Woman Midwest-style

IShot this 10 pt bruiser yesterday. View from our land owner's mile high stand and he loaned me his 270. One shot in lungs. Two kickers behind the brow base makes 10 points! He said he knew the second I was gonna shoot, I got the most determined look on my face... ZOOM in onto the red maple on the bottom left of pic, I shot THRU that - couldn't center the scope to see it clearly. But I heard him, Paul saw antlers, tapped my shoulder said, "buck". Its head was lowered down, sniffing for the doe he was following, I couldn't see -- damn near stood up. Just that second, I got his antlers in the scope. Paul whispered, "if u want him... " flipped the safety off as I pulled my glove off with my teeth. I slid the scope onto his shoulder below and squeezed the trigger.He FLOPPED. No jump, no run, no tracking. I got 'im! We waited forty minutes in case the doe it was following would come in. We climbed down. Paul cut, I pulled out the guts. W

O pening day 2013.  After ten hours, f inally, I had a deer in sight. I tracked the doe through silver maples, too skinny for a tree stand or to shield me from view. That same second, she caught scent of me just as I raised my 243 ... I hadn't meant to be in close range, but there she was. I heard her and she knew I was too close, in the same thicket as she stood, silent, barely visible, save those ears twitching. I stopped breathing.  She flipped her fluffy white flag up, in five bounds s he disappeared beyond the ripe soybean field, into private timber. Had she seen me jerk my rifle to shoot? Or caught a whiff of human? Maybe her radar heard the tiny twig snap under my boot?      An island of a dozen sparsely leafed trees shielded me from view, where I sat for two hours on a huge flat oak stump. I watched the tree line for the doe to come back out to feed. I was in no hurry, very comfortable in my short sleeves. The light breeze in my hair, the bluejays “caw cawed” i

It's a wonder there's any game in these woods at all bein's it's wicked wilderness so thick with brush you can't see past thirty yards..   Big deer abound in river bottoms and its hillsides, often coming into the upper fields to feed at night, there at Urich Conservation Area . Flocks of turkey roost in the oaks and tall sycamore trees in the surrounding flood-prone bottoms that more resembles a swamp than a creek. We were after those birds. A few years back in the fall, I guess my husband just wanted to show me around so he motioned me to stay close -- we didn't split up -- alright by me, I didn't want to wander by myself till I knew the area better. T oo easy to get lost in t hose bottoms, gave me the willies.   We hiked down the steep, bare path winding into the creek basin, shotguns in hand,  turkey hunting in the swamp during a dry spell.  Obviously my husband had hunted this before; Ed knew the way, was surefooted, not slowin