Well, Thursday morning finally came, after having to painfully relay the story of the night before to everyone back in camp, and having the image of that arrow flying over that brute's back over and over...
I was dropped off in a different stand maybe 400 or 500 yards from where I was the night before. Still in buck country and hopefully I hadn't blown everything out of the area after last nights experience. This is a lot older stand and the deer know where it is even though it is hidden well... even before the sun had come up there were deer in the area. They came from behind me to the left and right under the stand and out to the feed.
This is a picture of literally the only shot you have in this stand. (obviously taken later in the AM).
Well, the sun started coming up, and the feeder went off... which flushed them all out of there. Shortly after they all milled back into the feed. I really have no idea how many there were in there, but 10 plus easily. After about 10 minutes of them feeding I caught a glimps of antler... a lot of antler. He was not the same deer from the night before, but a no doubt shooter again. He was wider, but not as tall, and even heavier than the previous, and another 9 pointer.
He finally worked into position and was slightly quartering away facing to the left at 22 yards. Knowing the Texas "Duck and Roll" was still in effect I concentrated under his chest by about 5" drew and shot. Another pure arrow tracking right to where I was looking. He dropped right into it. The arrow struck with a loud crack and when he stood up the arrow was angling down at a 45 degree angle with what looked like 8" of penetration.
What my eye told me was the arrow struck right at the heart, and when he stood up to run the arrow was actually angling down. I figured it had hit the off side shoulder after passing through the heart. Now that little opening did not give me much to go on, but that is what I was able to see. It looked really good to me at that time. And now the wait for Robert to pick me up started. I had several other deer work their way in, including several younger bucks. I never even nocked another arrow, I was thinking I had a blood trail to preserve for Taz...
Robert finally showed up, and we picked everyone else up and went back to put Taz on the track. Shortly after Robert introduced Taz to the area he let out of there on the trail. I thought this will be a nice short trail right to him. But, looking at the GPS with Robert he just kept going and going. So, off we went... 200 yards... 300 yards... 400... We came to a creek and found 5 or 6 decent sized drops of blood and Taz was searching hard to find where he had went. Finally got accross the river and off he went again... 500 yards, 600... and he lost the track... Even when Taz had gone all the way to the creek I knew he was not hit where my eye had told me I did... Again, another heart breaker...
Only thing I can think of is with the slight quartering away he ducked right into the shot but the roll put it either in front of the heart into the off leg, or possibly into the near side leg. Robert deemed him to still be walking, well Taz did... So, as Wayne so eloquently put it, you can do everything right and still not get them on the ground. I shot two pure arrows right where I wanted, and after these two hunts am 0 for 2...
I was pretty low at this point, but tried to keep my spirits up. Which is pretty easy to do with the caliber of folks in camp to help ease your pain. Thank you everyone for being... well who you are.
Topic: Solana Ranch -What a ride into the New Year (Read 74907 times)
