I walked 9 miles today. Farmers were starting to take that corn field out so I let one of them know what was going on and we exchanged numbers. Not long after he calls me and says hey I found your blood trail. The guy was actually a bow hunter himself. When I found him he had abandoned the grain cart and was 200 yards into the corn on a terrace. Trail eventually went cold after 1700 yards from my stand.I had to take off so he’s going to call me if they find it. Did kick a buck up off another terrace. No blood where he was laying but I can’t convince myself if it was him or not. If it was him we had a moment. After he ran away the second time I kicked him up I had watched him leaping through the corn, big rack up and down until he stepped out at the top of the hill on a fence line. He turned back to me and we had a nice moment before he walked away slowly over the hill and out of my life. This wasn’t how my first archery buck was suppose to go. I’m broken and beaten. But man I love it all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Report on day one of my 10 day hunt. Day one morning: In stand at 0600, at 0635 I hear heavy foot falls coming off the hill to my left, closer and closer they come. I can see a form of a big body at about 15 yards, it stop 3 feet from my tree directly in front of me, I look down and I see what I believe is a huge rack and definitely a huge bodied deer, pretty sure it is Ghost. He mills around for a few minutes and the entire time I am praying he hangs out for another 10 to 15 minutes for shooting light. After 5 minutes or so he moves to my right and I hear him working a scrape. 0710 finally enough light to shoot and I can barely see the scrape area but no deer. At 0720 I hear again coming off the hill to my left foot falls, it is a small racked 6 point, he walks 15 yards from my stand nose to the ground. He wonders off the same way the first deer went. At 0730 I look left and here comes a doe and she is trotting and looking back. She stops at 32 yards, looks back then trots off towards a bedding area in front of me. Literally 2 minutes later I see movement again to my left, big bodied deer...........I grab the bow, get turned in the stand, release attached........................................out steps a big bodied forker.............lol. "must have been one of Ghost offspring". I watch him quicken his pace and head the same way the doe had went earlier. Day one afternoon hunt: I get a call from the guy I am trying to teach bow hunting, he wants to hunt, tell him meet me at farm at 1:15. We meet up and he ask if I have any special instructions, I tell him one..............if you see a doe in a hurry chances are she is being trailed by a buck, wait and look for the buck. He comments "I just want to get my first deer with the crossbow", I tell him fine, shoot whatever you like. I then decide to put him in the far back right stand next to a bedding area, we walk in and get to the stand, I tell him what the deer travel routes are and have him range certain area's. I then walk off to another stand about 500 yards away. Cut to 4:45, I have a nice 8 pointer working his way through a thicket nose down, grunt once...nothing, grunt again and he looks my way for 30 seconds then continues on. At 5:02 I am looking at my cell for the time and I faintly hear a "thunk", I think to myself that sounds like a crossbow but man it is loud. At 5:03 I get a text "took a shot", my immediate response is "stay in stand, buck or doe?". He responds with "doe", I respond "did shot look good?", his response "not sure". At this point I tell him "stay in stand until I come get you at dark", he responds "OK". Now it is 5:40 with about 40 minutes of shooting light left and it begins raining, I decide I better get down and go see what he has going on. I arrive at his stand at 6:05, he crawls down out of the stand and says "those deer came down the exact trail you told me about but I think I undershot". I walk over and pull his bolt out of the ground, clean miss. Needless to say he was pissed, I ask him did he shoot for 30 yards? He then realizes he used his 20 pin dot on his scope, now he is really upset with himself. I show some compassion and say " dude it happens, shrug it off and keep trying". Final analysis: The younger bucks are pushing the doe, the big boys are finally taking some interest and the next few days should be interesting. I need to continue helping this guy, it is the right thing to do, he will eventually put it all together !!! Did not hunt this morning, wife has honey-do chores for me. Will be in stand this afternoon. Dave "and the game continues"
Day two evening hunt: In stand at 12:45, at 4:20 I see two doe straight out in front moving towards me on my left. They hold up at about 40 yards and look to their left, I look over and a nice 8 point is at 56 yards to my right and slightly ahead. I rough guess him at 122 to 126. Grunt once and he walks in another 5 yards or so, wait.............grunt again and he turn back the way he was heading and departs my life, no shot available. Temp was 75 when I walked in this afternoon and 68 when I walked out, high tomm. is suppose to be 48, hope that gets the big boys moving and interested. Dave
Rained all morning. I got out at 1:00 pm sat until dark. Had an 8 pt at 60 yards in the brush. He was following rub-line when he got to 60 yards he stopped. It was like he knew something was up. He left the rub-line and skirted the acorn flat. I grunted him he stopped every time but never came down to me. Cooler temps tomorrow moving to a different stand. Good afternoon on the woods! Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Here's my 8pt buck. His 8th point barely registered. He only scores 94-5/8. It was a very memorable hunt. This buck spans 30 years since the last buck I shot with a bow. Shot many with a gun but a bow kill is much more special. Working on a doe now. Had one 15 yards from me tonight with two fawns. Snuck up on me in the wet cold and hung around for 20 minutes, but I didn't have a chance to shoot because they were right on top of me on high alert. Looks I'm having trouble loading the photos... Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk
Got the text today..... they finished the field and found no body.... this has official planned out my year. The plan is to hang 2 more trail cams in the coming month. Contact the group that gun hunts the area to keep me informed. And then I will be shed hunting the area like crazy. If that all fails I’ll have myself a #1 target buck for next year. I need to find closure somehow... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Congrats cdm. Few point coming our way filled my Ohio tag tonight. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Day three: Rain day, went to work for five hours to save some vacation time. High tomm. is 47, high thursday is 45, decided I better wash my thick camo so I stay toasty in stand. Back at it hard in the A.M.....................good luck folks and nice bucks guys !! Dave
Cold and rainy this morning! Sat with my dad in double ladder stand had 8 pt sneek up behind us while we were BS’n. Walked under the stand. By the time I got my bow off the hook I couldn’t stop him. He walked straight away no shot. Another great morning with family in the woods. Cut up ground and vacuum sealed my doe for the trip back to Ca. Sunday. Cold tomorrow no rain all day in the woods can’t wait. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Shot a doe about 2 hours ago. Just above the shoulder. I used my dad's Spitfire mechanical broadhead (wanted to try it). She broke the arrow off with her hoof shortly after impact - 6.5 inches of arrow gone, about 1-1/2" showing blood on remaining arrow. We tracked about 100 yards found blood, lost blood, and pulled out. Going to wait a few hours. Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk
