Thanks all for the kind words. Details for this hunt start back a month ago.
A couple buddies and I went west in search of a diy public land elk. Long hikes, plenty of hunting pressure, and wild weather eventually put me broadside from my first and only good cow elk opportunity. I misjudged the distance in the couple seconds I had. My arrow missed clean. Right over her back. The long hike back to camp I told myself all the same old things... at least I didn’t make a bad hit, maybe she’ll end up being a youth hunters first animal, maybe one day she’ll raise a bull I chase, maybe, maybe, maybe. In the end it just wasn’t meant to be.
Back home in Indiana, I hunt a small woods surrounded by farm field. It’s pretty good bedding for whitetail. Typically it can hold quite a few does. Even a few small bucks from time to time. With my focus on Colorado all year. I hadn’t done much scouting with season getting ready to open. I’d seen a good buck last year. Just never could catch him during shooting hours. So I’d resolved to just hunt the wind and hope for the best. A couple hunts in. I had only been seeing a pair of small does.
Saturday afternoon I headed out to hunt the southeast corner and take advantage of a north wind. Several hours in, and right near sunset I caught movement from the thicket. It was obvious he wasn’t a small doe! When he hit my lane I made sure to not look at anything other than the “spot”. It all happened so fast. I hit him quartering away at 15 yards catching both lungs. He ran right back where he had come from. Going maybe 75 yards. I shot him with a #58 pronghorn 1piece longbow, and the arrow...
It was the grizzly tipped one I missed that cow in Colorado with! Guess it was just meant to be!