It's been an awful last two days to say the least. On a whim I decided to take a personal day on Monday. Just had a feeling... Decided to hunt the stand that I really thought would be a hot one this year. It had been really slow, but I was seeing deer there. On a daily basis I was seeing small bucks... spikes, 4 points, a 6, the occasional small 8... nothing to get excited over, but it was deer. Only drawback was the doe sightings had been minimal.
7:30 approached and I started second guessing myself as most of us do. "Not sure why the hell I chose this stand. I haven't seen a doe in like 3 weeks here." No sooner did that thougt cross my mind wen I caught movement down to my right coming from the thicket. One doe... two doe... three doe... four, five, six... 11 doe ended up coming along like a parade. I couldn't believe it. I kept watching behind for a lovesick fella, but nothing. 11 doe and no buck?!?! They proceeded to stroll by and would stop to feed directly in front of me and circle around. They then began to look up my way. Now I'm frozen...I have my left glove on and I'm holding it over my face to try and hide any shine as the sun is directly on me. My set up is not one that you see on TV. The are is steep hills and deep ravines. In order to get into my stand, you have to climb a steep bank, grab the slack from the ratchet straps, and pull yourself up. Then step off the steep bank directly onto my hang on. No climbing sticks needed. I can reach behind me and touch the hillside. Perfect setup... I'm 30 feet above the trail and nothing can backdoor me.
Anyway, back to the doe. They continue to look my way and now appear to be watching past me, more like over my left shoulder. This goes on for quite some time and they begin to get fidgety and continue their parade from right to left. As the last doe finally heads around the thicket, I can finally move when I hear a faint short grunt. I look left and standing at eye level at 10 yards is the 10 point. He is coming down the steep bank, where there is no hint of a trail, and is now looking my way. I'm frozen again with my bow still on the hanger. I did NOT expect this! He proceeds to tickle his antlers in some branches, puts his head down, and slowly walks down the bank toward my shooting lane. He disappears behind some grapevines and I grab my bow. Of course, I'm shitting my pants. He gets to within 5 yards of my lane and I draw. he inches forward to where he is behind a cluster of saplings now and sticks his neck out to catch a whiff of the trail doe that still has a tail sticking out from the thicket. He grunts again and I can just tell he is getting ready to turn away from me toward that doe and not go into my clear lane.
I have my pin on him and decide to try and thread the needle. Now or never. 30 feet up, 15 yards away... steep angle. I release, he dips, and heads up the logging road (yeah, the one he was SUPPOSED to come down) and disappears.
I can see my arrow and have no clue if it was a hit and I'm m'fing myself for not being sure and for, what appeared, shooting low. With the stand facing east, the sun glare just made it hard to tell exactly what happened. I waited about 10 minutes to make sure the buck was out of view and I got down to check my arrow. Some blood on it, but not a lot. In fact, at first I thought I missed. Then I see blood everywhere. I waited another good bit and then began following just to get a grasp on where he was going. I found great blood all the way up the logging road (some with a big bubble in it) and into a clearing of a right away. At that point I pulled out and decided to wait until noon to begin tracking. Based on the blood I had found, I was sure he was going to die.
As many of you saw in the live thread, I tracked from noon yesterday until 4:00. Took a break then went back out from 6:00 to 8:30 before losing blood again. Today I left work and was on the trail from 10:00 until about 2:00 when we lost it again in the swamp bottom. The swamp actually isn't far from where we stopped the night before and there is a good chance we bumped him last night and that is why we lost blood today.
Based on everything I saw and what others said that I talked to, it seems it was a one lung hit. Crazy... the arrow was almost clean. Either it was a helluva graze or I one lunged him and when the arrow exited the lower area it got wiped clean by fat. I have no idea. It is possible that the arrow deflected in the saplings and it grazed him opening up a nice gash, but why the bubbles? They weren't small bubbles like a traditional lung hit. It was a single big bubble. Strange.
If it were a one lung hit, one thing I didn't do was allow for the steep angle and imagine where the arrow would exit. No doubt I should not have aimed dead center of the vitals, but should've aimed higher to catch both lungs.
My dad and I gave it hell trying to find this deer. His old friend, Mike and my buddy Dave also chipped in. It wasn't a lack of effort, that's for sure. Below are some pics of the blood, a huge clot we found, the 10, and the path he took. The gold star is my stand location and the red line is his path. The power tower is where we lost blood yesterday. The end of the line is where we lost it today in the swamp bottom. Also, when we went out last night and were at the tower, we could hear all kinds of snorting and running down in the pond/swamp bottom. And, from what we could tell, there was only one possible bed and it was below the tower where he would've heard us up there that night.
Any input is welcomed as to theories of what may have happened. I just hope he survived.
7:30 approached and I started second guessing myself as most of us do. "Not sure why the hell I chose this stand. I haven't seen a doe in like 3 weeks here." No sooner did that thougt cross my mind wen I caught movement down to my right coming from the thicket. One doe... two doe... three doe... four, five, six... 11 doe ended up coming along like a parade. I couldn't believe it. I kept watching behind for a lovesick fella, but nothing. 11 doe and no buck?!?! They proceeded to stroll by and would stop to feed directly in front of me and circle around. They then began to look up my way. Now I'm frozen...I have my left glove on and I'm holding it over my face to try and hide any shine as the sun is directly on me. My set up is not one that you see on TV. The are is steep hills and deep ravines. In order to get into my stand, you have to climb a steep bank, grab the slack from the ratchet straps, and pull yourself up. Then step off the steep bank directly onto my hang on. No climbing sticks needed. I can reach behind me and touch the hillside. Perfect setup... I'm 30 feet above the trail and nothing can backdoor me.
Anyway, back to the doe. They continue to look my way and now appear to be watching past me, more like over my left shoulder. This goes on for quite some time and they begin to get fidgety and continue their parade from right to left. As the last doe finally heads around the thicket, I can finally move when I hear a faint short grunt. I look left and standing at eye level at 10 yards is the 10 point. He is coming down the steep bank, where there is no hint of a trail, and is now looking my way. I'm frozen again with my bow still on the hanger. I did NOT expect this! He proceeds to tickle his antlers in some branches, puts his head down, and slowly walks down the bank toward my shooting lane. He disappears behind some grapevines and I grab my bow. Of course, I'm shitting my pants. He gets to within 5 yards of my lane and I draw. he inches forward to where he is behind a cluster of saplings now and sticks his neck out to catch a whiff of the trail doe that still has a tail sticking out from the thicket. He grunts again and I can just tell he is getting ready to turn away from me toward that doe and not go into my clear lane.
I have my pin on him and decide to try and thread the needle. Now or never. 30 feet up, 15 yards away... steep angle. I release, he dips, and heads up the logging road (yeah, the one he was SUPPOSED to come down) and disappears.
I can see my arrow and have no clue if it was a hit and I'm m'fing myself for not being sure and for, what appeared, shooting low. With the stand facing east, the sun glare just made it hard to tell exactly what happened. I waited about 10 minutes to make sure the buck was out of view and I got down to check my arrow. Some blood on it, but not a lot. In fact, at first I thought I missed. Then I see blood everywhere. I waited another good bit and then began following just to get a grasp on where he was going. I found great blood all the way up the logging road (some with a big bubble in it) and into a clearing of a right away. At that point I pulled out and decided to wait until noon to begin tracking. Based on the blood I had found, I was sure he was going to die.
As many of you saw in the live thread, I tracked from noon yesterday until 4:00. Took a break then went back out from 6:00 to 8:30 before losing blood again. Today I left work and was on the trail from 10:00 until about 2:00 when we lost it again in the swamp bottom. The swamp actually isn't far from where we stopped the night before and there is a good chance we bumped him last night and that is why we lost blood today.
Based on everything I saw and what others said that I talked to, it seems it was a one lung hit. Crazy... the arrow was almost clean. Either it was a helluva graze or I one lunged him and when the arrow exited the lower area it got wiped clean by fat. I have no idea. It is possible that the arrow deflected in the saplings and it grazed him opening up a nice gash, but why the bubbles? They weren't small bubbles like a traditional lung hit. It was a single big bubble. Strange.
If it were a one lung hit, one thing I didn't do was allow for the steep angle and imagine where the arrow would exit. No doubt I should not have aimed dead center of the vitals, but should've aimed higher to catch both lungs.
My dad and I gave it hell trying to find this deer. His old friend, Mike and my buddy Dave also chipped in. It wasn't a lack of effort, that's for sure. Below are some pics of the blood, a huge clot we found, the 10, and the path he took. The gold star is my stand location and the red line is his path. The power tower is where we lost blood yesterday. The end of the line is where we lost it today in the swamp bottom. Also, when we went out last night and were at the tower, we could hear all kinds of snorting and running down in the pond/swamp bottom. And, from what we could tell, there was only one possible bed and it was below the tower where he would've heard us up there that night.
Any input is welcomed as to theories of what may have happened. I just hope he survived.
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