10-31-2020
I will probably get carried away writing. If you don't feel like reading just jump to the pics.
I arrived in OH Friday afternoon 10-30 to hunt a farm that I had never been on before. It is in farm country with lots of corn and beans. Security cover is wooded ridges, brush choked drainages and fence lines.
My plan was to hunt for a week in OH. Timing seemed good as the day I arrived temps were cool, in the 40s during the day and high 20s during the night.
I had a few spots picked out on google earth to check out and did just that on Friday evening. After scouting I settled on my first sit location in an inside corner of a wooded ridge that was adjacent to a cutover with lots of brush. I hung a lock-on with sticks in the dark Saturday morning and seen several deer during that morning sit but no mature bucks.
Lots of the activity I seen that morning was about 150 yds to my west in a brush strip along a small drainage. I came out of the stand around noon and pulled the stand as I came out and headed over to the area all the activity had been centered around.
I ended up doing a hang and hunt right in that little brushy strip for the Saturday afternoon/evening sit. After settling into the stand I almost immediately had a group of 5 does and fawns come under me and mill around for about 20 minutes. One of the big does ended up getting down wind of me and getting nervous and moved the others out.
At around 5:30 I was sitting in the stand with my bow on the hanger and I was turned looking behind me when I heard a noise that caused me to turn and look straight in front of the stand towards one of the main ditch crossings. I caught a glimpse of movement and and flash horn and immediately knew it was a buck headed towards the crossing but the deer stopped behind some brush out of sight.
There was about 50yds of brush between the deer and I and if he hit the crossing he was headed towards he would probably never get any closer to me.
While all that was happening I picked my bow up off the hanger and picked up a bleat call that I had sitting on the top of my pack. I flipped the can call twice and within 15 seconds I seen the deer moving towards me. He was still on my side of the ditch and was walking a path towards me that put him under me at about six yards from the base of my tree, the entire time that he closed the distance he was quartering straight towards me offering no ethical shot.
When he got to 6 yards from the base of my tree he locked up and knew something was wrong. My bow was of course up and ready with string hand in place waiting for his next move.
After about 30 seconds he wheeled on his hind legs and done a 180 to leave on the trail back towards the directions he had came from. As soon as I seen him turn away I came to full draw, anchored and released. It happened fast, the arrow hit him hard a few ribs behind his right shoulder as he was quartering away from me. The arrow stuck in him and he left like he was shot out of a gun.
My initial thought on shot placement as he was running away was that he may not make it out of sight. I felt good about it, but he was running hard and it was thick cover and I was only able to follow him with my eyes for about 60 yards.
I stayed in the stand until dark and then slipped down and inspected the spot he was walking through when I shot. I immediately found blood on the ground, marked it and slipped out of there back to the truck.
I had a friend hunting with me who met me at the truck after finishing his sit and I was also fortunate enough to have my father staying in camp with us this trip. He isn't a deer hunter any more but still loves the outdoors. He drove down and met my friend and I at the parking area and I conveyed to them the details of the hunt.
At about 8pm we began tracking and had good blood at the hit site and found my arrow broken about 15 yds into the track. It was coated in good blood and the 32" arrow was broken about 8" from the nock end of the arrow. I now felt confident I had two holes in this buck.
Blood quickly became hard to find. We spent about 30 minutes covering 110 yards only finding spots. This made me extremely nervous and I began second guessing what I thought I had seen in reference to my shot placement. I quickly told my two tracking partners that we were marking the blood that we were standing at and backing out. I knew in my heart I had made a good shot but the lack of blood made me fear the worst. If it were to only be a one lung hit I didn't want to jump the deer if he were bedded nearby.
We returned to camp and after looking at the weather for the next morning I became more nervous as rain was coming.
All things taken into consideration I decided to get online to see if there may be anyone close to me with a tracking dog. The lack of blood, forecasted rain and thick cover were all on my mind and I wanted to do everything within my power in an effort to recover this deer that I knew was hit good.
I was finally able to get ahold of tracker who was available and he met me the next morning at 9am and we went back to the spot the buck was standing when I shot and he put his dog to work.
Within 20 minutes I had my hands on my buck. In all he traveled about 175 yards. I had made a great shot but the high entrance and the exit through heavy muscle in the shoulder just did not put much blood on the ground. It was a solid 2 lung hit.
I feel confident that I would have found this deer without the dog but it would have been by way of grid searching. Had the deer have went much further I would have needed the dog for sure.
The tracker I used was Chad Graef of Graef Outdoors Bloodhound Deer Recovery. He brought his hound Clyde and they were both awesome and I would highly recommend them! Chad is out of Dayton, OH.
I shot him with an ILF setup. WF-19 Riser with Long WiaWis NS-G limbs. 52#@29" 64" AMO Recurve
Arrow was a full length Beman Carbon Speed 340 shafts fletched with 3" Tradvanes. 175 grain 3 blade VPA broadhead.
Topic: Ohio Halloween Buck (Read 2895 times)
