For a while, I thought I was going to have a really upbeat story to tell, but, as sometimes happens, the best laid schemes often turn brown and start stinking. The time change threw me off schedule, and it was well past daybreak before I got situated on my ladder stand. However, I finally got all my gear squared away and was settled in. I was really irritated at myself for running late, but things looked up pretty quickly, only about 20 minutes after getting in place. A doe came loping along through the woods doggedly followed by a pretty nice 8 point buck. He was really intent! The rut is on. As they passed by at about 12 - 15 yards, I made my shot on the buck. Since they were running, (actually just loping along, but "running" sounds much cooler), I swung through like I do on a dove with a shotgun, releasing as my bow swung just in front of him. For once I did it right with a nice double lung shot that had him down and dead within about 30 yards. It felt good, because it has been quite some time since I took a deer. My wooden arrow broke, but there was both an entrance and exit wound, right through the boiler room. It went in fairly high in the ribs, angling down to the pocket just behind the off side foreleg. This is as nice a shot as I have ever made. I was using my yew Northern Mist Shelton. It is 68" long and draws 53# at 28"; however, I only draw 25". No matter, it performed beautifully.
My son helped me drag him to a point that I could load up in the front end loader of the tractor. Funny thing, he weighed 140 lbs. when he went down, but by the time we pulled him to the loading place, I think he was up to about 265. I then dropped him off at a processing place not far away. Man, I was feeling great!
Unfortunately my euphoria was dashed that afternoon when the processer gave me a call. He said that the deer had been wounded in the hindquarter some time earlier in the season, and when they skinned him out, a very nasty, smelly, and infected wound was discovered. He said it was very bad and that the deer should be discarded. I hated to agree with him, but if the infection could be passed on by consuming the deer, that would be a potentially dangerous situation. So now I am left only with the rack. I did not notice any problem while handling him in the woods. Even though things did not work out as I had hoped, the hunt itself was quite successful. I took a few pictures with my old style flip phone, so if I (actually, my wife) can figure out how to transfer them over I will post them if they turn out well.
Topic: Good Day, Bad Day (Read 1895 times)
