At 7:30 I had a nice little 8 point poking along and stopped 30 yards downhill from me. Slightly quarter too but I’m not confident to shoot 30 without being level with the deer. So I took my chance to see if he would turn and come up the logging path towards me, or pass behind me.
He chose to go behind, and slowly picked his way along but seeming focused on what he was doing. At an even steeper downhill angle he was quartered away at 27 yards. I even stepped down a rung on my ladder to try for a better angle. I steadied myself and as he passed behind a big tree, when he stepped out there were several small branches I worried might mess up the shot so yet again this season I passed.
Moments later here came two nice does from where he went. They stood about 5 yards from the base of my tree so I couldn’t do anything without getting busted. They got nervous and walked off from where they came.
I just did some more pruning and now have much clearer shot to that trail. And for the record, I tried to grunt at him when he was waking off and he paid it no mind.