The next morning I hunted the north hollow stand and saw 3 rack bucks that didn't come my way . This is in an area that every time I went there I saw a couple bucks but couldn't get near them . I usually have my stands in thick pine woods so I felt exposed in open woods with scattered trees with few branches . I went back and followed the rub line from the other stand . I found no less than 30 trees rubbed up in an area about 40 yards square . I was suprised tom have only found 2 scrapes on the farm and one of them was made by Darren's brother Dan . Darren and I scouted the area out and decided to move a stand between the scrapes which were about 100 yards apart and also at the edge of the rubbed trees about 60 yards in from the edge of the field . Also a trail was coming out of a bean field and crossing the fence in the same general area . It was the kind of places you read about but never find . I knew a buck would come by there but wasn't sure if he would come before I had to leave . I hunted it Monday afternoon and saw 2 does and a spike . All 3 gave me shot opertunities but I passed thinking a buck would be trailing , again no luck .
Darrwen was to meet me that night at the farm and we were to move a stand where I had been seeing the bucks in the northern hollow but after scouting it again that afternoon I couldn't find a place that felt as good as the stand by the rubs . I felt it would pay off if I waited long enough . Tuesday morning I awoke and had my usual breakfast of granola bars and apples and headed to the farm . I got there about 45 minutes before shooting time and snuck into my stand . As I got near the stand I could hear deer walking around on 2 sides of me about 30 yards away but the weren't spooked and I couldn't see them . I climbed up the tree as quiet as I could and settled in to await daylight thinking the only hard part now was figuring out which one to shoot when the sun came up . After a few minutes a few deer walked out to the bean field and jumped the fence , I could hear their hind feet strumming the upper strand of wire . Then I heard one come behind me and walk off to my right and I thought he went out into the hay field . All was quiet when the sun arose . I was in the tree at 5 am and it was now 7:00 . I was starting to think I made a mistake and should have set a stand in the north hollow . Desperate times breed desperate men so I hun g my bow on a branch and took out my rattle bag . I din't rattle too hard as a few days earlier I had tried and got no response so I just went at it moderatly for a couple minutes and then put them back in my fanny pack , hung it on my stand and got out my grunt call and gave a few low grunts all the while scanning the woods for movement . Nothing moving and I look around towards the field and there about 40 yards away is a bucks head looking back and forth . I almost fell out of the tree I was so surprised . He stood up and started to come ovber to see what was up . Somehow I managed to get my bow off the branch behind me while keeping my eyes on the buck . He started to hook up a tree and I nocked an arrow . Now the hard part he was hard to my right and I had to stand and turn to make the shot . I was on the edge of the hopllow and he was on top so we were almost eye level with each other at 25 yards . It was fate , he did the only thing wrong he could do , he turned and faced the field , pawed a small scrape and urinated in it . The time it took him to do this I put to good use by rising and turning on the stand . Like magic when I was set he turned around again and started walking along almost broadside going down the hollow .He was about 20 yards and in thick briers and tall weeds . I had a small opening that would expose his lower chest for about a step or two . There were leaning briers that covered his upper chest while his head was above them . I'm usually not a great shot but I was that day . I hit him low in the chest and he made the classic jump and kick like you see in the videos but as he ran down hill I could see a lot of my arrow sticking out of him . Not a comforting sight . I waited an hour during which time another spike came under my stand and a 10 pt. with a smallish rack came by about 40 yards and sniffed where the buck had bedded and the scrape he made but never came close enough for a shot and I didn't try to encourage him , watching him was good enough . I got down and circled the hollow along the north and south sides seeing if the buck came out and crossed into another hollow . I found no blood leaving the hollow so went back to my stand and started in the direction he went . I figured rather than climb through the briers I would go down about 60 yards to a slope nearer the bottom and look for sign figuring with no exit wound the blood trail would be sparse .There is a little wet runoff ditch which had muddy banks which seemed a good place to look for his tracks running north to south , the deer was running east . In less time than it takes to type this I got to the ditch and imediately saw antlers . I couldn't believe it , what a buck ! I back trailed him and found my arrow about 30 yards from where I hit him and Darren posted a picture of the blood trail which was incredible seeing there qwas no exit wound . The buck didn't go 80 yards and when I got there he was already stiff . You can just see in one of the pics that I hit his front elbow nicking the bone which took some of the zip out of my arrow but I still managed to get both lungs . I had been taking my wood arrows but on this day I brought out some carbons both sets of arrows tipped with my favorites , Simmons Interceptors . My back has been bothering me lately so I left my BW home with the 67# limbs and took my old Silvertip which is 55 # and a real dream to shoot .
Have to run again , buisness calls , they know I'm home . I will try to continue tomorrow . Thanks for all the support and interest , Be well and God Bless , Fred
Topic: St. Jude/Pike Co. Hunt - All pics up now! (Read 1261 times)
