Wow! Where do I begin? I guess from the beginning. :D This morning was full of firsts and is the quickest and most exciting hunt I've ever had. I changed my mind at the last minute driving in and decided to hunt from my Lone Wolf hang-on mostly because I didn't feel like getting a workout from my climber. Anyway, I'm sitting in my stand as the woods are coming alive and I spot two grey foxes in front of me. Their curiosity was peaked at about 30 yards but they wouldn't come any closer. They left since they couldn't spot an easy meal and I continue to sit on stand grunting every so often in hopes to see what I had came for. Nothing! I get tired of sitting and decided to get down. I was almost ashamed since it was only 0800. I checked my camera and see a decent buck had come through about 2330 last night. I then spot a fresh scrape and move my camera overlooking it. I then decided to do some still-hunting and check out an area I'd never ventured to. I get to what looks to be a good spot and decided to sit in an old creek bed. It was full of leaves but I sat down anyway. Got situated and did some grunting. I then decided I should clear all the leaves out. So I rattled for about a minute while scraping leaves out with my boot all the while hoping to sound like two bucks going at it hard. Five minutes had not even passed by and I spot movement to my right. Its a buck....a big one....a shooter. Breathe!!! At this point he's about 32 yards away and just casually walking and browsing for acorns. He continues to eat and makes his way to 22 yards slightly quartering to me. I have a few small saplings in the way so I sit in that old creek bed...patiently waiting and trying to remember to breathe. He makes a couple more steps but still has his head down eating. My bow is already in position (I had been holding it the entire time). I begin to draw and he spots me. Remember, I'm 22 yards away and eye level with the beast. I freeze in mid draw and he stares. I begin shaking and see my quivered arrows doing the same. I couldn't take it anymore and came to full draw. He almost immediately flicked his tail and continued eating. He stepped out a few more steps (broadside now) and I let the arrow go. The arrow found its mark but looked a little back and didn't pass through. OH GREAT!!! Not this again. He really didn't break-neck it out of there. I noticed him get to the top of the logging road and he began to walk. My heart sank and I just didn't know what had happened. I never heard a crash and he was out of sight at 40 yards. I called a friend, talked a bit, and decided to check the POI. No blood or hair whatsoever. Against better judgment, I started to walk the logging road hoping I could get a 2nd shot if he bedded. The wind was blowing so I had that to my advantage. Found a few spots of blood and it stopped. I'm pissed at this point! I decided to walk just a tad farther to see if he was at the bottom of the hill, if not, I was gonna come back later. As I was walking, I looked to my left and saw his white belly. I sat there studying him with my binos just to make sure he was dead. He was and the rest is history. He's a decent 8 pointer and ground shrinkage happens no matter if you're in a tree or the ground. He looked huge when we were staring each other in the eyes at 22 yards. The shot was a double lung and he didn't go far. I'm very pleased to get out of my bad luck streak! Without further ado......here he is. BTW, these are all self-portraits. Kinda proud of how they turned out.
Congrats on a nice deer. Ground shrinkage or not he is still a decent 8. Awesome story too, hunting from the ground is such a rush.
Thanks guys! I forgot to add that he did get the last laugh though. While field dressing, a small slit in his stomach opened up and blew some pretty nasty stuff in my face. I was also stabbed in the side with his G2 while loading on my truck.
Thanks for the message this morning buddy... congrats again; that's truly an awesome accomplishment!! You have every right to be proud of those pics; they're fantastic!
