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The crossbow buck

buckbuster217

*Supporting Member*
3,136
85
Byesville, Ohio
As everyone knows I have been hunting off the ground this year due to having both my hips replaced in the last 10 months, this has really been a totally different season for me all the way around. I started the year out hunting from ground blinds with my compound but really dont like sitting in a blind all that well due to the limited visibility and such so I bought me a ghillie suit and decided to give it a go on the ground. The first few sits were really an eye opener and I soon realized that it was possible to kill a deer from the ground with a compound but its completely different than sitting in a stand with a bow.
One of my buddies said he would loan me his crossbow if I wanted so I took him up on the offer and brought it home and shot it for a few nights after work and became pretty proficient with it so I decided to start hunting from the ground with it. As I posted the other night I got permission to hunt a property that I had lost a few years ago so I headed there today. I walked into the place with a certain spot in mind that I wanted to sit this afternoon, on my way in I was still hunting as it is a long walk to the spot I wanted to sit. I was walking a old logging road and had came across several scrapes that had been freshened up in the last day and was about halfway to my spot when I saw the perfect setup, it was in a small clearing that that the logging road ran through and had a blown down tree on its edge and the wind was right so I decided this would be my spot for the evening. I got everything ready, got my ghillie suit on, my seat situated in the tree top and sit down to wait. Most of the afternoon had went by very uneventfully until approximately 4:30.
I looked down the logging road to my left and seen a rack slowly coming up over the hill about 60 yards out, I turned on the red dot and flipped the safety off and brought the crossbow up and got ready, the buck was at a slow walk and steadily gaining ground quickly my way. I scanned ahead of him and found a few lanes to shoot in and when he hit the first one I grunted at him and he just kept on trucking, I let him get to the next one which was only 11 yards from me and grunted alittle louder at him this time, he locked up like a statue, I placed the red dot behind his right shoulder in the crease and pulled the trigger. I heard the satisfying smack and he whirled and ran down the logging road the way he came, as soon as he was out of sight I heard him crash down in the holler.
I gave him about 45 minutes then went out and looked for some sign where I shot him, nothing!! no hair no blood no nothing! I knew what I seen and thought it was agood hit so slowly started down the road and after about 10 yards it looked like you had turned on a faucet, it was ablood trail that Ray Charles could of followed! He is not by far my biggest buck but I can say I am just as proud of him as my biggest one, probably more! After the year I have had I was just glad to be out in the woods and enjoying mother nature. I plan on having him put on the wall, just so I can set back and look at him and remember what 2013 dealt out to me and what I turned it into, I want to apoligize for the pics I will try to get some better ones up tommorow.

2013-11-14 18.22.29.jpgIMAG2872.jpgIMAG2873.jpg2013-11-14 18.21.47.jpg
 
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brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
Cool hunt, and the pics aren't all bad! Congratulations on overcoming some big obstacles, and a heck of a nice deer!
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
Congratulations Tad! This is quite an accomplishment in several aspects IMO! After going through your two hip replacements you didn't let that deter you from doing what you love to do! It is also pretty cool that you took him on the ground at such a close range with your guille suit with a weapon you haven't had much knowledge with up until now! Well done man!:smiley_clap:

Great write up on a great hunt buddy! Thanks for sharing!
 

Dannmann801

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
10,640
191
Springboro
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about :smiley_clap:....."when I saw the perfect setup...." :smiley_coolpeace: isn't that a great feeling?
And then you whacked him at 11 yds on the ground!
Yeah baby, well done! :pickle: