I've been hunting a fair bit this year, but deer numbers are way down due to the hard winter we had last year. I missed a big mule deer buck earlier in the year by failing to pick a spot. The only thing hurt was my ego. Oh well. I made up for it a bit by shooting this old buck last monday sitting in a natural ground blind. It was dead still and he was walking by just at sunset and when I drew he heard me brush the bushes I was sitting in. He froze, looking right at me from about 15 yards. I was at full draw and figured it was now or never. I really concentrated hard just behind his shoulder on as small a spot as possible. I made a good release and at the shot he lurched ahead.
The hit was behind the rib cage. I sat silent for about 15 min and played it over in my head. My next thought was that I want to get out of here without spooking any other deer and leave him as long as possible. When I got up I went to quietly get my arrow and I could see him standing just over the hill looking around. You could tell he was sick but still alert. He'd only gone about 30 or 40 yards yards or so and had stood there the whole time. It was so quiet I didn't think I could get another shot at him so I left my arrow and started to sneak back to the truck where about 600 yards away where my cousin was watching.
When I got there he told me the buck had laid down just after I had started sneaking back to the truck. We talked it over and decided to leave him a few hours and then go back and look. I would have preferred to leave him all night but there are tons of coyotes and they had been howling all around me when I'd been waiting after the shot.
We waited a few hours and then went back and looked for him in the dark. We found blood where he had stood and where he had laid down but that was it. We looked for several hours but there was no sign of him. I could only hope the coyotes wouldn't find him before we would. It dropped down well below freezing that night so the meat would be fine.
The next morning we were out at first light looking for blood and magpies. There was no more blood other than the original blood from the night before. Eventually it got light enough that we decided we'd have to just look for him and watch the birds. To make a long story shorter my cousin eventually found him by just our persistence and watching the magpies. They kept hanging around the area and we both thought he has to be right close by. It turned out we were right and he had laid down in some wolf willows just off a trail. I bet we had walked by him at least 5 times each in the dark and light and still didn't see him. My cousin spotted him when a magpie flew out right in front of him and then he noticed the buck's tail. Based on how stiff he was he had been dead when we looked for him the night before but we just couldn't see him. He'd only gone about 125 yds in total. That's a real testament to multiblade SHARP heads. The coyotes hadn't touched him and I think all the looking we did in the dark maybe spooked them off. Of course we ran the risk of bumping the buck if he had been alive but we had to do it.
It all turned out just great and I even shot a ruffed grouse with my bow when I was going through the bottom of one of the coulees looking for the buck. I had given it to my cousin before we found the buck. Twice now I've shot a buck and a ruffie at his place on the same day.
I shot him with my Schafer Silvertip that draws about 54 lbs at my draw and I was using Beman 400 Bowhunter shafts with 100 grain brass inserts and Muzzy Phantom 125 broadheads. Good hunting, Rick.
Topic: An Old Warrior (Read 1223 times)
