Well here's the story. I hunt some public land down in South Georgia. I'm a pretty avid scouter during the summer months tracking bachelor groups as they grow. I've had a couple good photos(my avatar being one) of a little set of bucks that travel through a group of oak trees on their way to bed. My cameras have provided countless incidences of them passing between 5:30a through to about 7:30a. So knowing all of this I proceeded Friday night planning my entrance to my stand. I knew I had to get up in my stand pretty early just in case they came at the 6 am mark. I figured if I get in my stand around 5a I'll be good to not spook anything on my 300 yard walk in. So my day starts at 2:30a when my 11 month old daughter wakes up for her late night snack. After that I showered, got my gear together, shot some practice shots in my garage to awaken my muscles and I headed out around 3:30a. Its a 45 minute drive to the public land I hunt so I arrived around 4:15 got out of my truck, sprayed down with some scent-away, and eased my way to my stand. I walked really slow with the moon as my flashlight. About 10 yards from my tree I started to hit the oak leaves and acorns. Everyone know's that sound, POP CRACK and every other sound that is completely out of place in the middle of the dark. My FIRST step on an acorn and all i hear was POP, CRACK and the all to familar sound of a deer blowing. Just so happened that a doe was 10 yards on the other side of the tree and she took off only blowing once. I thought I had just gotten up at 2:30 to not even make in my stand before getting busted. Despite the let down, I climbed up anyway got settled in and set up. The next check of my watch revealed 6:40a. The sun started to peak over the horizon and the next thing I heard was footsteps in the acorns/leaves. Not one set of footsteps but 3 sets of footsteps. At that very instant I knew who had shown up almost on cue. The mingled for 10 minutes eating a snack and so I stand up, turn around, take aim at one of the two 8 points and let one fly. My red lumenok lit up the trees as it flew through the one opening I had behind me. SMACK! a hit. I look up and the deer just drops. Somehow he had jumped the string, took a dip, and my RAGE 3 caught square on the spine. Dropped him straight to the ground. I was pissed because he wasn't going to die that way. He lay there running in circles on the ground. I nock another arrow, waited for the precise time when he came back around from his spinning and let another RAGE 3 finish the job off. All and all I was pleased. Kinda like passing a test but only making a 75. I was let down at the shot placement but happy that it hit him so he couldn't run off with it stuck in him. This is my first velvet buck ever so I'm delighted with my planning, preparing, and execution. Thanks for taking the time to read this (who ever does).
way to go makes u feel alot better knowing u did the work your self and not have someone to tell you to sit in a stand and wait an hour and you will see a deer. Great looking deer
Congrats man! And don't feel bad about the shot placement, you did what you could and what needed to be done and put the deer down as humanely as you could with a quick follow-up shot. Congrats again, man!
Congrats! I hate to hear about the spine shot, but nothing you could've done, and you at least got to follow it up with another shot.
Nice buck and great story. Your hard work in the summer really paid off. Congrats! Blessings......Pastorjim
