Okay...Monster in my book... Thanks to all the advice and Justin Ammons and Joe Dunlap who helped with the recovery of this great buck! Here's my full story of my best day in the deer woods yet.
TallTines 58" Recurve 59@28", Beman arrows, snuffer 145gr, 540gr arrow.
(from the Nocking Point
http://www.thenockingpoint.com)
My story starts on November 5 when I noticed a small group of does late in the evening and stalked within 25 yards making a liver shot on a young doe. I backed out of the area and planned to return in the morning after my morning hunt.
My original plan was to video a new tradgang member Jacob in one of my best tree stands. I got a call about 330 in the morning. Jacob was not going be able to hunt as planned, so I headed to the stand the morning of the 6th as planned by myself with my video camera.
There was no movement for the first 45 minutes and then at 7:30 a huge doe with a yearling came through at about 30 yards. This is my first time to attempt to film a hunt so naturally I have realized I need to get a better camera tripod system for the treestand. I had the camera set up on the left side of my treestand and this shot was on my right so I was unable to get anything on film. I took the shot and she bedded within site. About 15 minutes later a young doe came through coming from the south and passed my stand at about 7 yards, I drew on her as she past, fully intending on taking the shot. However right as I was about to release she caught my scent from the northwest wind. I had to move the camera as she came in otherwise I would've been ready for the shot sooner before she passed my tree straight into my scent stream.
Self filming lesson #1: grab your bow, prepare for the shot...then adjust your camera.
I was still texting some buddies to let them know of the news when a huge buck arrived on the scene from the north broadside at what I later paced of at 36 yards, so a very long shot for me. However, I thought that he was about 27-28 yards probably due to the shear size of his body! He stood just on the edge of my shooting lane for about a minute and a half checking everything out. As soon as he took one more step I drew and anchored seeing a path through some brush straight into his vitals. His shoulder area was still covered by a small sapling so I had to sneak the arrow in avoiding the sapling. When I released he was facing south and immediately ducked and lunged back towards the way he came. My arrow caught him about 8 to 10 inches further back from where I was aiming. The big snuffer BH penetrated to the yellow fletching and I watched him gallup away for about 50 yards until I lost sight.
After recovering my does I returned to track the buck with Joe (JDunlap)at about 4:30 that evening. We tracked him for about 100 yards and lost the trail. I continued to track with my brother Daniel and we tracked good blood for another 150 yards until it stopped abruptly in heavy greenbrier about 20 yards and down wind of the access road which had been my entrance. I had gone out of my way to leave the area from a different direction to avoid spooking him.
I combed the area the next afternoon after getting off early with no luck.
I had all but given up when a fellow tradganger (Justin Ammons) offered to help me track in the morning with his tracking dog. We returned in the am and found the trail to be too cold for his dog (who can't be blamed as she is awesome!) I wanted to check two more bedding areas. After checking the first, we headed to a second area along a creek bed on a neighboring property. Justin found him as we walked on either side of a briar brimmed creek. He had gone about 500 yards!
I would estimate his body size at about 200lbs undressed and guess his rack should score in the 120's. A beautiful buck for my area! I am so glad for the help I received from fellow tradganger's. I owe my success to you all! Autopsy showed that I hit the posterior lobe of the liver, nailed the spleen. You can see the exit wound in this last picture along the creek where we found him. More pictures to follow.
Dragging him out of the thick stuff:
Topic: Monster Oklahoma 10 point (Read 7771 times)
