After waiting 345 days for the NYS opener I found myself sitting on a southern tier mountaintop. The morning was beautiful with temps in the 20's. The spot I hung the stands 5 weeks earlier looked completely different due to the lack of foliage but I was pleasantly surpirsed that my shooting lanes had stretched out sconsiderably. The laurels are so thick I've never seen anything like it.
After a chilly morning the sun started to warm and i settled into my all day sit. At around 12noon I was I noticed movement coming up the draw, and that was the first time I saw my deer. It was amazing how they move through those laurels, I cant walk two feet without tripping and they could move with out making a noise. He came in upwind with the sun in his face, I guess it was just my day.
I grabbed the gun and gave a little whistled and squezed the trigger, he dropped on the spot. I put another in the chamber and just held on the spot for a follow up but another shot never presented itself, and then the woods went back to silence.
I got down ready to bear hug my trophy but I coulnt make any progress, the laurels had me literally tangled. Then I got turned around, Long story short it took me 1.5hr and a lot of cursing to find my trophy that wasn't more than 80 yards away. My cousin who had the present of mind to do a more organized grid search ultimately found my.
What an amazing hunt. It will be with me forever.
