Last night was a good night. I had a really nice 8 pointer come in traveling with a spike buck and following a doe. The stand I was in is located on a bench running parallel to the bank of a small lake. This stand was perfect for the northerly wind we had last night. The doe was in the lead. She walked straight for me. For a while I couldn't tell which side of the stand she was going to pass. She finally chose the side on my right. Not good for a right hand shooter. I figured the buck would follow the same path. After milling around in front of me at 40 yards for a while. The buck followed the path of the doe. I was already turned around for the shot as he passed at 10 yards. There were 3 openings in the brush I could shoot through. I was coming to full draw as he passed the first opening. By the time I reached full draw he was through the opening. I almost released as he went through the second opening but missed my opportunity. As his chest appeared in opening 3, I released. The shot was a perfect heart shot. There was no pass through as the broadhead lodged in the breast bone, but I could see blood spraying immediately.
The blood trail was easy to follow. The problem was he went downhill into a deep ravine. He traveled about 100 yards and piled up in the bottom of a nasty, knarly draw. My first thought was that I could field dress him and drag him through the bottom of the ravine about 1/4 mile to where I parked the canoe. I finished field dressing him after dark and decided to carry my gear to the canoe and scout out a path to drag the deer. The bottom of the ravine and sidehill were choked with downed trees making it impossible to drag the deer. I thought about taking him out the other side of the ravine but it looked just as impossible. The only way for me to get him out by myself was to pack him out. After dropping my gear at the canoe, I called my wife and told her I would be delayed because I was going to part the deer out and pack him to the canoe. She told me to get me drivers license out, look at the dates and recognize that I was 70 years old, which came with some limitations. After promising not to make the trip in one load, I got spousal permission to continue with the task. I had trouble finding the deer in the dark with all the blowdowns. Once I found the deer, the skinning and quartering was fairly easy, but time consuming. A headlamp was a big help. I packed the meat in old pillow cases I always carry in my pack. For the first load, I put the bags containing the hind quarters, backstraps and tenderloins into the pack. I decided to leave my flashlight with the rest of the deer to help me find my way back and use my headlamp for navigation. I also decided that the only reasonable way out was back up the steep hill, follow the ridge to the high bank of the lake and back down to the canoe. The trip was tough. Trip 2 wasn't as bad with a smaller load of meat and the head. What a rewarding canoe ride back. My wife, Susie was waiting at the dock. I paddled into the dock at 8:30 and transferred the load to my jeep. Upon arriving home, I put the meat in a refrigerator to cool overnight. Dinner and a glass of whiskey hit the spot.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share the great experience. I used my Wild Horse Creek Destiny longbow and a Douglas fir arrow tipped with a Magnus 4 blade head.
--Mike
Topic: Success and hard work (Read 3522 times)
