Some may remember me coming on asking for advice around Thanksgiving after wounding a giant Illinois 8 pt. A shot too far forward that got bone and probably one lung. I looked for that animal for days, weeks, months knowing he was mortally wounded. It brought me down to the point where I just couldn't hunt the last couple of weeks of '06.
I love hunting mature deer. Not trophy deer, but older bucks. This was he. Old, heavy, massive. I had glassed him all summer and even tried to ambush him twice early October (when the wind was right) to no avail. Finally when his levels were up, I tied a rope to a large set of sheds and laid in wait. He scent checked a field after the guns of November had stopped booming, and I caught a glimpse. A battle at the base of my tree soon started. He came on a string at half trot after a long doe bleet from me. Long story long...I rushed my shot and crashed the big arrow into his shoulder. Last I saw he had no weight on the shoulder as he limped off, his signature crab claw off his R main beem burning my nauseated gut. Blood for a 200 yard stretch at first light then nothing. I wept but hid it from my good friend who shared the search with me. I quit at noon to eat (or try) and started again later until dark...it lasted until Feb when I no longer could look that direction of the property.
Today a neighbor from the opposite direction stopped by on his mule (4 legged not gas powered) and says "You missin' a set of horns?" I nearly fainted. He had my crab claw buck the whole time. Another neighbor had told him how I had the 1000 yard stare over that animal. It had button-hooked my little property doubling back and crossing the fence to his. I didn't know him to ask to look there and frankly it's just a field. Now I know it has a 20ft by 20 ft pond in a depression that can't be seen by the naked eye. He had assumed it had be poached (with the broken shoulder and all) and crawled there to die. He found it the day after I arrowed it. It had been dead 24 hours he thought. Coyotes had eaten the rump. He didn't cape it. Collected the skull and hung it in his barn. He didn't know I was lookin'.
Lesson: 1. Never give up 2.Know your neighbors better 3. Don't rush your shot. I know there are dozens more here but I'm keeping them to myself. Share some with me if you want.
I bought him a steak dinner and made him take a pair of 10X50 Nikons. That animal meant that much to me. As I sit and stare at a rack that I knew so well before I held it in my hands, I remember my lessons, and I will count a new friend. When there is hay to get in, when he is sick and needs a hand, I'll remember that old man on his mule asking me if I was missin a set of horns.
I am humbled...and proud. I arrowed a giant with my recurve, felt the pain of failure, and now hold something from the animal. It is bitter- sweet too. Knowing I killed something and that only the predators got to eat leaves me twisted inside still. I'll remember my lessons...and learn from my mistakes.
Topic: A good day... (Read 581 times)
