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My Redemption Buck

Diane

*Supporting Member*
4,715
66
Newark
We call this my redemption buck as I shot this one a few weeks after I missed the “biggest buck I had ever saw.”

I am at the age where I need reading glasses to see anything up close. The problem is, when looking through a 3 dot scope, while hunting in a blind, my eyes were not adjusting well from the upclose to the far away range. (If that makes sense!)

Since I lose some daylight hours from using the blind anyway, I was technically losing at least 30 minutes of hunting time because my eyes would blur the scope from a 3 dot into a 6 dot when the sun lowered to a certain point! I couldn't shoot at anything because I wasn't sure which dot was the accurate one. I was getting pretty frustrated to say the least.

Rick solved this problem for me. He bought me a new crossbow and one of those 3x pro view scopes.

Since we look through a scope in almost the same manner, he sighted it in for me and when I arrived to hunt, I took 2 quick practice shots before I headed for the woods.

As it was getting close to quitting time, a buck came in from my left and stopped in a quartering away position. I put the scope on him and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could actually see it through the scope without any type of blurring.

So I decided to see if I could find the kill zone. I remember thinking, “Hey, I can see the kill zone” and the next thing I knew, my arrow was flying. I didn't even stop to think about taking a shot, I just took it. (I'm trying to break that habit as I don't think it is a good one to have)

I had a luminok on my arrow and tried my best to watch and see where it went so I would know what to tell Rick. I'm bad about not remembering to watch which way the deer go after I shoot. (My bad!)

When we first started searching for the blood trail, there was very little blood and no sign of my arrow. We ended up finding my buck about 50- 60 yards from where I had shot him. When we gutted him, his insides were glowing.

It seems that the quarter away shot I had taken, had sent the arrow up through parts of every major organ, including nicking part of his heart and then the broadhead stopped behind his left shoulder blade, so the whole arrow was buried inside of him.

I didn't realize when I shot this buck that he had been the one we had seen several times on the trail cam pictures, and that he was the one with a broken main beam. But I don't care, I would have still taken the shot even if I had known it was him.

Broken main beam or not, I'm pretty proud of him and he now hangs in the living room.

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