The alarm went off at 3:30am. I already had the truck loaded, and was soon driving the 105 miles from my home in central Illinois to my hunting property in southern Illinois.
By the time I got to my little camper and unloaded, it was pink light. I decided to get in my closest tree stand so I wouldn't walk in on any of the 3 other guys hunting there.
I hooked up my tether to the prusick knot loop on my safety line, and climbed up to settle in for a long hunt. The weather was perfect with no wind and temps in the high 30's.
Soon I spotted a deer through the trees in an open field, and shortly after, a spike buck came down the trail to the stand. He literally walked a circle around my tree before he moved off.
About 7:00 I saw movement to my right, and a nice doe came down the trail. I started to draw on her and thought better when I saw her tail straight out. Sure enough, there was a buck behind her!
The doe turned and browsed off into the brush away from me. It looked like I would have one chance at 20 yards at the buck before he turned to follow her. Just before he got to that spot, he tucked his feet under and laid down! The doe slowly fed away with the buck watching her.
All this time, I had my longbow up and ready to shoot. My arms were getting heavy, and I was starting to shake. This was a really nice buck with chocolate brown antlers, and that added to the tension.
Finally, the buck stood up. Instead of following the doe, he came right down the trail past the stand at 15 yards, at a fast walk. I thought about trying to stop him, but decided to take the shot at him walking.
He was broadside when I released. I think he started to stop at the sound of the shot, and my arrow hit just forward of the front leg. The 650 grain Sitka spruce arrow tipped with a Tuffhead, from my 45# longbow, got good penetration through tough tissue.
The buck simply turned and walked away after being hit. I was sick, thinking I made a bad shot. He walked about 15 yards and coughed. I could hear him coughing as he walked out of sight about 40 yards away. I could hear what sounded like thrashing just out of sight, but I thought it was the buck chasing the doe.
I waited in the stand for 2 full hours before getting down. The whole time I went from feeling terrible about wounding a great buck, to slightly optimistic after hearing the sounds of what may have been his death throes.
I walked back to the camper and got the other 3 guys and the beagle dog to attempt tracking the buck. Withing 10 yards or so, we found lots of blood. 10 yards further, was much more blood, and looking up, there was the buck! He was just out of sight in the thick brush.
It's hard to describe the feeling of relief I had with the easy recovery. The arrow had caught the front edge of the ribs, and angled into the neck, cutting the windpipe and one or more big arteries in the neck.
The next day, I had this buck walk by twice at 10 yards. I had another tag, but let him go.
2016 by
okawbow , on Flickr
Topic: Skull mount (Read 843 times)
