I accomplished a lot of firsts on Oct. 8 as you see from the title! This was my first Traditional kill(Bear Grizzly Recurve), my first buck with a recurve, first deer of year. I was hunting on same land that I saw the bear on last week. This time I was about 15ft up im my climber. I was just below most of the branches of the trees so I could see further with all the leaves still on the trees. I was hunting with my Bear Grizzly recurve, Traditional Only arrows with woodsman broadheads. About 7:20am this morning I saw four does walking on edge of the cutover. They came to 40 yds behind me but no shot oppurtunity.
About 7:45 I look up and I can see a deer coming in my direction about 60 yds to my front. I stood up and got in position. However I could only see about 25 yds to my front while standing because of all the trees so I could no longer see the deer. I waited expecting for it to appear at any minute. I caught movement to my left after a couple minutes. There was the doe closing fast! I had to reposition a little for the shot and then I saw two more deer behind her. I caught sight of antlers on the second one. By now my heart was pounding out of my chest knowing they were coming down the trail that runs 6 yds to the left of my stand. I had a shot opportunity on the doe first but waited because this buck was a couple steps behind her following her every move.She walked closer and closer and as she reached my shooting lane on the trail......she looks right up at me!!! The bucks vitals are blocked by a big pine tree a step behind her. She knows this "blob" isnt usually in this tree. She bobs her heads up and down and side to side as I hope with all my being that she doesnt spook. For some reason the buck never looks up. He has his head to ground. She takes a step and repeats the staring and head movement. By now I think Im about to have a heart attack! I only need the buck to take one more step to clear a couple branches. I put all of my concentration on him and ignore the doe. As he lifts his leg to take a step I draw back. As soon as my middle finger touched the corner of my mouth I let the arrow fly. I could see a spurt of bright red blood as the arrow entered high. He ran off to my front and I heard a crash then like 2 seconds later I hear a second crash 100 yds out in the cutover to my left. I could actually see the small tree shaking from my position. After everything went quiet I started to shake lol. Adrenaline rush was overwhelming. I waited 30 min then climbed down and started the blood trailing.
This was by far the hardest blood trailing I've ever encountered. It took 1.5 hrs because the buck ran into the 5 yr old cutover.
In the pic you see the exit wound. It was a double lung shot, entered high and back and angled up to exit where you see.
Equipment used was Bear Grizzly Recurve 50# @ 28", Traditional Only Arrows from 3Rivers, and Woodsmans 125g heads