Sorry guys, I had to finish dinner, put the boys to bed, and now the wife has stolen the main computer. I am downloading some pictures now to my laptop to try and finish up. Oh that's funny right there, I said finish up. It could be days before I am done.
Larry is absolutely right. Going on this trip was one of the most nerve-racking experiences I have ever had. Yet the most fulfilling.
Meeting Mr. Surtees was my main point of stress and everyone, including Larry, made me feel right at home. I can honestly say I have made some life long friends on this trip.
You guys are cracking me up. With your comments. Ken is not lying about my shopping prowess.
Ken and I had a great dinner the last night with Izzy, Stabow, Terry and Guru. Was nice to sit with some of the guys that I didn't get to spend as much time with. Something to note about these trips. Take more pictures and spend more time with everyone. I can be a quiet guy, sometimes a loner of sorts. I wish I had spent more time with these guys.
Larry was right on the ball about the Hi-Breed. I brought my favorite bow with me for this trip. It’s a three-piece takedown Cheyenne. This is my absolute favorite bow ever. But for some reason, on this hunt, I couldn't shoot it worth a darn. It’s still my favorite bow. But when I started shooting the H-Breed, Chris's bow, I was shooting much better. As a side note. I have been away from home for half of the year and haven't shot my bow much. So it was worrying me that I would not respect the animals I was hunting. I had put quite a restriction on my shooting distances.
Back to the stand.....that buck took one last step, he was feeding, quartering away, when his left front leg stepped forward. I thought, "This is it!"
To give you guys an idea of timing. At this point, I had been watching this buck for 20 or 30 minutes.
Racing through my mind was quite a lot of thoughts. I have been living outside of the US for almost 5 years. I have hunted very little with my bow. What I have hunted with my bow has all been due to TradGang and its members. The places I have been, TradGang related, the bow I was shooting...TradGang related, heck even the outerwear I had on, was because of a thread I read in TradGang. Lots of things were related to the site.
Fortunately I was not really nervous or worried at this point. Just watching re-runs of my hunting and how it all relates.
With all those thoughts going through my head you would think I couldn't really concentrate on the task at hand but it was foremost in my mind. I was thinking, quartering away, left leg forward and shoot low. You have read the stories by now. Some guys have even shot as low as the deer’s knee to make a center lung shot on these Texas hi tension spring loaded duck and rolling deer.
Here is the same picture you all have seen over and over. The bummer is that I only have three pictures of that stand. At least I took some, I keep telling myself. But this time I have hired an expert forensics artist to draw where the deer entered the scene (RED dot) and where he was standing at the shot.
I came to full draw and concentrated on a spot just below the brisket. The arrow was off and everything went into slow motion. It seems to enter the buck low. The buck lunged forward and I saw the arrow going into him, low, in the brisket, the leg looked involved, but I could not tell where. I heard a loud pop and saw the back end of my arrow flip up into the air. The buck ran straight away across a small field and into some big woods. His body language was such that he looked hit, ran with a purpose, but not strong, his tail was down. He didn't kick or have a hunched back.
I managed to tie my bow and quiver onto the safety rope and lower it to the ground. I unbuckled my safety harness and climbed down. When I got to the bottom I could barely walk to the shot location. My knees were quivering and my hands were shaking and all I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears.
I found the back half of the arrow. Snapped perfectly in two. It was a terminator arrow I bought with the intentions of making into a stumpin arrow. I had read a thread by Guru, and it caused me to go to Wally World and I happened into a sale. I bought 6 Carbon Express Terminators 4560's. Then after a thread on footing carbons I found the video by friends call me pac. I footed these shafts by following his direction.
After finding the back half of the arrow I took about 5 more steps in the direction of the bucks retreat and I found the front portion. It had blood on it for about 6 or 8 inches. Well, at least that's what I saw at that time. I took a few more steps but found no blood. After a few seconds of thought I reluctantly made my way back to the stand and climbed back in to my perch. Heck I even knocked an arrow and thought, " What the heck, I could try for a doe or a pig if one came in. I still have 30 or 45 minutes of light left".
What the heck was I thinking? Am I stupid or something? All I need to do is shoot a doe or a hog and have another blood track on the ground to throw off the dog. Heck, that is Texas Whitetail Bow hunting 101. I didn't want to mess up this tracking job at all.
So, I put my arrow back into my quiver and sat. For what was quite possible the longest evening of my life.
After the sun was totally behind the trees and there was no more light I packed up and climbed down out of the stand. When Robert arrived I stayed fairly calm and replayed the nights events to Robert. We both knew what we had to do. We moved on to pick up the rest of the hunters, Izzy, Jeff and Danny and made our way back to the ranch house for dinner.
It made for a very long couple of hours. The short ride back to the house and all during dinner I couldn't help but worry. The shot just seemed low. But there was good blood on the arrow. I retold the story lots of times at dinner and had a lot or reassuring comments by the gang. But you guys know how it goes. You still have a funny feeling in your stomach. Although, I have to admit. I still chowed down on Jim's awesome tacos.
Topic: Solana Ranch -What a ride into the New Year (Read 60462 times)
