Home place 8 pt

[Shaun]

Not much of a story for this one, but what there is follows:

Thanksgiving evening I stopped over to Cousin Phil's home for after dinner pie - a family tradition. He is an avid hunter and shotgun editor for Field & Stream. Apple crumb and a piece of pecan both smothered in fresh whipped cream (there ya go Vance), his wife Pam can really cook!

So, there I am unable to move from my chair - fully sated and Phil mentions that his writer friend MD Johnson has a holiday gun doe tag and his hunting spot fell through at the last minute.

"Have MD call me. Plenty of does on my place." I volunteered.

MD called the next day and he and his wife Julie came over that afternoon. I put them in my two person ladder stand and carried my self bow to another stand not far off.  

Beautiful sunny 45 degree day and everything is perfect but no deer offer shots to MD & Julie's muzzle loaders and I see no deer from my bow stand. Most unusual to not see any deer on my place in 3 hours, but they agree to come back Sunday afternoon. They are looking for winter meat and have no deer yet.

Saturday my son mentions that a neighbor stopped by after we had gone afield on Friday. The neighbor said he had wounded a deer and tracked it through the middle of my 40 acres just before we went out. No wonder the deer pattern was off. I have a feeling the wounded deer might be a nice 4 year old 8 point that I have seen but not got a chance at, dang!

Sunday we have our first snow on the ground, about an inch and still slowly falling and cool but not bitter out. MD and Julie go to the two up ladder again and I take a long still hunt to stir up the deer and look for the wounded one. I plan to make a large figure eight along the creek woodlots and go everywhere but near their stand.

About the crossing point of my figure eight I am getting pretty tired and wet, watching ahead for moving deer and trying to remember, "move a little, look a lot" (Ishi), when I realize that I am looking at a deer just 10 yards in front of me laying down. Its a buck, the big 8 I have been hunting. He's surely dead. Killed but not found by my neighbor. Then I notice he's breathing!

I had been moving quietly, but not that quietly. No way. His head comes up slowly and my arrow finds his heart without me even thinking about it. He never gets up, just expires right there. He's on the edge of the field where I can drive my truck and so I leave him and continue my stalk pattern. About an hour later, after jumping another nice 4 year old buck - next year's quarry if he survives the gun season - I am on the final leg of my stalk and hear a distant gun shot. Good! MD and Julie have freezer meat.

We loaded up our deer and brought my buck to the home shop where I skin him to check for other wounds. There are none and the deer appears healthy but with no fat reserve. Most bucks are pretty skinny by the end of the rut here and have to quickly put on the feed if they are to survive the winter. MD and Julie stayed and helped skin as I had offered them the buck meat to help fill their freezer - mine is well stocked.

I was sure this buck had either been wounded or hit by a car when I shot him, but could find no evidence of prior damage. There were no holes, no bruising, no infection. Its a strange one, but that's my story.

[Shape Shifter]

Great story, awesome deer and one hech of nice bow!

[grouseshooter002]

Shaun,
    Thank you for the story and pic. "Beautiful".

Rick

[Steve O]

Great buck Shaun.  Those are some pretty "modern" looking fletches    

Shoot me a PM, I want to know how Bucky III or whatever you called him worked out.

[4runr]

Outstanding pic Shaun.

A very nice buck and a cool story too.

[Little Tree]

Wow, what a story Shaun, congrats! I wonder if he was just completely exhausted, some whitetail experts say an active breeder buck can completely wipe himself out chasing and breeding, maybe you just found him at his most vulnerable? Recovering......? Being the hunter you are, you probably checked his liver for any lesions....Wow, what a story! You sure seem to have been born under a lucky sign! going to try out your shank recipe tomorrow!

[DEATHMASTER]

Shaun, What a GREAT year you had. Some nice deer with your selfbows.
I just spent a solid 11 days deer hunting and only saw 2 crossing a distant field. That makes for LONG days afield sun up to sun down.
Thanks for shareing your stories with us. I did not know I was building bows at Bradjam next to such a woodsman.
DEATHMASTER

[ishiwannabe]

Great story, awesome bow and a very nice buck! Congrats!

[kennym]

Congrats Shaun!!

[Mike Bolin]

Congrats on a fine deer and thank you for sharing the story with us! Mike

[BroMark]

Nice buck - great story - thanks for sharing and congratulations!

[BOFF]

Congrats!! Great Pic!!

[FerretWYO]

That is an awesome bow and i like the arrows too. Oh yea and the deer good work Shaun./

[vermonster13]

Great season you're having!

[trashwood]

Jalapeno! the deer and the bow are prefect together.  Wow! What's that grizzled thing in the middle?.......  Oh that's Shaun; well he looks ok too but  doesn't stand much of a chance up again that deer and that bow  

rusty

[Whip]

Wow!  You're just a killing machine this year Shaun!  I'll give you a call this week to see if we can figure out some dates to help thin the herd here in Wisconsin.
Congratulations!

[Pat B.]

Way to go !!  Nice deer and great shooting with the selfbow..

[Fritz]

Very nice, congrats!!!      

[kojac]

congrats!!!

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Nice bow, too!