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Little Freak Nasty

steveOh

Junior Member
750
114
Dayton Area
On Monday, Nov. 20th, I got settled in the Ravine Stand around 6:20. It was a crisp 23 degrees with a slight breeze blowing from the southwest right up the ravine, a perfect wind for my setup. The normal pattern for the deer is for them to travel south along the north-south hillside and when the hill bends to form the north side of the ravine they wrap around the point and head diagonally down the hill towards my stand which is on the south side of the ravine. My stand is about 15 yards above the ravine bottom.

Along about 10:00 I stood up and turned to face the sun hoping that the sun’s rays would warm me up a little. By now the frost had melted and the leaf litter was damp. I could see the occasional squirrel but could barely hear them when they scurried along the ground. After a bit I turned around and sat down only to see a deer angling down the opposite honeysuckle-covered hillside toward me. It stopped as soon as I spotted him. I thought that I was busted. It stood for the longest time before proceeding along the trail, stopping every now and then to give me the head-bob thing.

As it was slowing coming left to right down the hill it would disappear off and on in the thick green honeysuckle. I was having trouble determining whether it was a buck or a doe. I could not see a wide rack but the body looked too big for a doe. Finally I saw an antler sticking straight up, I was then thinking it was a spike. After a taking a few more steps it turned its head and that’s when I saw all these crazy tines sticking out of both of his bases.

I then decided to take him and I was trying to find an open spot in the bushes for a shot. When he got directly across from me and about even to the base of my tree he suddenly stopped, I thought that he was getting ready to bolt. After a short pause he did a 180 and started heading right to left down towards the bottom of the ravine. When he hesitated again I took the shot.

I saw the flash of the red Lumenok disappear into his ribcage. He ran down to the bottom of the ravine and came up my side about 15 yards to my left. He then ran up through a bunch of honeysuckle and just like that, there was silence. I was waiting for the death crash but didn’t hear anything. I didn’t even hear any branches or honeysuckle limbs breaking! I glanced back at the spot where he was standing when I took the shot and I could see the red glow of the lighted nock. The arrow was stuck in the side of the hill, telling me it was a complete pass through. When I looked through the range finder I could see blood on the white Blazer vanes.

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I replayed the shot in my mind and thought that maybe I might have hit the buck a little farther back than I wanted. When he ran up the hill I could see a little tuft of hair on the top half of his body and on the middle of the rib cage. This is when the rollercoaster of emotions kicked in. Did I hit him too far back and missed the lungs? Was it a gut shot? If so, did he lay down that quick and that is why I didn’t hear him? Why didn’t he hump up if it was a gut shot? I was a wreck!

I wanted to get down and check the arrow but I knew that I would make too much noise walking down to the bottom and back up the opposite hillside to my arrow. If the buck was lying down he would surely hear me and run off and I would not be able to hear or see him. Finally I calmed down and told myself to wait in the stand at least an hour. Let me tell you, that was a long hour!

Finally about 11:15 I eased down out of my stand and slipped on over into the honeysuckle where I had last seen him. I could easily walk under the tall canopy. There was hardly any ground cover, just wet leaves. No wonder I didn’t hear him. I found blood immediately and that lifted my spirits. There wasn’t a lot but there were drops about nickel size with a few pea sizes about every 20 inches or so. I slowly followed the trail for only about 20 yards when it quit. My heart sank!

I did a search for the next 20 minutes trying to pick up the blood trail, not wanting to make too much noise. After not being able to pick up the trail I was at the lowest of lows. Where did he go? Did I spook him and he ran off? Should I back out and go home and get on my hunting forums and look up the number for a dog tracker?

Finally I decided to ease on up another 20 yards or so to the top of the razorback ridge and see if I could pick up the trail somewhere along the ridgetop where he might have crossed. I slowly made my way through the bushes and to the top where there was a little manmade path that runs along the ridgeline. I looked on the ground to the right to try to find blood, when I didn’t see any I then looked left. As I was looking down at the ground I glanced up and looked along the ridge top and to my surprise there he was! Dead, right on the path! He was already stiff so he must have died right away, almost 2 hours ago! My lowest of lows just went to the highest of highs.

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When I got up to him I could see that his right eye was gouged and it had green puss coming out of it. He must have gotten injured in a fight. He is a freakish looking buck with huge bases with four tines growing straight up out of his left base and another 5 or 6 deformed-looking tines coming out of his right base. I’ll be making another European mount out of him.

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