I went out hunting today on my day off. It got up to the mid 80's so I considered not going out since I had to take the girls to school and wouldn't make it out until 9AM but really wanted to give it a shot. Daytime deer activity has crashed the past 2 weeks since it got hot again, so I figured I'd try hunting some standing corn. It was a little windy, to cover noise but not windy enough to make them super jumpy. I figured it was about the perfect day to try this if I was going to.
I put on the blaze orange (early ML is currently in too) and grabbed my crossbow. (I think some of you know I can't use my compound because of my bad shoulder, so I have a disabled permit and can use a crossbow.)
Wind was from the south, and I started in the NW corner, still-hunting the corn. I was thinking I'd take a doe if I got a good shot at one, to put some meat in the freezer. Didn't see a deer for the first 2 hours, then saw a buck near the NE corner of this 350 acre corn field. I could tell in the glasses that he was a good buck but needed to get closer to tell how good. I took about a half hour to close to within 30 yards and poke my head across the row to look at him. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was the "dumpster buck" who's been a target buck for the last 3 years. He was laying across the row, so I had an almost broadside shot, with his back end to my right and his head tucked in on his right shoulder and he seemed to be sleeping. I checked my gear and moved into the row he was in. I was kneeling, with my left elbow on my knee for a rest. I put it behind is shoulder and squeezed the trigger. At the time I couldn't figure out why the bow jumped so violently in my hands but the broadhead went about a foot and a half left of point of aim. I thought I missed him clean. He jumped up and looked around, not sure what happened, and kind of trotted off.
After he left, I checked where he had been. I found a few shoulder and brisket hairs that were shaved short, but nothing on the bolt or broadhead. I shaved a bit of hair but didn't even get skin. At least I didn't hurt him and he didn't seem too shaken up. It turns out as I shot, and the limbs started moving forward, the limb hit a corn stalk and it threw the bow to the side. I hit a foot and a half to the left. Oh well. Another learning experience.
He's put on some good horn too. Here are pics of him from the past 3 years. He's put on some more trash this year and I think he'll gross 215 NT pretty easy this year.
Here are pictures of him from the past 3 years to show how he's progressed. I don't have him on camera yet this year but maybe I'll get a harvest shot of him soon.
Summer of '05
Fall of '06
Fall of '07
Matthew
I put on the blaze orange (early ML is currently in too) and grabbed my crossbow. (I think some of you know I can't use my compound because of my bad shoulder, so I have a disabled permit and can use a crossbow.)
Wind was from the south, and I started in the NW corner, still-hunting the corn. I was thinking I'd take a doe if I got a good shot at one, to put some meat in the freezer. Didn't see a deer for the first 2 hours, then saw a buck near the NE corner of this 350 acre corn field. I could tell in the glasses that he was a good buck but needed to get closer to tell how good. I took about a half hour to close to within 30 yards and poke my head across the row to look at him. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was the "dumpster buck" who's been a target buck for the last 3 years. He was laying across the row, so I had an almost broadside shot, with his back end to my right and his head tucked in on his right shoulder and he seemed to be sleeping. I checked my gear and moved into the row he was in. I was kneeling, with my left elbow on my knee for a rest. I put it behind is shoulder and squeezed the trigger. At the time I couldn't figure out why the bow jumped so violently in my hands but the broadhead went about a foot and a half left of point of aim. I thought I missed him clean. He jumped up and looked around, not sure what happened, and kind of trotted off.
After he left, I checked where he had been. I found a few shoulder and brisket hairs that were shaved short, but nothing on the bolt or broadhead. I shaved a bit of hair but didn't even get skin. At least I didn't hurt him and he didn't seem too shaken up. It turns out as I shot, and the limbs started moving forward, the limb hit a corn stalk and it threw the bow to the side. I hit a foot and a half to the left. Oh well. Another learning experience.
He's put on some good horn too. Here are pics of him from the past 3 years. He's put on some more trash this year and I think he'll gross 215 NT pretty easy this year.
Here are pictures of him from the past 3 years to show how he's progressed. I don't have him on camera yet this year but maybe I'll get a harvest shot of him soon.
Summer of '05
Fall of '06
Fall of '07
Matthew
