p8ntballer1981
New Member
Well it finally happened. The evening of November 26, 2008 I stuck the biggest deer I have ever shot. Although he wasn't the big one that I was after on this property, he is just as fine of a buck to em as any.
I thought maybe that I could get away with making a long story short, but I know some people don’t work that hard (ANDY W.!!!......Just Kidding) and have a lot of time to read long stories. This is your warning…….it is a long story, but worth the read. It explains everything that happened.
The evening started out shortly after 1:00p.m. I figured I had nothing better to do than climb in the stand after getting off work at noon for what was supposed to be a long weekend full of hunting. My stand is in a small thicket of trees and grass in the corner of a cut bean field only 40 yards off a major wood line filled with thickets and grass and everything else you can imagine. The afternoon was pretty uneventful, o.k., really uneventful. That is until right at sunset. I was starting to get frustrated because I had been seeing a lot of deer only yards from the stand the few nights before when I was unable to leave work earlier enough to hunt. But at sunset the does started coming out of the woods into the cut bean field like clockwork. I just prayed that there was a big buck following them. Just when I thought I had no luck at all and had nearly 10 does surrounding me with no bucks, I noticed movement in the wood line. It was a big buck. A nice mature, probably 3 ½ to 4 ½ yr old 8 pointer with some really long tines. If I had to guess I would say in the low 140's. I knew that he was a shooter and prepared myself. It felt like an eternity before he made it into one of my shooting lanes. I drew back and felt good when I put my pins on him. I mean who wouldn’t when he was only 25 yards away. I still don’t know what happened, I guess I decided to pull an Andy, and for some reason my arrow decided to bounce off his back, and I mean literally. He ran off about 20 yards as I nocked another arrow. Now standing broadside at 45 yards I was debating whether to let another arrow fly but I didn’t feel too comfortable at making a shot at that distance on such a nice buck. It was only minutes when he and his does decided that they did not care for what was going on and took off in the wood line.
That is all except for one particular doe. She must have really enjoyed what she was seeing, because she stuck it out for the duration of what light was left. I thought maybe, just maybe I could grunt him back, I mean I have done it before after missing a buck, but knew my chances were very slim. I grunted and roared maybe 6 good times. To no avail he never re-appeared. Just as I thought I was a horrible bow hunter for missing what seemed to be an easy shot for most hunters, I saw movement far west of me. To my amazement, there was another buck and a few more does heading my direction. I was unsure how big he was because for some reason I decided to slam my binoculars in my truck door and broke them right before going out to the stand. So I grunted again a few more times. He came right into one of my shooting lanes within the minute. Too bad he was only a smaller 8 pointer that might push 110 -120” if he was lucky. I felt sick to my stomach as my light was fading away faster and faster with every passing minute. I thought my luck had run out for the evening. That is until I heard some crunching behind me. I was waiting for whatever it was to spook as it was coming down wind of me. I guess I can give props to the few scent wafers I had strategically placed on the tree limbs below me.
Well the crunching I heard behind me was another buck. I was unsure at how many tines he had but knew immediately when I saw him that he was a shooter. He came right though my thicket I was in, just to the west of my stand right into an opening that was cleared for a shot. He bumped the littler buck out, but by that time I already was drawn back and had my 20 yard pin right behind his front shoulder. I murped and he stopped dead in his tracks. I sent my arrow flying hoping for the best as this all went down in less than one minute. He took off running for about 20 yards and turned and looked back in the same direction. I told myself, there is no way that I missed this deer. There is no absolutely way I missed him. But from his actions and my stupidity as a rookie bow hunter for not completely following the bow hunter ethics of eyeing your shot placement, look whether the tail is up or down, or maybe even blood squirting from his body I second guessed myself. From that point he walked casually to the wood line like nothing had ever happened and jumped the fence. I heard some thrashing in the woods thinking it was him crashing. Low and behold a doe came out of the thicket. Again I second guessed myself.
This whole time the little buck and the same doe are circling my small thicket with only one tree big enough for a stand. They continued to do this for the remainder of the light. I was so eager to see what my arrow look like if it was still there that I even bumped them in the wood line as I was getting out of my stand. After picking up my dirt filled arrow that sailed over the back of the first buck, I went to search for my other one. Right in my shooting lane was a blood soaked arrow sticking straight out of the ground. After reviewing the arrow and searching for blood in a small circle around it, I was disappointed by only seeing a light red blood and no bubbles and nothing on the ground immediately surrounding my arrow, and I second guessed my shot. I even had a few hunting buddies look at the arrow and we all came to the same conclusion pull out and wait till morning. With the way the arrow looked it just didn’t feel right. So for any bow hunter that has to wait overnight you can just imagine what was going through my mind. I searched and searched online for possible reasons why my arrow was the way it was. I just have to say for the record when you second guess yourself in the stand and then decide to do some research, it never fails that what you find will only disappoint you even more. I got myself thinking that I might have gut shot him, or even gave him a superficial cut that only soaked my arrow enough to leave some blood on it. Needless to say I didn’t sleep that much that night. And in the morning it was on to tracking.
Right away we found a few spots of blood. I began to get a little confidence back, that is until we stopped finding blood not due to the fact my hunting buddies are inexperienced at tracking because they are not, but again to my reckless rookie bow hunter mistake that I had thought he had entered the wood line straight north of the stand so that is where we continued the searching. We entered the wood line and none of us were finding any blood. I just happened to scan the woods just inside the wood line and saw him lying in a heap. I was pumped. He was down and out for the count and had only made it 20 yards inside the wood line. Little did I know until we got up on him that I had made what was seemed to be a perfect bow shot of which he bled really well and it showed on the ground where he had entered the wood line. I would have seen that if I only remembered where he entered and not made the rookie mistake of not paying attention after the shot. After gutting him did I finally realize how well of a shot I made on him. DOUBLE lunged him. He hasn’t been officially scored but should be close to 130”. He has a few broken tines on his right side which kind of sucks, but that adds character to the animal. All in all I am very excited and don’t wish that it could have happened any other way. That is why I love bow hunting.
I hope that not only do I in the future learn from the mistakes I made, but hope that this story can help other bow hunters out there so that this does not happen to them and they are not having a sleepless night.
I thought maybe that I could get away with making a long story short, but I know some people don’t work that hard (ANDY W.!!!......Just Kidding) and have a lot of time to read long stories. This is your warning…….it is a long story, but worth the read. It explains everything that happened.
The evening started out shortly after 1:00p.m. I figured I had nothing better to do than climb in the stand after getting off work at noon for what was supposed to be a long weekend full of hunting. My stand is in a small thicket of trees and grass in the corner of a cut bean field only 40 yards off a major wood line filled with thickets and grass and everything else you can imagine. The afternoon was pretty uneventful, o.k., really uneventful. That is until right at sunset. I was starting to get frustrated because I had been seeing a lot of deer only yards from the stand the few nights before when I was unable to leave work earlier enough to hunt. But at sunset the does started coming out of the woods into the cut bean field like clockwork. I just prayed that there was a big buck following them. Just when I thought I had no luck at all and had nearly 10 does surrounding me with no bucks, I noticed movement in the wood line. It was a big buck. A nice mature, probably 3 ½ to 4 ½ yr old 8 pointer with some really long tines. If I had to guess I would say in the low 140's. I knew that he was a shooter and prepared myself. It felt like an eternity before he made it into one of my shooting lanes. I drew back and felt good when I put my pins on him. I mean who wouldn’t when he was only 25 yards away. I still don’t know what happened, I guess I decided to pull an Andy, and for some reason my arrow decided to bounce off his back, and I mean literally. He ran off about 20 yards as I nocked another arrow. Now standing broadside at 45 yards I was debating whether to let another arrow fly but I didn’t feel too comfortable at making a shot at that distance on such a nice buck. It was only minutes when he and his does decided that they did not care for what was going on and took off in the wood line.
That is all except for one particular doe. She must have really enjoyed what she was seeing, because she stuck it out for the duration of what light was left. I thought maybe, just maybe I could grunt him back, I mean I have done it before after missing a buck, but knew my chances were very slim. I grunted and roared maybe 6 good times. To no avail he never re-appeared. Just as I thought I was a horrible bow hunter for missing what seemed to be an easy shot for most hunters, I saw movement far west of me. To my amazement, there was another buck and a few more does heading my direction. I was unsure how big he was because for some reason I decided to slam my binoculars in my truck door and broke them right before going out to the stand. So I grunted again a few more times. He came right into one of my shooting lanes within the minute. Too bad he was only a smaller 8 pointer that might push 110 -120” if he was lucky. I felt sick to my stomach as my light was fading away faster and faster with every passing minute. I thought my luck had run out for the evening. That is until I heard some crunching behind me. I was waiting for whatever it was to spook as it was coming down wind of me. I guess I can give props to the few scent wafers I had strategically placed on the tree limbs below me.
Well the crunching I heard behind me was another buck. I was unsure at how many tines he had but knew immediately when I saw him that he was a shooter. He came right though my thicket I was in, just to the west of my stand right into an opening that was cleared for a shot. He bumped the littler buck out, but by that time I already was drawn back and had my 20 yard pin right behind his front shoulder. I murped and he stopped dead in his tracks. I sent my arrow flying hoping for the best as this all went down in less than one minute. He took off running for about 20 yards and turned and looked back in the same direction. I told myself, there is no way that I missed this deer. There is no absolutely way I missed him. But from his actions and my stupidity as a rookie bow hunter for not completely following the bow hunter ethics of eyeing your shot placement, look whether the tail is up or down, or maybe even blood squirting from his body I second guessed myself. From that point he walked casually to the wood line like nothing had ever happened and jumped the fence. I heard some thrashing in the woods thinking it was him crashing. Low and behold a doe came out of the thicket. Again I second guessed myself.
This whole time the little buck and the same doe are circling my small thicket with only one tree big enough for a stand. They continued to do this for the remainder of the light. I was so eager to see what my arrow look like if it was still there that I even bumped them in the wood line as I was getting out of my stand. After picking up my dirt filled arrow that sailed over the back of the first buck, I went to search for my other one. Right in my shooting lane was a blood soaked arrow sticking straight out of the ground. After reviewing the arrow and searching for blood in a small circle around it, I was disappointed by only seeing a light red blood and no bubbles and nothing on the ground immediately surrounding my arrow, and I second guessed my shot. I even had a few hunting buddies look at the arrow and we all came to the same conclusion pull out and wait till morning. With the way the arrow looked it just didn’t feel right. So for any bow hunter that has to wait overnight you can just imagine what was going through my mind. I searched and searched online for possible reasons why my arrow was the way it was. I just have to say for the record when you second guess yourself in the stand and then decide to do some research, it never fails that what you find will only disappoint you even more. I got myself thinking that I might have gut shot him, or even gave him a superficial cut that only soaked my arrow enough to leave some blood on it. Needless to say I didn’t sleep that much that night. And in the morning it was on to tracking.
Right away we found a few spots of blood. I began to get a little confidence back, that is until we stopped finding blood not due to the fact my hunting buddies are inexperienced at tracking because they are not, but again to my reckless rookie bow hunter mistake that I had thought he had entered the wood line straight north of the stand so that is where we continued the searching. We entered the wood line and none of us were finding any blood. I just happened to scan the woods just inside the wood line and saw him lying in a heap. I was pumped. He was down and out for the count and had only made it 20 yards inside the wood line. Little did I know until we got up on him that I had made what was seemed to be a perfect bow shot of which he bled really well and it showed on the ground where he had entered the wood line. I would have seen that if I only remembered where he entered and not made the rookie mistake of not paying attention after the shot. After gutting him did I finally realize how well of a shot I made on him. DOUBLE lunged him. He hasn’t been officially scored but should be close to 130”. He has a few broken tines on his right side which kind of sucks, but that adds character to the animal. All in all I am very excited and don’t wish that it could have happened any other way. That is why I love bow hunting.
I hope that not only do I in the future learn from the mistakes I made, but hope that this story can help other bow hunters out there so that this does not happen to them and they are not having a sleepless night.
