The rain pelted against my hunting blind positioned between a cedar thicket and clover field. Still, I had a good feeling about this afternoon, so I peered attentively out the front of the blind, anticipating that deer would move when the time was right.
The calendar showed that the Hunter's Moon was on the rise and given that the Kentucky rut was just begining to kick off I knew that anything could happen. Still, the East wind worried me. Deer could likely come from down wind and if they did, I might get picked off. I'd definately have to keep my fingers crossed.
At 3:00 pm, two does appeared from the the east end of the clover field. Although they approached from up wind, they became nervous near the blind and quicky bolted away. Dang! I needed the does to encourage a buck to come in and these two definately were not about to cooperate.
Fifteen minutes passed and a yearling doe walked into view from the West and directly down wind. She was skittish from the start and walked stiff legged past the blind without so much as a pause. This was begining to look discouraging.
At 3:30 intuition told me to carefully look to the West and when I did, there he was, a long tined, 3 1/2 year old buck. He looked to be a basket racked seven point with big shoulders and a heavy body...a dandy of a stickbow deer if ever there was one. There was only one problem: he was getting nervous and in an instant, he wheeled to escape.
I sat back in my chair and shook my head. Dang wind...it must have given me away. That is exactly what I was afraid of.
Moments passed and I looked up. To my astonishment, the deer was back and walking my way. He came toward the blind, nosing on shoots of clover as he walked until stopping broadside only 15 yards away.
I had already raised and canted the Horne TD Ridgerunner Bow in the event a shot presented. When the buck turned his head sharply over his shoulder to identify a distant sound, I drew the 40# bow, anchored the Grizzly tipped cedar arrow, and released, watching the arrow bury to the fletch in the buck's side as he bolted away.
The time was 3:40 with the rain coming down hard and since I was confident I had made a lethal shot on the deer, I waited only 10 minutes before taking up the trail.
I quickly found my broken, bloody arrow but could not find any other blood. The rain had obviously washed it away so rather than look for the buck alone, I obtained the help of fellow hunting fanatic Jansen, the teenaged grandson of the landowner.
I knew the deer had not gone far and sure enough, after looking for him only a few minutes, Jansen found him dead 25 yards inside the cedar thicket and less than 100 yards from where he was shot.
After shooting three does earlier in the bow season and with Kentucky's gun season starting this Saturday, I was ecstatic to arrow this buck. He field dressed at 200 lbs and is definately the icing on my proverbial bowhunting cake!
Here is is...
Topic: Daily Hunt pics and Stories 2006 (Read 41562 times)
