Hey guys,
I just got back form my annual PA bowhunt.
Tuesday it was a little warm. It hit around 70F so I wanted to get into the woods early in the afternoon so not to get sweated up. Around 1pm I got to my stand and freshened up a mock scrape that I made the week before.
I got into my stand and started my wait while trying not to fall asleep. It was nice and quiet with squirrels running all over the place and my stand overlooks a little creek about 10 yards to my left. At about 4:00 I spotted a doe on the logging road about 100 yards in front of me. She was just feeding back and forth and I was just taking it in when she all of a sudden took off up the hill. Right behind her was a nice size deer but I couldn't see horns. I watched them run around in circles in a clearing above the logging road when they ran right at me.
The doe stopped right below me on my right about 5 yards from my tree. The second deer was about 20 yards coming in fast. When he stuck her with his nose she took off and circled behind me. The second deer was a 2" spike that the horns were barely noticeable the way they laying along side the ears. With the doe behind me and the spike right below me I didn't dare move. Spikes are not legal in PA and with the rut going I had no intention shooting either one but it was a fun show.
While I was keeping an eye on the spike I didn't realize that a nice buck was about 20 yards in front of me until I heard him snap a twig. I slowly turned my head and he was on top of me grunting all the way. The spike hightailed it out of there straight up the hill and the bigger buck proceeded to chase the doe around that was behind me. She was really playing hard to get and they went around for about 5 minutes or so and they went up the hill on my left into a soybean field.
With the excitement over I started to relax again. About 5 minutes later 2 does came down the hill that the small spike ran up and they milled around me for a few minutes before they also circled behind me and headed towards the soybean field. It was now about 4:45 and I was pretty happy with all the action that I had. Daylight was running out but I still had about 15 minutes left so I just watched the logging road where the deer had originally come from.
Within 5 minutes I heard a limb crack behind me on my left. I figured it was the does that had just left me so was I surprised when I slowly turned around to see that buck coming back toward the logging road where he originally came from. I slowly grabbed my Morrison Cheyenne and started to rise it. Now he was right along side of me about 15 yards on the other side of the creek. As he got behind some brush I started to draw and hit the side of my climber with the bottom limb.
I never heard he coming so I was not able to stand up. Thank God for the creek because he never heard it. I turned the bow sideways and drew to anchor. When he hit the opening he stopped. I picked a spot right behind the shoulder and let go. Because of the steep angle I was shooting and the way I was holding my bow I lightly hit my arm guard with the string. Thanks God it didn't affect arrow flight because that arrow flew perfectly at him and hit right where I was looking.
He took off running straight away from me and crossed a little section of the soybean field. When he hit the wood line heading to the big soybean field he stopped, staggered and fell over. Now I had the shakes. His total run was about 80 yards. I called my friend to come give me a hand and waited for him to get there before I climbed out of the tree (I had finally stopped shaking).
We field dressed him and dragged him out. He is not the biggest buck I seen that week but I couldn't be happier with him. I was using a 54" Morrison Cheyenne 46@26 with 600 spine Gold Tip Entradas, a 2 blade Magnus II sharpened by KME. With broadhead and weight I have 350grs in the front with a 28%FOC. Total arrow weight was about 550grns. Here are some pics.
Bob...