In 2014 I took my son, three at the time, on his first hunt on Veteran's Day. We did it again on Veteran's Day in 2015 and I looked forward to continuing the tradition on Veteran's Day this year. I waited eagerly for him to come home from school after a half a day of kindergarten, planning on taking him out for the evening as I had the previous two years. But when he got home, he did not want to go. Rather than forcing him, we stayed home, watched the new episode of BHOD and played board games while his younger brother napped. But the entire time we were hanging out, I had this growing feeling that I needed to be in a stand the following afternoon. This thought stayed with me throughout the evening. I woke up a couple times during the night, convinced that I needed to be in a tree. I even dreamed of killing a buck that night. The problem was that I had already promised my wife to take the boys to a birthday party that started at 3:00 on Saturday afternoon. After spending the morning knocking stuff off my wife's "honey-do" list I was ready to clean up and head to the party. At 2:30 as I was about to take a shower then leave, my wife surprised me by telling me to go hunt and she would take the boys. Fortunately, I only have a ten minute drive to the ranch I have permission to hunt. I was settled in to my stand by 3:15 pm, ready to go. The stand is located on a corner where east-west and north-south ridges come together. The east-west ridge is bordered by a river about 60 yards south of my stand and a food plot is located 150 yards due east at the end of the east-west ridge. I had killed a doe out of this stand two weeks earlier and one the previous year. But in six years of serious bowhunting, had yet to have a buck come in range that I wanted to greet with an arrow. At 3:45 pm I heard grunting and turned around to see a good 7-point buck pushing a mature doe along a trail that ran the southern edge of the east-west ridge between me and the river. They were trailed by the doe's two fawns. The doe came up on to the ridge top about 40 yards out. The buck chased her around and she ended up bedding 15 yards from the tree I was in. The buck stood behind at 22 yards like he was confused about why she laid down. With the buck perfectly broadside I settle my pin right behind his shoulder. As I released the, he took a step and turned towards me, turning it into a hard quartering too shot. I watched the lighted nock hit about six inches back of where I wanted. There was the sound of a solid thump and the buck took off. I watched him through the trees until he was out of sight about 60 yards away. The shot was a pass-through and I could see the arrow sticking in the ground. After calming my nerves, I looked through my binos and saw blood on the leaves around the arrow. Based on the angle, I assumed it to be one lung and liver, which turned out to be the case. I decided to wait an hour before checking the arrow. The deer movement around me was so good that I got stuck in the stand until dark. Finally, after 2 1/2 hours I climbed down to find my arrow coated in dark blood. The blood at impact was good but the trail quickly died out after 20 yards. I found out after recovery that the exit wound was blocked by fat that pushed out the hole at the shot. The high lung entrance wound bled internally. I decided to back out for the night and come back in the morning. Early morning fog gave me a later start than I wanted. I started looking around 7:30 am, an hour after daylight. The first thing I did was drive the road next to the food plot, hoping he had died in there, no luck. I went back to the blood trail. After 45 minutes of looking I was unable to find any more blood that what I found the night before. I started grid searching the two ridges, expecting to come across him. I searched the ridges until 9 am, walking back and forth. Fortunately, there was not a lot of undergrowth so visibility was good. Unfortunately, the buck was not on either ridge. My plan was to begin walking the river banks so I headed that way. As I walked, I looked up and saw vultures circling. I hadn't walked 20 yards on the river bank when I looked out and saw a deer floating and stuck on a stump 30 feet out. The river was too deep to wade out so I called the landowner and got a canoe. At 10 am I launched and after I had paddled about 100 yards up river, I had a rope around the buck and towed it into shallow water. In the shallow water, I pulled it all the way into the canoe and paddled back down stream. I then had to pull the canoe, loaded with the buck about 100 yards to my jeep. I could not park closer to the river because the ground was wet and I did not want to add getting stuck to my adventure. The hide was soaked and ruined from being in the river, so I will be doing an antler only mount. It is not my biggest buck; I have killed bigger with a rifle. But it is my first with a bow and I am more proud of it than either of my white tails with a rifle.
Congrats again, what are the odds he got hung up in the river so close to the search area and recovered the next day. He was destined to be yours
