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2020 bow kill

Sauger

Member
300
31
Warsaw
I know in my into I told you I would share this years success and sorry for the delay. I will give you some back ground before I start. I have only owned the land since 2017 and after letting young deer walk we have been getting bigger and bigger each year. We don't own much land and I try to keep food available for the deer year round in the form of food plots, corn and mineral sites.
This year was just like every other year, early season was does and the typical little 6s and 8s. Slowly but surely the bigger bucks started the nighty visit in the food plots and I knew that it would be a matter of time before things got better as the rut approached. My first instinct on how this year was going to go was by finding 2 dead bucks and a doe that had been gut shot. One was a 3 year old 11 that I really wanted to see next year, he may not of amounted to much since he only grew some mass and split his brows this year. Either way not the way that deer needed to go out.
My target buck was a wide 9 that I passed last year and he was good then. This year he put on a little more mass and height but gained 6 inches in width and was at least 4.5 years old. One cold Oct morning I woke up to some heavy frost and told myself that I am not going out.....well around 1030 that morning he decided to show up and I am at the restaurant having breakfast with my wife. Shaking my head in disbelief we get back to the house and I head to the stand for the rest of the day. Latter that evening I have does about 60 yards to my right downwind from me. All of the sudden the start blowing and take off heading straight for me, not know whats going on I set there watching as they run past me and stop at 15 yards. Trying to look at them from the corner of my eye I hear the strangest noise I have ever heard and its loud (not a grunt, not a snort wheeze) almost sounded like the both combined. I see him coming from my right to left and having does so close to me I panicked. I grabbed my bow spooking a few does but they only ran a few yards and stopped, he come directly in front of me standing broad side at 30 yards...chip shot is what I was thinking. I settled the scope on him squeezed the trigger and all hell breaks loose, deer running everywhere. I am watching him run over the hill I keep telling myself hes going down. But he runs off out of sight. A I set there in the tree stand I see my arrow thinking to myself man that sure looks low to me. I give it 30 mins get down and go check my arrow....clean as a whistle FML. this deer has been seen once more and only at night, hopefully he will be back next year if he made it.
Fast forward 2 weeks to the peak rut and what do we get...a damn heatwave during my rutcation. I hunted hard bouncing from tree to tree looking at cameras for another deer to hunt. it was Sunday day before I had to go back to work and I asked my wife to drive me back to the tree stand because I knew how sweaty I would have been by time I reached it. Wearing just a base layer she drops me off about a 100 yards from the old apple orchard. By time I get into my stand I am soaked, I spray down with what sent killer I have and put on my sent lock hopping for the best. About 5pm I guess the neighbor decide it to reenact a war, listing to gun shots echo through the valley with an hour and half of day light left will really piss you off. Figuring that I would see nothing I set there when I see movement out in the hay field a few hundred yards away. Busy watching the does and not paying attention I didn't see the buck that snuck in on me until he start working a scrape. I slowly get the bow and as he passes a big maple I get ready. He stops at another scrape at 10 yards and I let the arrow fly. This time I was able to see him fall. He was not the biggest in the woods but how my season was going and the frustration building up I was happy to get him. I have never did I write up before so I hope you enjoyed it. When I get a chance I will share the story of my wifes COVID buck this year.
 

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Wildlife

Denny
Supporting Member
5,248
191
Ross County, Ohio
Congratulations on a real nice buck harvest! Your first write up was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Way to stick with it and I look forward to your wife's CV buck write up. Thanks for sharing!
 
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