It was december 1st and I was headed out for an afternoon bow hunt with my last buck tag. With the cold wind from the NE I knew where I wanted to bow hunt in the River bottoms its a spot I like to call the Bedroom Door. This spot I had seen 3 large bucks and a few smaller bucks before but they were always just out of shooting range. I knew the deer would come from the east or slightly SE so I knew I would have the wind in my favor. So I put on almost all the hunting clothes I own since it was so cold and by then I looked like the good year tire man I had on so many layers and handwarmers. I took my climber and walked in from downwind and climbed my tree. I didnt see any deer all afternoon till about 10 minutes before sunset I looked east and seen a deer, it was a couple of hundred yards away. The deer was browsing as it made its way towards me. As the deer got closer I could see it was a buck. Once he got to 50 yards I knew it was a shooter. So I prepared myself for the shot as it appeared the buck was on a trail that was gonna take him right by me. So I stoodup, grabbed the bow and got in position. I noticed my heart rate had sped up so I mentally told myself calm down take a deep breath and breathhhhhh and relax. Ive gotten pretty good at calming myself before the shot its after the shot that I fall apart and the adrenaline kicks in with the bad shakes. When the buck came to a stop at 35 yards I drew back and noticed my arrow had come off the rest and wedged itself between the arrow rest prongs and the riser of the bow.This has never happened to me before, So in a panic I had to let down. I was so afraid he was gonna see me let down since there wasnt a tree or any cover between me and him. But I was successful in letting down and not getting busted. So I once again drew my bow and at half way drawn he drops his head to feed quartering to me and in a position I didnt want to shoot so I had to let down again. Okay... by now Im getting a little frazzled, he then lifts his head and turns broadside and starts to walk and as he passes a tree I drew my bow he is at 32 yards when I put my 30 yard pin on him and I shot him when he came out from behind the tree. Upon the arrow impacting him I saw the the arrow and instantly cringed as I knew that I had a low gut shot. I knew there wasnt a branch or twig in the way of my shot ... I had only myself to blame for the bad shot. I guess I was more frazzled than I thought at the time. So I watched as the buck ran 20 yards straight away from me and then stopped and just stood there for 7 minutes. I could see my arrow in him with at least 10 inches of penetration. Then he slowly walked away. He would walk 12 to 20 yards stop and stand for a few minutes the entire way till he was out of my sight. So I took a mental note of the last place I had seen him and a photo of the last spot where I last saw him. I knew he would have to lay overnight with the gut shot so I climbed out of the tree as quietly as possible on the opposite side of the tree to make sure he didnt see me climb down. I didnt want to make uneccesary noise so I left my climber at the base of the tree. I left my homemade bootblankets on my boots for the walk out since I knew they would help to quiet my foot steps on the walk out on the dry leaves that sounded like your walking on potatoe chips. I walked out to the NW as quietly as possible ( away from the direction the buck went ) going slow and quiet with no flashlight since Im trying not to spoke him since I dont know exactly where he was at. Now I had to just pray for a bloodtrail in the morning and that the coyotes wouldnt find him overnight since I did bump a bedded coyote walking in. Once morning came around 8am my husband and I headed into the woods after letting the buck go overnight it had been roughly 16 hours since I had shot my buck. We parked the truck by the cemetary and started walking down the hill to the river bottoms to where I shot my buck and 3/4 of the way down the hill I noticed a blood trail, but thought it cant be my buck, he went the other direction. So I called out to my husband walking ahead of me and showed him the bloodtrail, I marked the bloodtrail also since I knew there was another bowhunter hunting across he road from where we parked and I thought maybe he had shot a deer this morning since some of the blood was still wet but then some of the blood was dry so then I was questioning that bloodtrail?????? So we went ahead and made it back to where I shot my buck with the deer cart in tow and retrieved my climber. Within 6 yards from where I had shot the buck we had a bloodtrail to follow , I felt blessed to have a bloodtrail and was pretty excited now. ( I know alot of low gut shots dont bleed much when the guts buldge out into the entrance hole and block the arrow hole from bleeding ) So we followed a long meandering bloodtrail that went on for what seemed like forever till we found one deer bed, but it didnt appear like he bedded there for long ( not much blood ) Then the blood trail turned slightly and started heading in the direction of the bloodtrail I had found coming down the hill. Well the bloodtrail led us back to the spot on the hill I had marked with a bloodtrail when we first got there. We followed the blood up the hill another 60 yards to behind the cemetary and there he was laying dead about 100 yards from our truck. Well so much for the old saying I had been told that lethally hit deer dont run up hill ! Unfortunately the coyotes had got to him( and no were not allowed to shoot coyotes on this property ) The yotes had eaten his entire backside. In all I feel truely blessed to have recovered him after such a terrible shot. I thought he was a 10 but turned out he is a 12 with the 2 matching stickers, Wooo Hooo :D Turns out I believe this is the same buck I have seen twice before in the last couple of weeks. Okay... Well, to just finished scoring him and to my amazement he scored 162 1/8 ... I never would have guessed it. I even rechecked my math 3 times. I figured he would score in the lower 150's when I shot him. But when my husband asked how big I thought he was.... I told him conservatley he will go at least in the 140's since I didnt want to get my hopes up to much.
Congrats on a great buck and nice job not pushing your buck. Sorry the coyotes got to him first though.
Simply awesome! To get it done on Dec 1, having an great set up and plan, and making a great recovery=fantastic. Good stuff and congratulations.
