SADDLE STAND
Oct 21, 2018 - Today was our first set on the Saddle Stand, a ridge on one of my properties that reminds me a lot of my most productive spot from West Virginia many years ago. A depression in a long oak ridge maybe 60 yards in length where it seems any animal that wants to cross over this particular ridge funnels everything into this section. It sits way back off any road and is a hassle to get to but has produced day after day as trail camera pictures show. I have been standing at my camera and deer will funnel through and pay me zero attention. Daylight pictures of the largest buck on the ridge in the 2, 3 and 5 O'clock hours show the animals have no worries during daylight hours here.
Well I saved this spot for my son Hunter and the first day did not disappoint.
We hit the ridge around 2:30 PM as most of the good action was from 3 PM until dark and not 20 minutes into the stand the first deer began to funnel through the area. The first deer sighted was a doe by my son and as we watched there were more and more behind coming through the tight brush side of the ridge straight through the funnel. My son began to reach for his 308 Hog Hunter as he told me he had spotted a buck. The deer were tight in on us so movement was slow so I did not reach for the weapon topped with my X Sight 4K to record. I got my binoculars up and confirmed it was the heavy beamed eight that ruled this particular ridge. According to our pictures, for the moment he was the ruler on this ridge and the buck picked by my son to be his and off limits to me. Broad daylight deer are skittish enough and the herds ears were constantly moving as we all listened to neighbors working in their yards.Three doe crested the ridge and one fed on their favorite oak with the buck scanning the area licking his nose constantly to check his closest girlfriend. Three times he creeped closer to the shooting lane until my son could see his head and neck entering . I held the binoculars just waiting for the shot as I knew there was no way this buck was leaving his girlfriends.
We had watched this buck ease toward our lane for close to ten minutes as his does fed 20 yards from us in our blind.
Suddenly, the three does that crossed the ridge ran back at the buck and remaining doe. Something had spooked the three lead does and the herd ran off the way they came. Soon we knew the culprits that spooked the buck on our ridge, three hogs crested the hill and crossed in the saddle.
Irony hit the hog hunter as our usual quarry had thwarted our harvest of a buck that would have been Hunter's best to date. Hunter was able to capture the encounter on our ATN THOR 4 and it was a great lesson as we planned for our next set on this spot. The set up was rushed due to the distance from any access to the property and a simple choice on which side of the set up Hunter sat gave me a better look at the buck and cost him this chance. We will always remember this first hunt in the SC saddle, a large buck, five total deer ,three hogs and three longbeards crossed that saddle that afternoon. Not a bad day in the SC woods after all. We look forward to meeting up with this deer again soon.
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