Bow Journal- Hunt #5- An Old Friend, Basket-racks, and Something to Think About

September 24, 2010 Afield and Afloat No Comments

Deer hunting in Nebraska is a very big deal for those who didn’t grow up here. So when I asked lifelong friend Rob Gaia to spend a few days with me chasing Nebraska bucks, he had no problem with the idea. “You just tell me how many vacation days I need to take,” he said. Shortly after, we were booking his flight.

Having fished in eastern Nebraska before and ridden from Omaha to Nebraska City via highways 50 and 2, Rob has always marveled at how much space there is here. “Is it hard to scout,” he said, “When most of the patches of woods are so small?”

Back home, Rob is used to hunting massive tracts of woods with Rob-planted food plots on open grass fields, essentially the norm for a lot of Southern hunters. So when I told him that he’d be hunting over my 50-acre corn food plots, he laughed, cursed me under his breath, and readied his equipment.

Cast in shadows, Rob Gaia sit in the Joshua Tree stand waiting for his first shot at a Nebraska deer.

Arriving last night into Omaha, we quickly discussed plans, told a few lies, and parted until this morning. The plan was for him to hunt the Joshua Tree stand, where Dad got his shot the other day, and I would be back at my same spot as my doe on Wednesday.

While his morning was uneventful, I saw three deer shortly after 8 AM, two basket-racks and one doe. The doe closed to about 45 yards, giving me a broadside shot, yet I wanted her closer. Both of the bucks were smaller than I wanted to shoot today, despite one being a small 8-pointer (4×4 for you Northerners) that was less than 30 yards away from me.

However, I was given something to think about this morning as I readied for the doe to move closer. When sitting in my climber, my view was perfect, with only one small limb to my left blocking my view yet actually providing me a little cover if a deer approached from that direction (i.e. the Deet Deer).

Yet when I stood up to shoot, my open windows closed dramatically. Which leads me to this question for you bowhunters: is it better to hide yourself completely and only shoot through very small windows, or is it better to cut a couple more limbs down around you and give yourself the ability to take longer shots?