Hi guys, I'm late posting this but have been slammed with life.
My friend Ryan from SC joined me for our annual deer hunt at my property in Ohio and it was a hunt that will not be forgotten.
The trip started out as expected... his flight was late into Cincinnati, we hit traffic and an hour drive turned into three.
The solution to this was too much bourbon when we got to the house.... we made short work of a bottle of eagle rare and started in on a weller12 before we threw in the towel.
5am seemed to come really fast.... considering the circumstances, I suppose that would make sense.
We fumbled through the morning ritual of coffee and camo before walking into the back 40.
The woods spooked with deer in every direction as soon as we stepped outside.... there were more deer 2 feet off of my patio than I've seen in the last 2 seasons combined.
Now that we announced our presence and gave them a fair warning it was time to hunt.
We made it to our stands that were roughly 100yds apart from each other and settled in for a long slow hunt.
Two hours came and went with only a squirrel to keep me company.... after our ninja like entrance I was kinda surprised the squirrel stuck around.
A couple button bucks came and went and then at 930 or so a small six decided to take up residence next to my tree.
This deer wondered around me for about 20 minutes while a filmed him on my phone.
Suddenly a mature doe came in at a full sprint and stopped next to him.
The young six point nudged her a few times in disbelief, like a high-school boy if a super model was just dropped in his lap.
I thought it was odd for her to have run to a buck and concluded that it was a coyote chasing her not a different buck...... I was very wrong.
A ten point stepped out from behind me and literally roared at the six point.
The six backed away sideways as I took a 4yd shot at the ten point, I could smell the tarsal he was so close.
Both the doe and the six point jumped away from the ten as he bolted, turned and dropped.
Having cleared the way for our new friend the six point to pursue his first love I shot Ryan a text.
This is the third year in a row I have taken a mature whitetail on my first hunt, he responded appropriately with a emoji of a middle finger.
I laughed, climbed down and started to walk the ridge towards my buck.
Before I could get there I heard a crack from an arrow...... I horrible rustling noise followed.
I turned around and headed to Ryan, he was clearly being attacked by bigfoot or some other cryptic.
His bow went off again as an arrow slammed into a tree, as I crested the hill I could finally see what he was shooting.
A third arrow finally hit the mark, he had spine shot a large 7pnt.
We have hunted together for 22 years and finally filled our tags together on the same trip.
I attached a few pics, thanks for letting me share this experience.
Ryan still has training wheels on his bow, feel free to send harassing comments.
I will make sure they find him.