For the few of us that we’re young men in the 70’s, you might remember a Mickey Gilley hit song “Don’t the Girls Get Prettier at Closing Time”. It made a lot of sense to me at my young age and being in college. Nowadays, I guess I have started thinking along those lines…but with bucks. There’s never going to be a country song written on the topic; but I’m trusting you understand the somewhat strained connection here that I'm trying to make.
I had set out on a recent public land hunt in Kansas with a mental vision of a great buck.... and the good shot I was going to make on him. I was looking for a truly exceptional animal and I had decided from the beginning that if I had to, I would finish the hunt with a tag in my pocket….and be happy about it all for the experience. I had told several of my friends of my resolve, commenting you can't shoot a big one; if you kill the little one. It seemed to make perfectly good sense to me and I've went on many hunts that turned out just that way...with the tag in my pocket:)
By the 10th day of my 11 1/2 day hunt, I had seen close to 70 deer off my stand; with at least 50 of them being bucks. In the first 20 minutes of the first day's hunt, I had a 130ish buck come 32 yards from me! For the life of me, I couldn't get my mental redlight to change to green; so I just let him pass. On the morning of the 10th day, I had a beautiful 8 point pass by me at 8 yards and I decided to pass. However, that night I laid in my sleeping bag thinking about that eight point that I had passed during the day. He was pretty, he was close, he was in the morning where I had all day to get him out, and my football game had only 2 minutes left to play. I begin to think maybe I should have shot him. A lot of time would pass in Mississippi before I might get the same opportunity at that age buck.
The 11th morning I walked in the predawn darkness and tried to be as quiet as possible as I picked my way through the woods. I climbed up and had my 12’ perch ready to go well before shooting light. I didn't like the low height, but the tree wouldn't allow a higher height and it was in the right place. I suppose I sat for about 20 minutes and I saw a buck walking in on the same trail I had walked on just earlier. I had never had a deer come from that direction so it surprised me. He paid no attention to my scent trail left just a few minutes earlier.
I wasn’t really thinking about shooting him as he wasn't really the buck I was after, but as he walked slowly closer, I begin to think I was on my last full day, was sitting on a $600 license that took two years to get, a $650 cabin rental, and all the gas I had spent to get here. Time may be free...but I had sure spent a lot of it.
I then noticed, as the light improved he had battle scars all down his side. My first thought was this must be the dominant buck here! This dude was a fighter! That inched me a little closer to shooting. I remained seated as he headed to my left to go behind the double sycamore tree that all the deer had walked through previously. It’s an easy 8 yard shot sitting down with a tree screening the draw without being seen. All was going good until he decided to turn to my right taking me by complete surprise. A right handed shooter can shoot left sitting down….but not right! As he worked in to about 6 yards I saw he wasn’t carrying scars.... but rather piebald spots! Think about it, what’s the chances of a buck “being sent” to you with predetermined white spots to shoot at! I had to shoot!
I stuck my recurve between my legs while I was sitting and as he got situated in a good shot position, I tried to shoot at about 1 o’clock from my sitting position. I likely lacked a few inches getting to full draw…but I was so close I could have spit on him! When I shot the bottom recurve tip caught my pants leg and I saw the arrow take a sharp dive. At 6 yards it didn’t have time to dive too much. I saw what appeared to me an arrow impact(in a flash) to hit his foreleg and glance into area of the heart pocket. Disappointment followed as the arrow fell out on the first jump. He jump once, stopped, and just begin to walk slowly away. I heard no crash in the leaves and could see my arrow with no blood on the orange dip or white fletching. I was pretty sure the leg bone had stopped the arrow before it could get to any vitals. I was pretty low at that point. I don’t wound many deer.
I sat there 45 minutes and decided it was time to look at the arrow. I had about 5” of blood on the shaft. I carefully walked in the direction he ran and started seeing blood…lots of it. The Black Diamond Eskimo produced a blood trail that looked like a 50 PSI hose was spraying blood everywhere!
Though the blood was very heavy, I covered 175 yards quickly without seeing a dead deer. I was now in a wide open timber bottom that I could see a 100 yards and I still couldn’t see a deer out in the woods. I followed along the heavy blood trail until he went down a steep ditch and came out the other side. Not good.
Eventually at about 225 yards. The blood just went from nuts crazy to zero! Just like that. I started grid searches and went back and forth several times. After an hour of looking, I went back to the last blood. I eventually found a pin head drop and could see he veered off his previous path. I saw it aimed directly at a huge fallen tree with several broken branches. I had looked at it from several yards away earlier as I searched a ravine; but decided to take the 50 yard walk to look at it more closely. There I found the buck stone dead in between two large fallen logs that had been blocking my view.
The bucks do look prettier at closing time…..
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Topic: The Bucks Get Prettier At Closing Time..... (Read 1201 times)
