For those of you living in Michigan, and seems like Northern Michigan in particular, the word for the season so far has been "rain". Every weekend, every free evening after work, it just seems to always be soggy out. I've lost track of how many times I've had to dry gear out, try and breathe life back into drowned feathers, and polish rust off my broadhead blades. I've even passed opportunities for fear that the blood trail would get washed away too quickly by the current squall. With all of this happening, I was more than a little excited when this past Saturday called for a 20 degree temperature drop and no rain.
I may have been a bit overzealous as I found myself beginning my hike in at just after 6:15. I never use a flashlight if I can help it, and with it being overcast, it was almost pitch black as I picked my way through the woods a half mile to a pinch point that always looked promising. I tucked into some brush and settled in to wait for daylight.
As I sat there waiting, it began to drizzle again, and I silently begged for it to stop, which thankfully it did a few minutes later. It wasn't until 7:30 that I was able to see much of anything, but I figured that if they used the trail I expected, it would be a close shot and I'd have no trouble seeing them. I have been seeing a little bit of rut activity, so I pulled out my grunt call and gave 4 soft grunts spaced out over about 2 minutes. When I'd finished, I put it back in my pack and settled in to wait. I had only been waiting for about 2 minutes when I saw a deers leg go through a gap in the pines about 40 yards out, not on the deer trail, but on the same route that I had walked in. It never made a sound as it moved. I slowly got my bow up as it walked through another opening. This time I thought that I'd gotten a good look at its head, and it appeared to be a doe. However, when it turned and started angling back towards the swamp, I saw an antler sticking out above its ear. I felt pretty disappointed as it disappeared behind a clump of trees, still angling away. The deer suddenly reappeared further to the right in a 4 foot gap, angling away from me. This was the last chance that I would have before he made it into the thicker trees, and knowing that he had at least 3 points on one side, I drew back and shot. I needed to lean over to clear a branch, and in the low light I couldn't see the arrow impact. However, it felt good, sounded good, and the buck kicked, pitched forward on his nose, and plowed forward into the swamp. There was a ton of crashing and cracking for about 20 seconds and then silence. I sat there in the early light shaking and replaying everything in my mind. Based on what I had heard, there were only two options. Either he'd run into the swamp and crashed, or was still alive but not walking anywhere, as it would have been impossible for him to move through that area quietly.
After 15 minutes I quietly got my stuff together and slowly walked over to where he had been. There was no blood at the impact sight, but looking in the direction that he had snowplowed through, I saw blood covering everything, as well as on some brush off to the side. This gave me a lot of confidence, and I followed a very steady blood trail about 40 yards into the swamp, where I found him laying dead. It caught me a bit off guard, as he died with his head caught in a bush, making him appear to still be alive for a second. Up to now I still hadn't really seen what it was, and I just about fell over when I realized it was a clean, perfectly symmetrical 10. I've hunted around here my whole life and never seen one, and only ever had 1 on camera. Not a big deer compared to most places, but I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to put some meat in the freezer and a rack on the wall.
Shot with my Great Northern Ghost, 59-60 pounds at my draw, shooting a GT 400 with a 200 grain 3 blade VPA. I went and ranged it later and the shot was 26 yards. The arrow entered at the last rib and buried to the feathers and the exit hole was just in front of the shoulder on the opposite side.
This is how I found him
Topic: Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally (update 12/21) (Read 3835 times)
