I didn't want to share this part until their was a recovery. As I am learning and as some have told me, Halloween is a magical time for bow hunters and this Halloween really ended up being special for me. Not only did I take that fawn in the morning, I also took another deer that evening. It got super windy and I decided to get off the stand early in hopes of getting to see my niece in her costume. On my way out, I saw a deer walking up the fenceline, on the other side of the trees with me. I quickly and quietly dug my release back out of my jacket pocket and nocked an arrow as I was walking with this deer. After about 50 yards, this deer decided to jump the fence and stop on the trail, about 20 yards in front of me. I drew and released, making contact! I dropped to my knees after the shot, not entirely believing what had just happened. Made a phone call to my dad and waited 15 minutes before getting back to my feet. I found my arrow just off the trail, covered in blood. My dad came out about 45 minutes later and we followed blood for a short distance but decided to back out and continue looking this morning being the blood trail wasn't what I had hoped it was. About a 150 yards of tracking, there laid what I thought was the doe I shot. Dad lifted up a back leg and I hear a very surprised "what the h..." Look over to find my doe was in fact a buck! Here the guy had both antlers busted off! Crown and all gone off the one and the other had about half an inch left. Would be interesting to know what had happened to him. We took the hide off this evening to find one side of the rib cage pretty bruised up and the other had side had 2 bruises that looked as though he could of took some antlers to the rib cage while sparring. What he did have left on that one antler was covered in bark and he had bits of bark stuck in his fur around that nub, so he was clearly trying to rub trees. Maybe an aggressive deer, maybe hit by a car at some time? One will never know!
Here you can see the one antler completely busted off and his one ear had a good sized tear in it. I couldn't be happier with the way yesterday worked out for me. I am just lucky enough to be able to hunt one of the very few areas in MN that has a 2 deer limit!
Great job! The first one with a bow is a trophy no matter the size! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
