Finally got around to typing this up. It’s been a pretty exhausting 24 hours.
Being a college student unfortunately doesn’t leave me a ton of time to get out in the woods (without really sacrificing grades), so whenever I get the chance to head out for a morning or an evening I really enjoy the time I get to spend out in the woods. Last night was one of those nights, and after finishing up a few assignments I headed out to a property that I’ve done most of my hunting on. It was a really nice afternoon, right around 40, and the sun was shining. There was still snow in spots, but the majority of it had melted. When I got to the property, I realized that the wind was blowing the wrong direction for the spot that I wanted to sit, so I decided to go into an area that I had hunted a few years ago. There was plenty of deer sign, but no really well defined trails, so it took me a while to find a spot that seemed like it would allow me to cover where the majority of the sign was.
I had just decided on what tree I wanted to sit beside when I heard a crash to my north. A second later a doe and fawn ran through with a decent 6 point hot on their heels. This was the first rut activity I had seen this year, so that got me pretty excited. I settled in and watched them run back and forth a few times, never getting any closer than 150 yards. Eventually they worked off to my north and I never saw them again.
Maybe an hour later I heard another deer walking, and soon was able to see a small buck working down through the woods in my direction. As he got closer I could see through the binoculars that he was just barely a 4 pointer. I really didn’t know where he would walk since there were not any well defined trails, but he ended up walking right up to me and passing about 5 yards to my left. I kept waiting at any second for him to turn and look at me, but he walked right through without ever knowing that I was there. Having a buck that close on the ground sure is exciting! He continued on behind me until I couldn’t hear him anymore.
Around 6:30 the wind died down and it was absolutely silent. After a while I could hear deer moving around in front of me. The frosty leaves were really crunchy and it made it easy to tell where the deer were coming from. Soon the crunching got louder and it sounded as if the deer were running right towards me. Soon a big doe followed by a fawn came running down the same trail the small buck had taken earlier. Instead of walking right up to me like the little buck did, they turned and walked broadside to me at 20 yards. After they had moved off a little bit, I could hear another deer walking on the same trail that they had just taken. I had seen a doe with two fawns down in that area earlier in the evening, so assumed it was the second fawn. As I was looking down the trail trying to see what was walking, I heard a grunt that didn’t sound fawn-like at all. I slowly got my bow up and set to draw, but still couldn’t see the deer. Finally when it sounded like the footsteps were right on top of me, I saw the buck coming down the trail. I couldn’t believe it when I realized that was the buck that I had been hunting this property for. He was taking the same trail that the other deer had taken, and I hoped that he would follow the doe and not take the trail that the smaller buck had taken earlier. As he went through some bushes, I drew, but he saw me right as I hit anchor. What followed was a 30 second staredown which felt like about 10 minutes. Finally he turned as if to follow the doe. As soon as he went broadside I released the arrow. He was already a bit on edge from seeing me, and when I released, he ducked and spun hard away from me. By the time my arrow got there, his neck had moved to where his chest was, and it zipped right through it. He took 2 jumps and started looking around. In the fading light I thought that I missed him, and was quietly trying to get another arrow nocked. That’s when he turned slightly and I saw blood pouring from his neck. I knew right away I had hit the jugular, and within 10 seconds he started to sway, stumbled once, then flipped over backwards. Within 20 seconds he was done. I made a few excited phone calls and soon had a buddy on the way to help with the drag. I had had pictures of this buck during late august, and had had a close encounter with him earlier this fall at a different location. It was really cool to finally put it all together. He’s got some great character. Bug holes on both sides a small droptine on the right.
I'm using a Stillwater Aberdeen recurve, 57@29 with GT 500's and a 200 grain 3 blade VPA broadhead.
This is my first big game kill with a traditional bow. I’ve been trying for 6 years to get one. I’ve been close a few times, but it’s never quite come together. I couldn’t be happier to put my tag on a beautiful U.P. buck. I spend all of today butchering and packaging, and it sure is a good feeling to look in the freezer and see it full.
Good luck to everyone still out there!
(Can't figure out how to rotate the pictures. Any help on that?)
Topic: Finally-U.P. Buck (Read 3904 times)
