mphenk5
New Member
Chad Oester, newly registered as Briarwood Bottoms, scored on this awesome 12 pointer on Nov. 9th at 3:30 P.M. With the gusty winds we had yesterday (30 -40 MPH) this guy snuck in on him to 8 yds. He ended not getting a shot until the buck was 20 yds. out and quartering hard away. Not sure if the arrow had made it up through the guts and into the chest cavity, He decided to back out for the night and let the buck lay. That decision he made is why I believe we recovered the buck this morning. Without any pressure on him, the buck traveled close to 700 yds. winding through thick brush and eventually crossing a deep creek bottom.
We had great blood for the first 100 yds or so and then the buck started to make some small loops. We lost blood for about a half hour and decided to check out the bed of a buck that we kicked up on the way in, just to rule out the chance that it was him and he was still alive. Thankfully, we found the bed and found no evidence of a wounded buck. We headed back to where we lost the trail. After retracing his moves a couple times we were able to locate a faint trail. The next 100 yds. was tough with very little blood. This brought us to the edge of a big drop off into a creek bottom. It was as if the buck knew he needed to rest before attemtping to cross it. He bedded down 10 yds. from the edge. Unable to find how he left this bed, we searched for 45 min. thinking he would not try to cross that steep of terrain. That turned up nothing. I jumped down into the creek bottom and after walking the nearly dry creek bed for 60 yds. or so back and forth, I climbed up the opposite bank and found an early christmas present (a basketball sized pool of blood). We were back in the game! We followed a steady trail of blood for the next 100 yds. along a logging trail. We were convinced we had him when he took a hard left and ducked into some thick cover. Once again though only a small pool of blood where he bedded down. After searching for a few minutes trying to figure out how he exited his bed, I climbed up on some deadfall (probably from some of those 40 mph gusts) to survey the area and hopefully end our search. That is when I noticed what looked like a buck bedded down up against a tree. I pulled my binos up and right then I knew what I was looking at. His buck was fifty yds. from us and expired with his head propped up against a tree. As soon as I looked back at Chad , he knew the buck was found. I jumped down and after a big hug and some high fives, he was off like Carl Lewis towards his buck. Here are couple photos, one as we found the buck. Congratulations Chad, you earned him!
** Sean, Ryan, and Caleb - I know you guys wish you could have been back to help Chad recover his buck, so hopefully I have given you a taste of how it all happened. **
We had great blood for the first 100 yds or so and then the buck started to make some small loops. We lost blood for about a half hour and decided to check out the bed of a buck that we kicked up on the way in, just to rule out the chance that it was him and he was still alive. Thankfully, we found the bed and found no evidence of a wounded buck. We headed back to where we lost the trail. After retracing his moves a couple times we were able to locate a faint trail. The next 100 yds. was tough with very little blood. This brought us to the edge of a big drop off into a creek bottom. It was as if the buck knew he needed to rest before attemtping to cross it. He bedded down 10 yds. from the edge. Unable to find how he left this bed, we searched for 45 min. thinking he would not try to cross that steep of terrain. That turned up nothing. I jumped down into the creek bottom and after walking the nearly dry creek bed for 60 yds. or so back and forth, I climbed up the opposite bank and found an early christmas present (a basketball sized pool of blood). We were back in the game! We followed a steady trail of blood for the next 100 yds. along a logging trail. We were convinced we had him when he took a hard left and ducked into some thick cover. Once again though only a small pool of blood where he bedded down. After searching for a few minutes trying to figure out how he exited his bed, I climbed up on some deadfall (probably from some of those 40 mph gusts) to survey the area and hopefully end our search. That is when I noticed what looked like a buck bedded down up against a tree. I pulled my binos up and right then I knew what I was looking at. His buck was fifty yds. from us and expired with his head propped up against a tree. As soon as I looked back at Chad , he knew the buck was found. I jumped down and after a big hug and some high fives, he was off like Carl Lewis towards his buck. Here are couple photos, one as we found the buck. Congratulations Chad, you earned him!
** Sean, Ryan, and Caleb - I know you guys wish you could have been back to help Chad recover his buck, so hopefully I have given you a taste of how it all happened. **
