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2013-2014 Season

Big H

Senior Member
4,104
151
Medina
As some of you know the last couple of years have been rough around here with my wife's illness. BTW, the prayers are definitely appreciated.

Between working, doing mom and dad stuff and 3 active teenage girls (softball and basketball etc...), I have come to cherish my alone time in a tree more and more. I was able to get down to our property in Jefferson County a few times, but could never really totally relax, mainly thinking I needed to be home in case something happened with Donna.

I bowhunted our Jefferson County property several times and had some good encounters with smaller bucks, plus a really nice mainframe 10 pointer in the 150 class. He was on a doe, and came no closer than 55 yards.

I was able to hunt on opening day of gun season and saw 18 different deer from the stand, with only one of them being a 2.5 year old 8 point. I decided not to shoot anything, since I just wasn't in the mood. The only other day I got out during gun season was at home in the backyard with my youngest daughter and we only saw a couple of yearlings.

Whenever I had time in the evening, I would go sit in a stand behind the house. I had been running a camera back there since early October, but hadn't seen any bucks that got me excited. We don't have a corn pile per say, either myself or one of the girls walks back in the afternoon with some corn and apples and throws it out in front of the camera. I was joking with my neighbor who also hunts that we must have a medical ward back there with all the injured bucks I had been getting on camera. As of right now, there are 4 gimped up bucks back there with 3 of them having already shed.
 

Big H

Senior Member
4,104
151
Medina
I pulled the camera card on the 2nd and he was coming in very regular. I hunted that evening, and saw 6 deer, including the buck I was after, but they all hung up at about 70 yards and it got past shooting time. BTW, everytime I hunt back here I have one of the girls walk back with the dog to scare any deer away so I don't get busted getting out of the tree.

Friday afternoon I checked the wind and knowing that I would not be able to go south for muzzleloader, I decided to hunt again. At around 4:20, I started seeing some movement and a couple of yearling were headed towards my neighbor's feeder 2 houses up which goes off at 4:30. At 5:00 I saw some movement on the point of a ridge that drops into a gully about 150 yards away and all of a sudden, the deer were filtering down the ridge and through the bottom and up the ridge behind my stand. The nice 8 point was bringing up the rear and they were all bucks. A couple of small racked bucks came into the corn my daughter had thrown out that afternoon and then the nice 8 came into view, but there were too many eyes to draw the bow. I heard something behind me and a busted up 8 point came right under the stand and joined the others. So, I have 4 racked bucks, including the one I am trying to get drawn on and two shed bucks. The busted up 8 and the bigger 8 lock horns and start pushing each other around and I took that opportunity to get my bow partway off my lap and out from under my hand muff. I thought I got busted, but froze and they went back to milling around. It's 10 degrees out and my hands are starting to get cold holding the bow halfway up my body, when a button buck come trotting up out of the gully and the deer were distracted I decided to take a chance and drew my bow, one of the bucks apparently saw the movement, but I was already at full draw and settling in on the buck that was quartered away at 28 yards. I touched off the release and he took off across the flat, down a gully and back up the other side. I forgot I was shooting a lighted nock, (which by the way is pretty cool), and was kind of concerned since every deer I have shot with a Slick Trick has been a complete passthrough and the arrow looked pretty far back. When he got to about 60-70 yards from where I shot him and crashed, I knew I must have hit the opposite shoulder. I could see the nock sticking up in the air, but decided to go to the house and eat dinner, since he wasn't going anywhere if he was dead. I sent Jesse a text and told him to start a thread and that I was 90% sure he was dead. After about 1.5 hours, my youngest daughter and I went back and walked right to him. I shot him right around 5:20 and after skinning him last night and doing the autopsy, I could have walked to him immediately, arrow entered right behind the last rib and hit the opposite shoulder. I went back today to pull the card out of the camera and see if there was a bloodtrail, since I didn't follow one. It was pretty impressive for no exit hole. Pics to follow.
 
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Big H

Senior Member
4,104
151
Medina
Here are a few pics.
 

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finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
Great read Ron! Excellent idea of having your daughters walk your dog back to clear em out before descending from your stand! A big factor in your success, IMO! Awesome job and congrats again! I hope Donna is doing better and thoughts and prayers still headed your families way!
 

DeadOn

Junior Member
31
0
Awesome story Big H. Great pics. Congrats on your late season buck. And prayers to you and your family.