Long time lurker, finally decided to create an account to share the story of how I killed my biggest buck to date. Thanks to everyone on this site for providing some really great tips and insight into hunting these incredible animals. I have only been bow hunting for 3 years and I have learned a lot from this site. I really hadn't been getting many pictures of deer but I knew there were some great deer on this piece of ground and I had been waiting for the right wind to set in my stand. Saturday was that day, it was a cool, crisp morning with a slight north wind as I slipped into the stand. At about 6:30 I heard something in the brush and looked up to a white throat patch through the limbs. I could see an antler but it didn't look like much so I wasn't getting too excited. As the deer started moving I saw more antlers and realized this was a good deer. He walked into a clearing and then I realized this was a great deer. He didn't follow the trail that would bring him in to a nice 30 yard shot, he skirted me at about 45 yards. I practice shooting out to 40-45 yards but I would much rather have them at 30-35 yards. I didn't know if I would have another chance a deer this big again so I drew and settled on him and let it fly. The arrow went right under him, clean miss. He trotted off to about 60 yards and looked back before walking up the hill into the timber. I thought maybe I will grunt at him and see if he won't come back. Sure enough he cam back down the hill and stood in the same spot. I grunted again and he slowly walked off out of sight. I knew I had just blew it but he wasn't too spooked so I figured I would try rattling to see if that would't peak his interest. I grabbed my antlers and rattled for 45 seconds or so and out of the corner of my eye a buck runs into the edge of the clearing down wind of me. I hadn't even set my antlers down yet and he was right there. Different buck but definitely a shooter. He was looking for a fight and not paying any attention to me. I set the antlers on a branch and picked up my bow. He walked to 30 yards as I drew so I stopped him. He was quartering away as I shot so I aimed a little back and let it go. I heard the thump and he ran off, crashing up through the brush. I got down to see if I could find the arrow and check for blood. Didn't find the arrow but found good blood. Went home and waited for my buddy to finish hunting. After 2 hours we went after him. We were finding good blood the whole trail but about 100 yards away a deer hops up, blows and takes off crashing through the brush. We walked over to see where it got up from to see if it was the same deer and there was blood. We backed out and gave him another 2 hours. Went back in and found him piled up 30 yards from where we bumped him. Deer is at the taxidermist and I can't wait for next season already.
