(Note: if the mods can enlarge these photos slightly that would be great; I have the worst luck with Photobucket.)
Last nite it was blowing 30+ mph and my intended destination was blocked by a train. So Plan B but that property doesn't really have great options for a hard NW wind this time of year. But...I thought I'd scout out the end rows of this cornfield and possibly get a doe without ever entering the timber. And then if that was a bust, I'd sit in a distant spot, watch the SE portion of this circular field, and if I saw a worthy buck enter the field jog up there and try to stalk him. This field is really grassed in and a mess, and the three does and two fawns I saw were able to see me at the same instant I saw them, all at 10 yards or under. Exciting, but I wasn't going slow enough or something. Plus doing all that looking up and down rows gives me a feeling very much like tight circles on a bush plane. Seriously.
With about a half hour left I got to a spot to watch the SE portion, expecting to maybe see deer enter from downwind. With maybe just 5 minutes left I saw what looked to be a buck that's on my 'hit list' bounding through the foxtails and junk that borders that part of the field (low spot that got too wet). Using the wind and lt. rain, I jogged up to within about 40 yards and then stalked in from there, and tried to find the buck. After a couple anxious minutes all of a sudden RIGHT THERE is the buck, upwind and approaching an opening I can slip an arrow through. My longbow comes up and a shaft is on its way. I definitely hear a hit and the buck just shoots airborne, and then bounds off unhurriedly, out of view within a few short yards. And this worried me, another big animal bulldozed out of there in a different direction. Did I shoot the right animal? I didn't know there were two. And then it's dark.
I'm standing where the deer was, and the camera is where I was.
I tie some ribbon where I stood, and tiptoe to where the buck was and tie some there. It turns out to be 10 yards. Very quietly I search for sign and end up finding three drops of blood and stomach matter; the arrow is located and while it's very bloody it too smells badly. Darn. And it is still just lightly raining. I don't have any other options so I sneak out and go home. Fortunately, the rain is petering out so just maybe.
I'm back in first thing this morning, hunting a stand on this same property, planning to stay for an hour and then get out and start looking. Well, I end up getting pinned down by two bucks that hung around forever. Their third buddy stayed out of range, so I can only count the 1x1 and 90ish 4x4 as "could haves" in my book. The one that stayed out of range looked to be a 110" 4x4.
Finally they left so I first walked the entire 1/2 mile length of the slough ditch in case he went to water. No luck and that meant he was probably in this 140-acre quagmire of a cornfield. :( Despite the rain quitting shortly after I left (and guessing it didn't do much overnite), there was no more blood to be located and the three spots I had found were gone and the bloody arrow I'd left at the spot (on purpose to gauge sign) was washed up fairly clean. This was gonna be real tough.
Here's what the field looks like, so you know why I checked the water first.
First I walked the downwind perimeter, hoping to catch a whiff that would lead me to the deer. No luck. So then I just guessed which E/W corn row he might've taken, ribboned my starting point, and walked down it probably 150-200 yards. I really could only monitor two rows on either side of my row and there was nothing. I ribboned my stopping point, and then moved five rows to the south, ribboned it off again, and walked back and a bit later found my buck. Relief and thanks!
Here's the view that warmed my cold heart.
That's the good (miraculous) news. Bad news is that coyotes or something had found him in in the interim and his back quarters were gone and the rest of him was pretty warm and stinky. I wasn't able to save much meat, but with a gut shot in a cornfield I didn't have any choice last night. At least the cape is in great shape (anybody want a beautiful, big cape because I'm probably just gonna do a skull mount?).
I am quite happy with this big, heavy, wide bruiser. Especially in the manner I took him, 10 yards from the ground in a cornfield while many were sitting it out. In retrospect I probably was pushing my luck hunting that close to the final buzzer given the light rain; consolation is that the little critters gotta eat too and that I did recover most of him.
Pronghorn takedown longbow and Woodsman head.
Topic: 30+ mph Cornfield Hunt (Read 590 times)
