Tonight was the first afternoon I have been able to hunt this season. I have permission to hunt 15 acres in Medina, but only with my neighbor(he actually has permission but he can bring 1 person with him). He typically hunts rifle season in NY so I have been teaching him bow hunting tactics. I have been running cameras since August and putting out corn weekly. I set up two of my tree stands one for each of us. I basically have been taking the lead.
We have had only 1 good buck showing up on camera all season. He has not had any pattern, but shows up during legal hours about once a week. The rest were spikes and 6 points and about 4 does. The good buck is a huge wide 6x6 with a sticker on his base. To me a buck of a lifetime. Our schedules have only aligned two days before today and we didn't see a deer. Today we hunted the morning and again saw nothing. This afternoon we get to our stands about 2:45 and I spook one of the small bucks getting on stand. I figure that was the only thing we would see so my expectations were not high. About 430 I catch movement from where the 6 point I spooked came ran off to. Then I notice it is the giant as I see his rack at about 75 yards. He is coming on a string. Right at me the whole way he comes to 15 yards looks right at me. I thought he was going to turn and take off. Instead he just turns quartering away and starts to walk. He gets to maybe 18/20 yards and I grunt to stop him. He stops I put the pin on him and hit my release. I hear which and as he runs away I see my arrow high on the shoulder blade only about 6" of penetration. I don't know what happened if I rushed the shot, jerked the release, or just had buck fever. He runs right by my neighbors stand and I hear his crossbow go off.
I get down and and we meet. He missed and I find my arrow broke off with about 6" of penetration. My neighbor saw him run down the hill and cross the street. We only find a few specs of blood and track him for 200 yards by his tracks and find a small spec of blood every 30-50 yards. I know it was not a fatal shot, but I also know I will never see this deer again. There are no other shooters on this property so I feel like I blew my whole season. It is a tough pill to swallow. I am sorry for the long post but I have to vent. I have attached trail am picture of this buck. I am trying to post a trail am pic of this buck but I can't figure out how on my iPad.
We have had only 1 good buck showing up on camera all season. He has not had any pattern, but shows up during legal hours about once a week. The rest were spikes and 6 points and about 4 does. The good buck is a huge wide 6x6 with a sticker on his base. To me a buck of a lifetime. Our schedules have only aligned two days before today and we didn't see a deer. Today we hunted the morning and again saw nothing. This afternoon we get to our stands about 2:45 and I spook one of the small bucks getting on stand. I figure that was the only thing we would see so my expectations were not high. About 430 I catch movement from where the 6 point I spooked came ran off to. Then I notice it is the giant as I see his rack at about 75 yards. He is coming on a string. Right at me the whole way he comes to 15 yards looks right at me. I thought he was going to turn and take off. Instead he just turns quartering away and starts to walk. He gets to maybe 18/20 yards and I grunt to stop him. He stops I put the pin on him and hit my release. I hear which and as he runs away I see my arrow high on the shoulder blade only about 6" of penetration. I don't know what happened if I rushed the shot, jerked the release, or just had buck fever. He runs right by my neighbors stand and I hear his crossbow go off.
I get down and and we meet. He missed and I find my arrow broke off with about 6" of penetration. My neighbor saw him run down the hill and cross the street. We only find a few specs of blood and track him for 200 yards by his tracks and find a small spec of blood every 30-50 yards. I know it was not a fatal shot, but I also know I will never see this deer again. There are no other shooters on this property so I feel like I blew my whole season. It is a tough pill to swallow. I am sorry for the long post but I have to vent. I have attached trail am picture of this buck. I am trying to post a trail am pic of this buck but I can't figure out how on my iPad.
