Season opened up here in Tennessee Saturday. It was the hottest opening weekend I can remember. But it didn't keep me from hunting Saturday and Sunday morning before it got way too hot. Deer activity was very slow. Saw 4 all weekend, all out of range. Had to work yesterday and the yard needed mowing after work, so no hunting.
A nice little cool front moved in overnight and it actually felt like bow season today. So after work, I came home and gathered up my gear for an evening hunt. I had in mind to hunt a stand at the back end of a hay field on one of my leases. But when I got there, they were cutting the hay. Change of plans, fall back and punt.
I ended up going to a stand on the other side of the property. It's located in a stand of white oaks that the deer wear out this time of year. I had no sooner got up the tree and fired up my Thermacell when I heard activity off to my left. A doe was browsing on acorns about 60 yard off. I was hopeful she would browse my way, but as luck would have it, she browsed on up to the top of the ridge, well out of range.
The woods are really dry right now. With what few leaves have fallen, it's really easy to hear a deer pretty far off. The doe had wandered off about 100 yards, still feeding last I saw her. At about 5:15, I hear a helluva a ruckus in the direction where I last saw her. She scurries back off the ridge to the bench I'm on, but heads the opposite direction. What little wind there was, was in my favor so I know she didn't wind me. Hmm...wonder what got to her.
Then I hear the unmistakable sound of a deer walking through a small cane thicket in my direction. One buck steps into view, then another. The lead buck gets right to the trail I walked in on and catches my scent on the trail. He does an about face and turns, angling up towards the top of the ridge.
I honestly don't remember what happened next. I know he stopped in a little hole between some white oak limbs on the tree I was in. I remember looking at a spot mid ways on his body. Next thing I know, he runs about 30 yards up the hill with my arrow sticking in him, stops, wobbles to the right, then to the left, and fell over stone cold dead.
I'm standing there in the stand, after having just made a shot from the worst position in that stand, looking at him laying there dead, thinking, "Did that really just happen?"
"WOW! That really just happened!"
I paced the shot off after I got down. Ended up being 27 yards. It was a really hard quartering shot and the arrow entered behind the last rib and exited in the lower chest cavity up front, being stopped by the inside of the opposite leg. His insides were hash.
I would have never thought about trying to make a shot like that...but there wasn't any thinking involved. It just happened. Instinct completely took over.
He's no monster by any stretch of the imagination. A young 7 pointer. But I couldn't be more pleased. This has been a long time coming.
I used my 58" Bigfoot Sasquatch SS 50#@27" Easton 2213 tipped with Werewolf 200gr double bevel heads.
I would also like to note, I field dressed him with the beautiful Tippit knife that I won in this years St Jude auction.
I'll try to get my wife to upload a pic or two to photobucket when she has time.
I can honestly say, this would have never happened without this site. First and foremost, all the information and advise...I'd still be lost without y'all. And secondly, I got the bow and arrows from the classifieds here. I got the broadheads, the quiver and the knife from the St Jude auction. A huge, heartfelt Thank You to everybody here.
Topic: First Traditional Buck! picture added (Read 2618 times)
