We wanted to share a successful hunting story that was emailed to us by one of our readers, Zach Wolfe. Zach had a successful hunt on Thursday 11-17-2011 at Liberty Watershed and shared his story and some photos with us.
Here is Zach’s story:
Well, the season for the most part started off slow. I also do not have private land to hunt locally, so I decided to test my ability hunting at Liberty Watershed. I found some decent spots in the beginning of the season, but the spots didn’t seem to be producing the number of deer that I was hoping to see. Well, I’m lucky enough to work in the hunting department at Dick’s Sporting Goods and I get daily insights and knowledge of hot spots at Liberty from educated hunters in the area. So, I scouted the first location mentioned to me by about four different customers. I set up for the first time at the spot the Saturday evening it was snowing/raining. This part of Liberty backs up to a big privately owned horse farm. The deer were moving early to stay warm. I saw about fifteen deer, which resulted in my adrenaline reaching its climax. Sure enough a decent doe that I had been watching took those long anticipated steps within bow range. At this point in the hunt, it was almost past shooting light. So, I struggled to turn on the black light on my sights to light up my pins. I pulled back, got a natural sight alignment, and let my arrow fly. I made a good pass through shot, and came back the following morning to recover my first deer taken on public land. I was immediately hooked! I put in my time in that area in the weeks to come. I rattled in a monstrous nine point which decided to walk underneath my buddy’s climber who was set up thirty yards from me. Long story short… he missed the eight yard shot at the monster, buck fever at its best I guess. Two days ago, I decided to take up another location at Liberty which I had been told numerous successful stories about from the customers in my department. I had not had a chance to scout the area at all. So with rain expected in the forecast and going in blind, I made it out to the location extra early the morning of 11-17-2011. I walked a good way back and kept to my right as I was told by my customers. I found a location about seventy yards from the water. It had a huge clearing with a huge thicket leading up to the woods behind it. I decided this was the spot, hoping to pull a possible bedding buck from the thick. I got up in my climber, and waited about an hour before sun light. Around seven a.m. I decided to do my signature sequence. This included the primo’s long can doe estrus call, followed by some tandem grunts, ending with a rattling sequence. Sure enough about twenty minutes later I heard some ruckus in the thick. I respectable eight point appeared out of bow range. I tried to draw his attention my way with a few grunt calls and some rattling, but he wasn’t interested. About twenty five minutes later, I heard what I thought was a grunt coming from my left. I picked my grunt call up and hit it a few times. Sure enough a buck appeared, quite angry at that, trotting at a decent pace. He was headed about thirty five yards behind my stand. So, I stood up, picked up my bow and got ready. I had only one shooting lane in the path that I predicted him to take. He indeed traced my path. As soon as he entered my AO, I gave him a loud “merrp” and he stopped. I saw his antlers, decided to take a shot, pulled back, released the air from my lungs, and slowly pulled my trigger release. The arrow hit the intended spot. I waited a grueling hour, felt like a lifetime, and climbed down. I found my arrow, clean pass through, a lot of hair and good blood. However, no blood trail whatsoever. So, I walked over to the last spot that I saw him run. Surely enough he had expired in the last area that I had seen him alive. He turned out to be a respectable six point, missing the G one on his right side, and G three on the left. So I am no longer hooked on hunting public land, I’m addicted! Finding the right spots, combined with a little luck, some knowledge, and a little help from my customers, I was lucky enough to harvest my second deer on public land. I hope you enjoyed my story, keep up the good work, and best wishes of safety and success during your hunting season.
Pictured below are both Zach's harvests mentioned above in the story.
Great job Zach, glad you have already had two successful hunts on some of Maryland's public land. Congrats! Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your hunts!
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