Well, when you get those sorts of instructions, for the sake of future harmony with a land owner its “message received”.
I quickly settled into my tree stand which is situated in a line of old pine trees overlooking a small plateau of open grass. Behind this plateau is the most densely covered valley it had ever been my misfortune to get tangled up in. But it also contained a high density of resident deer, hence the tree stand placement. These deer loved coming out onto the plateau just before dark to graze. As I sat there I became aware of a resident buck grunting down near the bottom of the valley. He was really turning it on, but once again I was after a scrubby two or three year old for the freezer so ignored him. The sun was about to set when out of the corner of my eye I saw a young buck coming my way. Slowly readying my bow I waited until he was directly out in front. “Its Nuisance” I thought. He kept walking and it appeared as if he was not going to stop. I let out a single grunt and at twenty yards he froze standing perfectly side on and with some remorse I watched the Easton Pro Hunter shaft tipped with a Slick Trick Magnum zip through his chest and bury itself in the ground. In a blur the young buck did a 180 and scorched the ground heading back the way he had come. I managed to keep him in sight for approximately a hundred yards, expecting him to get the wobbles and tip over, but to my disappointment he kept running strongly until he was out of sight.
I stayed in the stand for ten minutes mulling over in my mind the sequence of events. The buck had been stationary when the arrow had arrived. The arrow had hit perfectly in line with the crease. The arrow had penetrated high in the near side lung and exited low down through the opposite lung, and had completely passed through. “All in all” a text book shot I smugly thought to myself. As the light was starting to fade I thought I had better get after him and retrieve him before it got too dark. The arrow on inspection was slick with blood but I left it buried in the ground to act as a marker. And set off to where I had last seen him, on the way I looked out for a blood trail but it was impossible to pick up amongst the old rust colored pine needles scattered on the ground, which had me more than a little concerned. Without a blood trail it makes tracking nearly impossible. An hour and a half later in pitch blackness, I had to give up as there was no trace of him even when using my head light for the past hour. Plus don’t forget this was in some very unforgiving terrain and without any blood sign it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was so fatigued my legs were barely holding me up and after falling over in an undignified heap three times. I knew it was time to give up for the night.
I returned in the pre-dawn the next morning (one of the advantages of being retired) Walked past my arrow still stuck in the ground and in the improving light really set about the business of finding a blood trail. But nothing until I reached the area when I had last seen him, there I found four drops of blood on an upturned broad leaf. “Ah” I thought blood at last, now I can get down to business trailing him. Two hours later I had still not found any more blood. I had gone back several times to those four spots of blood and with my nose inches from the ground had found nothing. By this time my confidence in my shot placement was being severely shaken.
Taking a break to have a bite and a drink out of my water bottle I decided it was time to set off and bush bash the likely areas. This I did for the next hour. During that time I became acutely aware of the big Buck I had heard the previous night starting up his grunting again. I decided to check him out, while at the same time keeping an eye out for my buck. The big buck was down in the bottom of the valley right on the edge of where the bush stops and the swamp starts. I had no trouble locating him as he was really performing, grunting nonstop and tearing up the undergrowth. Just as I eased up to the edge of a small clearing he came bursting out into the open and I thought he was going to plough me into the ground. Oh man he was magnificent, Jet black in color his swollen neck was as thick as his front quarters. His antlers were huge, way bigger than anything I had ever seen in the wild before. Bigger even than the marvelous buck I had seen a few days ago and spoken of in my “Never say Never” story. As he came crashing towards me my heart skipped a beat (in fact I think it actually stopped) But he didn’t even know I was there as he was intent on chasing a smaller rival away, which the offending buck did by tucking his tail down and exiting the area as fast as he could go. I have watched a lot of Fallow bucks performing over the years. But this guy had me watching in awe. He was in such a worked up state he rampaged around the small clearing tearing up great tufts of turf and tossing them in the air. Small bushes and trees were not immune to his fury. They were being shredded as if they had come out of a shredding machine. I was so close I could see the rage in his blood shot eyes and all the time he was nonstop grunting at a volume that was almost deafening. Suddenly he stopped, lifted his head and with nostrils flaring looked straight at me. Then spun around and crashed out of there at high speed, he had picked up a whiff of my scent in the ever swirling breeze down there.
That image of his jet black, mud splattered body and those spectacular antlers with shredded foliage hanging off them plus those red enraged eyes lunging towards me. That image will stay permanently burnt into my mind until the day I die. Although I carried my bow with me, the thought of having a shot at him never entered my head. Mainly because I was looking for a downed buck plus I did not have the mandate to take him. Later in the day I mentioned him to the land owner. “I am glad you did not take him out” he said. “I would prefer him to be left alone to spread his genes out there , monsters like him don’t come along very often and thanks for respecting that” he said.
But I still had a downed buck to find. So I once again went back to where I had last seen him and started all over again. However by this time I was feeling thoroughly spent and knew this was my last shot at it. Suddenly I heard a small commotion up ahead and out stepped a scrubby buck. “That’s him” I thought. “That’s got to be him, look how he is all hunched up and silently making his way through the bush forty yards away”. “How the blue blazes can he still be alive”? I asked myself. Quickly placing an arrow on my bow I set out to try and get a quick shot at him. Oh poor bu—er I thought, he must have suffered all night. I kept getting fleeting glimpses of him as he moved through the bush but I could not close the gap nor get a clear shot. After following him for some considerable distance he suddenly seemed to vanish into thin air, one second he was there then poof, nothing. I hurried over to the spot I had last seen him and there lying on the ground was my buck. The thought flashed through my mind that I must have disturbed him from his sick bed and the last effort to get away was too much for him and that he had dropped in his tracks. With my bow at the ready I walked up to him and touched his dead glazed eye. No response. I placed my hand on his body and my hair stood on end and I leapt back in horror. He was stone cold and as stiff as a board and had been dead seconds after the arrow had hit him the night before. What the h-ll was going on here. I had just seen him walking away from me seconds ago. I desperately cast about for his tracks but nothing. No tracks coming or going, only the skid marks from the night before when he had gone down while still running. Now, I have never believed in Ghosts and common sense would tell me that the deer I had just followed had been another one entirely and had just by chance led me to my downed buck. But the one I had just followed looked exactly like mine even to the same size and shape of antlers. Also after the initial disturbance of his leaving his bed he moved wraith like flitting through the bush in total silence as if leading me somewhere. Then at this exact same spot, he vanished. Was it his spirit leading me to him, or was it just another deer? I will never know. But then I don’t believe in Ghosts, well at least I don’t think I do!
After the initial shock wore off common sense told me I had to get him into the chiller ASAP. After dragging him for only ten yards up the steep incline, my body screamed enough. So I headed out as fast as I could to seek help. Knowing that the farmer and his worker were feeding out to the farm stock, I raced over to him and said “I have found Nuisance but can’t haul him out” “We will come and help” he said with a big grin on his face. “But before we do take a look over there” he said as he and his worker started to laugh uproariously while pointing to a large paddock nearby with a nice fresh green crop growing in it, and standing there without a care in the world was Nuisance happily munching on a mouth full of the juicy crop. I swear he was smiling at me.
Written by Ray Scott (Dream Rider)
Like all my stories this is true and factual, and only happened yesterday. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed writing it; the words seemed to flow onto the screen almost by themselves. One regret I have is I was unable to photograph the buck. With the tension I was experiencing at the time, the camera was the last thing on my mind and by the time I thought of it the buck was already in the chiller so sorry guys. I hope you enjoy reading it.
It is two days after the experiences I had with the short story of NEVER SAY NEVER, and decided to do an evening hunt from a tree stand on another property. I Arrived mid-afternoon in time to meet the land owner and as always asked him about the “do’s and don’ts” while hunting on his property. Even though I had hunted there for many years and knew my way around, and what the land owner expected of me. I always, used common courtesy by asking the same question. I felt it gave the owner a chance to feel included in the hunt, it also gave him the opportunity to change the rules as he, and the changing seasons dictate. He smiled and said “if you get a chance, take out Nuisance I would appreciate it”. Nuisance is a two year old scrubby buck with an attitude. Much to the owners annoyance Nuisance could be found anywhere on the farm, usually somewhere he was not supposed to be. Like in the middle of a valuable crop, gorging himself. He was so blatantly cheeky about it one could almost imagine him laughing as he trotted off to the nearest piece of bush when the owner vented his spleen. Only to emerge shortly after the coast was clear and resume his feast without a care in the world. He had been doing this since he was a scrawny spiker. Last year I had drawn back on him several times, but he had been such an endearing little runt I just never had the heart to put an arrow in him. Well now his days were numbered. “Take him out Ray if you get the opportunity. He is never going to amount to much, besides he is so scrawny I don’t want his genes running around in the future”. Well, when you get those sorts of instructions, for the sake of future harmony with a land owner its “message received”.
I quickly settled into my tree stand which is situated in a line of old pine trees overlooking a small plateau of open grass. Behind this plateau is the most densely covered valley it had ever been my misfortune to get tangled up in. But it also contained a high density of resident deer, hence the tree stand placement. These deer loved coming out onto the plateau just before dark to graze. As I sat there I became aware of a resident buck grunting down near the bottom of the valley. He was really turning it on, but once again I was after a scrubby two or three year old for the freezer so ignored him. The sun was about to set when out of the corner of my eye I saw a young buck coming my way. Slowly readying my bow I waited until he was directly out in front. “Its Nuisance” I thought. He kept walking and it appeared as if he was not going to stop. I let out a single grunt and at twenty yards he froze standing perfectly side on and with some remorse I watched the Easton Pro Hunter shaft tipped with a Slick Trick Magnum zip through his chest and bury itself in the ground. In a blur the young buck did a 180 and scorched the ground heading back the way he had come. I managed to keep him in sight for approximately a hundred yards, expecting him to get the wobbles and tip over, but to my disappointment he kept running strongly until he was out of sight.
I stayed in the stand for ten minutes mulling over in my mind the sequence of events. The buck had been stationary when the arrow had arrived. The arrow had hit perfectly in line with the crease. The arrow had penetrated high in the near side lung and exited low down through the opposite lung, and had completely passed through. “All in all” a text book shot I smugly thought to myself. As the light was starting to fade I thought I had better get after him and retrieve him before it got too dark. The arrow on inspection was slick with blood but I left it buried in the ground to act as a marker. And set off to where I had last seen him, on the way I looked out for a blood trail but it was impossible to pick up amongst the old rust colored pine needles scattered on the ground, which had me more than a little concerned. Without a blood trail it makes tracking nearly impossible. An hour and a half later in pitch blackness, I had to give up as there was no trace of him even when using my head light for the past hour. Plus don’t forget this was in some very unforgiving terrain and without any blood sign it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was so fatigued my legs were barely holding me up and after falling over in an undignified heap three times. I knew it was time to give up for the night.
I returned in the pre-dawn the next morning (one of the advantages of being retired) Walked past my arrow still stuck in the ground and in the improving light really set about the business of finding a blood trail. But nothing until I reached the area when I had last seen him, there I found four drops of blood on an upturned broad leaf. “Ah” I thought blood at last, now I can get down to business trailing him. Two hours later I had still not found any more blood. I had gone back several times to those four spots of blood and with my nose inches from the ground had found nothing. By this time my confidence in my shot placement was being severely shaken.
Taking a break to have a bite and a drink out of my water bottle I decided it was time to set off and bush bash the likely areas. This I did for the next hour. During that time I became acutely aware of the big Buck I had heard the previous night starting up his grunting again. I decided to check him out, while at the same time keeping an eye out for my buck. The big buck was down in the bottom of the valley right on the edge of where the bush stops and the swamp starts. I had no trouble locating him as he was really performing, grunting nonstop and tearing up the undergrowth. Just as I eased up to the edge of a small clearing he came bursting out into the open and I thought he was going to plough me into the ground. Oh man he was magnificent, Jet black in color his swollen neck was as thick as his front quarters. His antlers were huge, way bigger than anything I had ever seen in the wild before. Bigger even than the marvelous buck I had seen a few days ago and spoken of in my “Never say Never” story. As he came crashing towards me my heart skipped a beat (in fact I think it actually stopped) But he didn’t even know I was there as he was intent on chasing a smaller rival away, which the offending buck did by tucking his tail down and exiting the area as fast as he could go. I have watched a lot of Fallow bucks performing over the years. But this guy had me watching in awe. He was in such a worked up state he rampaged around the small clearing tearing up great tufts of turf and tossing them in the air. Small bushes and trees were not immune to his fury. They were being shredded as if they had come out of a shredding machine. I was so close I could see the rage in his blood shot eyes and all the time he was nonstop grunting at a volume that was almost deafening. Suddenly he stopped, lifted his head and with nostrils flaring looked straight at me. Then spun around and crashed out of there at high speed, he had picked up a whiff of my scent in the ever swirling breeze down there.
That image of his jet black, mud splattered body and those spectacular antlers with shredded foliage hanging off them plus those red enraged eyes lunging towards me. That image will stay permanently burnt into my mind until the day I die. Although I carried my bow with me, the thought of having a shot at him never entered my head. Mainly because I was looking for a downed buck plus I did not have the mandate to take him. Later in the day I mentioned him to the land owner. “I am glad you did not take him out” he said. “I would prefer him to be left alone to spread his genes out there , monsters like him don’t come along very often and thanks for respecting that” he said.
But I still had a downed buck to find. So I once again went back to where I had last seen him and started all over again. However by this time I was feeling thoroughly spent and knew this was my last shot at it. Suddenly I heard a small commotion up ahead and out stepped a scrubby buck. “That’s him” I thought. “That’s got to be him, look how he is all hunched up and silently making his way through the bush forty yards away”. “How the blue blazes can he still be alive”? I asked myself. Quickly placing an arrow on my bow I set out to try and get a quick shot at him. Oh poor bu—er I thought, he must have suffered all night. I kept getting fleeting glimpses of him as he moved through the bush but I could not close the gap nor get a clear shot. After following him for some considerable distance he suddenly seemed to vanish into thin air, one second he was there then poof, nothing. I hurried over to the spot I had last seen him and there lying on the ground was my buck. The thought flashed through my mind that I must have disturbed him from his sick bed and the last effort to get away was too much for him and that he had dropped in his tracks. With my bow at the ready I walked up to him and touched his dead glazed eye. No response. I placed my hand on his body and my hair stood on end and I leapt back in horror. He was stone cold and as stiff as a board and had been dead seconds after the arrow had hit him the night before. What the h-ll was going on here. I had just seen him walking away from me seconds ago. I desperately cast about for his tracks but nothing. No tracks coming or going, only the skid marks from the night before when he had gone down while still running. Now, I have never believed in Ghosts and common sense would tell me that the deer I had just followed had been another one entirely and had just by chance led me to my downed buck. But the one I had just followed looked exactly like mine even to the same size and shape of antlers. Also after the initial disturbance of his leaving his bed he moved wraith like flitting through the bush in total silence as if leading me somewhere. Then at this exact same spot, he vanished. Was it his spirit leading me to him, or was it just another deer? I will never know. But then I don’t believe in Ghosts, well at least I don’t think I do!
After the initial shock wore off common sense told me I had to get him into the chiller ASAP. After dragging him for only ten yards up the steep incline, my body screamed enough. So I headed out as fast as I could to seek help. Knowing that the farmer and his worker were feeding out to the farm stock, I raced over to him and said “I have found Nuisance but can’t haul him out” “We will come and help” he said with a big grin on his face. “But before we do take a look over there” he said as he and his worker started to laugh uproariously while pointing to a large paddock nearby with a nice fresh green crop growing in it, and standing there without a care in the world was Nuisance happily munching on a mouth full of the juicy crop. I swear he was smiling at me.
Written by Ray Scott (Dream Rider)
Like all my stories this is true and factual, and only happened yesterday. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed writing it; the words seemed to flow onto the screen almost by themselves. One regret I have is I was unable to photograph the buck. With the tension I was experiencing at the time, the camera was the last thing on my mind and by the time I thought of it the buck was already in the chiller so sorry guys. I hope you enjoy reading it.
