After running late to the stand this morning I crawled up just in time to beat the rush hour traffic past my stand. Small buck, then a tiny buck, then a nice 2.5 8 with good mass and thick tines came through behind them. This is great I thought 3 bucks and its only been 20 minutes now where are those does. I just want a nice fat doe to break the ice and the mojo of the tomahawk. After watching those three bucks feed off another one appeared to my left in the set aside field working over a sapling over there. I had forgotten my grunt call but knew I could grunt with my voice and thought its early lets see. I grunted and this deer turned and walked straight to the base of my tree. I was taking pictures of the little 6 pointer I had trail cam pictures of when he started to walk away. Then I noticed a much bigger buck coming in to investigate the grunting. He came in just above one of my shooting lanes and I thought this isnt going to work. Then as if on cue he turns and walks right down the logging road im set up on. I baah to stop him at about 20 yards my eyes burning a hole in his heart, string gets to anchor, hold, the string slips from my fingers. I have made this shot a million times in the backyard and it always felt so familiar to me except this time. The instant it left I thought OH CHIT duck it. Get under that arrow. The puffs and heavy arrows had my bow whisper quiet and he didnt even realize an arrow was about to make contact. The arrow burried nock deep in his ham. With in his first two bounds I noticed bright red blood forming on his ham, Within 50 it was running down his back ham, and at 80 there was no mistaking that he was pumping some serious blood. I sat for an hour and waited and then got down and checked the shot site, blood everywhere I could see where he had bumped trees on his way out and there was blood covering the undergrowth of the forest floor. I eased out and made some phone calls and plenty of texts to stallion. My dad said it sounds like I might be the luckiest bowhunter he knows, stallion ( a second buddy) says give him 4 hours, my head is saying you hit that artery, but my heart is saying nice shot dumbass dont get your hopes up. I went through a pack of gum between 10 and 3, I was nervous to say the least. At 230 I couldnt take it any longer I had to know. I took my bow, my binoculars, and my phone and eased back in to check it out. I went to impact site and started following the blood at about the 80 yard mark he had stopped and a large chunk of fat had fallen off of him some how. My first thought was oh chit he is clogging up already. Then common sense said if he is artery hit he should be dead inside of 100 yards. We only have 20 more to that deadline. At 100 yards he was cutting across the bean field to the swamp on the other side and off the property. I lost blood in the bean field because the beans were so short and it had baked in the sun all day. Everything was brown and the dried blood was brown.. I marked last blood with an arrow and got on the phone to text message my dad to see what to do now. I called my buddy and he said just keep on it. If you jump him keep him moving dont let that artery stop bleeding. As I looked up from my text message I couldnt believe it. This is what I saw....
At that second Jon had sent me a text message asking if I had found him yet. I replied "Im looking at him right now" I couldnt believe it. I had killed one of the two bucks I had my eyes on this year and it was only the first morning hunt of the year. My first thought was WOW, you are damn lucky dumbass. Then I thought holy cow the chase of this deer is over. No more chase next year for this guy. Then another holy cow, Im on doe patrol for the rest of the year and I dont even get to rattle em up or call to em during the rut. Mixed emotions of joy and sorrow for not only the end of the life of such a great animal, but also the end of the chase. However he is by far my best buck yet and one I learned many lessons on. I hope these pictures do him justice as he means the world to me.
I am so thankful for this deer the hunter sorrow that we all feel each and everytime seems to have really gotten me with this deer. I am happy to be behind him smiling and clearing a place on the wall for him (Im trying to smile but sun was in my face)
Topic: Need some help (Not anymore ) Mount pictures (Read 652 times)
