Gundog
PMA Member
Caution Long Read - Pictures below.
It was a challenging year in the stand with the bow this season but I couldn't be happier with the old warrior I was finally able to get out in daylight to harvest. I have close to two dozen pictures of this guy and only one was during legal shooting time. All the others were between 1 - 4 am. My kids named him stubby because he only had half of a tail. He never left his little area of cedars and cover in the daylight. Finally, the last weekend before shotgun 1, I decided to take the hunt to his bedroom. I managed to hang a stand in the dark on a Sunday moring about 18' up in a pine tree just above where my camera was.
I have never hunted a setup like this before as I was literally in a small square of pine trees that was open in the middle with two trails going through it. The farthest shot I would have was about 25 yards if he would show himself.
The morning went pretty slow with just a couple of basket racks walking through so I crawled down and ran home to eat a bite and was back in the tree by 1:30 for the evening sit. Did not see a deer (which I didn't expect because of the limited view) until 4:50 when a doe and two fawns came through on the trail almost directly under my tree. About 10 minutes later I could hear another deer coming but it would take about 5 steps and then stop for a minute or two and then do it again. I figured it was a buck as cautious as it was being so I grabbed the bow and waited what seemed like forever until I could see him. When he finally came out in the open I could see it was Stubby. He finally made it out in front of me about 8 yards from my tree and being 18' up, it was a steep angle. He was slightly quartering away so I aimed low behind the front shoulder and let it go. It smoked him about half way up the body but the arrow hit the opposite should and did not give me an exit hole. He kicked and ran back the way he came. I swore I heard him crash so I waited a while to get down and went home to get my kids to come track.
When we got back there was no blood whatsoever due to the high angle of the hit and going into the opposite shoulder so we ended up backing out. I left him over night and had a couple buddies come out with me the next day. We searched high and low for him and found nothing in terms of blood or an arrow or anything. Mind you this is not a very big area (maybe 80 yards wide) but very thick with cedars and rose bushes.
I finally went on one of the last trails I couldn't remember if I went down or not that took me out to a two track and came across some spots of blood about 250 yards from where I shot him. We started on the trail but it stopped after about 50 yards. We decided to go up around a fence that he was following and each take a trail back into the thick stuff. My buddy would take the right one and found him dead under a cedar tree about 100 yards from where we lost blood. He was dead the night before and luckily the coyotes did not find him. A lot of emotions go through you when you put a good shot on a deer and it takes that long to find him. Ended up going through one lung and I am guessing hit the other shoulder causing it not to go through him. Never did find the arrow.
This buck was a fighter too, his right eye was swollen and had blood in it from another antler (I assume) and his hide was split to the scalp between his antlers. Guess he didn't realize he didn't have much to fight with.
No idea what he scores, maybe 100" but I don't care because I think this buck was in the last year or two of his life as he barely had any teeth left. Happy to have had the opportunity to hunt him on his territory.
It was a challenging year in the stand with the bow this season but I couldn't be happier with the old warrior I was finally able to get out in daylight to harvest. I have close to two dozen pictures of this guy and only one was during legal shooting time. All the others were between 1 - 4 am. My kids named him stubby because he only had half of a tail. He never left his little area of cedars and cover in the daylight. Finally, the last weekend before shotgun 1, I decided to take the hunt to his bedroom. I managed to hang a stand in the dark on a Sunday moring about 18' up in a pine tree just above where my camera was.
I have never hunted a setup like this before as I was literally in a small square of pine trees that was open in the middle with two trails going through it. The farthest shot I would have was about 25 yards if he would show himself.
The morning went pretty slow with just a couple of basket racks walking through so I crawled down and ran home to eat a bite and was back in the tree by 1:30 for the evening sit. Did not see a deer (which I didn't expect because of the limited view) until 4:50 when a doe and two fawns came through on the trail almost directly under my tree. About 10 minutes later I could hear another deer coming but it would take about 5 steps and then stop for a minute or two and then do it again. I figured it was a buck as cautious as it was being so I grabbed the bow and waited what seemed like forever until I could see him. When he finally came out in the open I could see it was Stubby. He finally made it out in front of me about 8 yards from my tree and being 18' up, it was a steep angle. He was slightly quartering away so I aimed low behind the front shoulder and let it go. It smoked him about half way up the body but the arrow hit the opposite should and did not give me an exit hole. He kicked and ran back the way he came. I swore I heard him crash so I waited a while to get down and went home to get my kids to come track.
When we got back there was no blood whatsoever due to the high angle of the hit and going into the opposite shoulder so we ended up backing out. I left him over night and had a couple buddies come out with me the next day. We searched high and low for him and found nothing in terms of blood or an arrow or anything. Mind you this is not a very big area (maybe 80 yards wide) but very thick with cedars and rose bushes.
I finally went on one of the last trails I couldn't remember if I went down or not that took me out to a two track and came across some spots of blood about 250 yards from where I shot him. We started on the trail but it stopped after about 50 yards. We decided to go up around a fence that he was following and each take a trail back into the thick stuff. My buddy would take the right one and found him dead under a cedar tree about 100 yards from where we lost blood. He was dead the night before and luckily the coyotes did not find him. A lot of emotions go through you when you put a good shot on a deer and it takes that long to find him. Ended up going through one lung and I am guessing hit the other shoulder causing it not to go through him. Never did find the arrow.
This buck was a fighter too, his right eye was swollen and had blood in it from another antler (I assume) and his hide was split to the scalp between his antlers. Guess he didn't realize he didn't have much to fight with.
No idea what he scores, maybe 100" but I don't care because I think this buck was in the last year or two of his life as he barely had any teeth left. Happy to have had the opportunity to hunt him on his territory.
