This is my story of the bow hunt for the buck my husband has now named the " Green Eyed Monster " As Justin said its a long winded story so if ya dont want to read it all just scroll down to the last pics. Whew what a past couple of days of bowhunting.... Day before yesterday I headed into a spot on the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Public Hunting Land again to a spot where I had seen many bucks in the past few years traveling. This was the same spot where on Nov 3rd of this year I had first seen my first buck I took this season coming from when I called him in with a grunt tube and killed him. So Day before yesterday I packed in my climber and found a tree roughly 100 yards from where I had been prior. At 7:30am I look in front of me slightly to my left I see a deer standing there and then I see BIG Antlers well he proceeds to walk south at 35 yards from me BUT its just to thick to get a clear shot and when he heads to 43 yards it got even worse, Just no clear shot so I watched as he went on to chase 2 does and a fawn off out of sight... I hated to see him go A little later a spike came and made a rub and when I started to get out of the tree at 10am or so a 4 point buck came into less then 20 yards from me as I was climbing down and he had a sneezing fit ( He sneezed over 8 times ) So after he left I had to hurry out of there since my husband was bowhunting the ajacient park property we bowhunt and he had texted me that he had killed a doe and needed me to bring him the deer cart. When we gutted her I noticed she was in heat so I asked him to cut off her tarsal glands, he said he didnt want them so I could have them. So that evening I came up with a game plan for the next mornings bowhunt on the IDNR public land. I had reviewed aerial maps of the area and was confident that a good buck was using this area, along with does since it had the 2 heavest trails leading into it. So yesterday morning I returned to the same spot where I had first seen the big buck the morning before. I figured if the big buck was here yesterday and was successful in locateing the 2 does and the fawn that he might return again this morning again looking for does. I had the hot doe tarsals tied to a string that I used to lay down a scent trail on the way in. I had Doereen the flat foldable doe decoy tied to my pack on the back of my climber. As I scanned the area with my flashlight trying to find a suitable tree to climb that would work with the wind and my decoy and the deer trail I needed to be hunting my flashlight lit up a reflective tack in a tree someone had left many years ago ( it was very weathered and rusty ) The tree was perfect for my setup, the only drawback was that I couldnt get very high in the tree due to big branches. I got the climber on the tree , the doe decoy setup and tied the tarsal glands to a vine and layed them on the decoys rump. As daylight came I heard a loud crash like a log or something breaking in the distant woods and thought maybe a branch broke but kept a wary eye in that direction. When nothing appeared from the direction of the noise I relaxed and sat down with my bow in the holder and was content to watch 2 owls and the squirrels milling about. Until I heard a bit of noise in the leaves and thinking to myself it was just another squirrel I looked over and my heart almost stopped ... Thats No Squirrel... it was a BIG BUck standing in front of me at 14.5 yards staring up at me. I froze .. OH Crap I am seated with the bow still in the holder, where did he come from ???? It was so thick in there I didnt even see him come in. After he stared at me for a few seconds I thought this isnt going to end well. I was convinced he would turn and bolt away any second. To my disbelief he didnt flee he then turned his attention to my doe decoy that was setup 13 yards from me and 27 yards from him. The buck walked towards the decoy but then turned to approach her from downwind. I grabbed the bow when he went behind one tree and stood up as he passed behind another tree and then drew my bow. I grunted to stop him but he didnt stop so I grunted again but louder. This time he stopped at now 30.5 yards but he was facing directly away from me as he turned broadside to see what grunted at him I grunted again to stop him and squeezed the trigger and he took another step. OH *#$% it looked like my shot went right under him or maybe just nicked ( Grazed ) the bottom of his belly. He bolted and took off running after a bit he stopped running and started to just walk away BUT Then I could see as he was walking that his tail was down but twitching non stop the whole time he was walking and then he disappeared into the thick stuff. Now I was left in the tree with an unanswered question . Did I hit him or Not ????? I was a wreck. I was almost sure from what I saw that I just grazed his belly and that I was gonna go home empty handed, BUT that tail twitching was a sure fire sign that I lethally hit him, so which was it????? I took the video camera out and zoomed in on my arrow I could see with the Firenock litup on the ground but even zoomed in I couldnt see anything helpful in answering my Question. I decided to just stay in the tree and not get down to look at the arrow until 10 or 11am. It was torture staring at that arrow all morning and resisting getting down to look at it. I decided Ill just wait and I have a doe tag so I will doe hunt till its time to get down. a couple of hours later I had a 1.5 year old buck come in and he didnt see my decoy so I mouth called him into my decoy and I had a great time freehand filming him. He actually came up to the decoy and touched her nose. Watching the film footage was a great tool in studying buck behavior. Here is some of the footage of him touching my decoy and trying to make her run. If you fast forward to about the 4 min mark you will get to were I mouth call him in. https://youtu.be/9rsGZtjbRbg Then in part 2 he makes a rub next to the decoy and walks under me [video]https://youtu.be/cqhEO8olY_Y[/video] So after the buck left I got down and I practically sprinted to my arrow, I was dying to know if I hit him. As I approached my arrow I saw the ground was covered in white belly hair and a little bit of blood. Okay so I know I hit him in the bottom of the belly area. I picked up my arrow and my heart sank. The arrow with a 2" cutting Grim Reaper Broadhead only had belly hair on 2 blades and the 3rd blade was clean. The arrow shaft only had a small splattering of blood on it but didnt look like the shaft ever entered his body cavity and the vanes only had a very small smearing of blood on only one vane. The arrow truely looked like a grazed shot. BUT that tail twitching had given me the smallest bit of hope. I decided the best thing to do was pack out in the opposite direction that my shot buck had gone and return 8 hours later to bloodtrail him. ( The arrow pictured ) Continued in next post .
Nope here is the rest of the story. When 8 hours had passed I decided to return with my husband and we were quickly on blood and at first I thought the blood will peter out within 100 yards like a typical meat hit, But to my suprise the blood trail steadly got better not worse until we came to the first bed. We toyed with the idea of backing out again and returning the next morning but the bloody bed was dry which meant it was old and with the blood constantly increasing we decided to quietly continue the tracking. I had my bow ready should I need to put another arrow in him. Then we came to another bed and then another bed and all the beds were fairly close to each other. Then we came upon deer fat and then the fat lineing the deers belly that holds in their intestines ( Pictured below) We now were finding multiple beds all within a few yards of each other all full of blood so it was looking really good, as long as we didnt bump him, I would blood trail while my husband would watch out for the buck. When we came to the 9th bloody bed I was looking for the blood sign for which way he had exited the bloody bed my husband touched my arm and said " There he is draw your bow" I looked a few yards ahead... he was laying there ...as I drew my bow and settled the pin on his lungs I made a loud noise multiple times at him so if he was alive he would move but alas he was dead. I let down the bow and jumped over to my husband and gave him a huge hug! My buck was dead in his 10th bed. we never pushed or jumped him. My arrows 2 of the 3 blades had cut him deep enough to allow his entrails to hang out of him and caused some serious blood loss, not a pleasent way for him to go, I know It turns out he just made a big circle and had returned to the area he first came from to die. When we were taking pictures in the woods the flash was turning his eyes green, so my husband named him the Green Eyed Monster. Turns out I have a shed antler from the bordering property from last year that looks like it is his. ( Shed Antler Picture ) Here is a couple of photos of me and my " Green Eyed Monster " Nov 9th 2015 Im tagged out in Illinois
Nice public land buck or any land. Who said there can't be good P.L. hunts that was good enough to film.
