On Monday of this week temperatures were well below zero and there was a hard frost down. I dragged myself out of bed at 5am much as I have done for the last 3 hunting seasons in the hopes that today would be MY DAY. The idea of bagging a whitetail had been a dream of mine since returning to Canada from living overseas for the last 11 years.
After parking up my truck I added layer after layer of clothing to protect me from the anticipated could and began to slowly creep into the stand. Woods were quiet as rifle season had ended the day before and I was excited to be out - my last session in this stand had resulted in a missed shot at a doe (my first shot ever).
After slowly creeping in over frost covered leaves I check the wind and climbed into my treestand. Everything looked perfect for promoting deer movement and my buddy Grant had shot a 6 point from this very stand 10 days previous.
As the hours crept by the chill penetrated deeper into me and by 1030 I was dreaming of some coffee to warm me up. I knew my wife would appreciate having me home by lunch to help with the kids so I decided to do some calling, wait til 11:00 and if nothing happened head out.
1055 hits and I figure it's time to climb down so I take a few pot shots at some likely looking leaves and climb down (not being particularly stealthy), grab my arrows and start walking down the trail to my truck.
Not 20 yards from my stand I look up and stood on that very same trail is a deer looking right at me. Not only is is a deer but it's a buck!!!
Expecting him to spook straight away I look down at my fingers and realize my tab is in my pack - stupid fool! I could hear my old platoon sgt. laughing at my poor attention to detail.
Surprisingly, my buddy the whitetail hasn't bolted so I grab and arrow (tab or no tab he was in range) and nock and arrow. Intent on my target and expecting him to bolt at any second I rush my shot and shoot directly under his vitals. My Whip longbow is quiet and my buck doesn't get too spooked but does begin to walk off at a 90 degree to me deciding to leave the weird, camoflage bedecked Michelin man he just encountered alone.
I grab another arrow and string it up. He's still walking and getting out to just over 20 yards. I say to myself 'this is a long shot, come to full draw and see what you think but DON'T shoot if it's even slightly too far'.
I hit full draw with him at just under 25 yards and slowly walking. That feeling of calm serenity I get when I know everything about my shot is perfect hits, I enjoy the sight picture of a brief second and my arrow is gone.
Whatever passes for target control in my feeble brain has done it's job and I see my arrow hit true about 2 inches above his nearside shoulder. He's slightly up hill of me and quartering away so the arrow punches through and lodges in his offside shoulder. I can tell in a split second it's a good hit and then the buck is off and running at full pelt.
After calling round and telling everyone I'll be home late the tracking starts an hour later. I eventually find blood but given the arrow is still in him it's sparse.
For the remainder of the day I track my deer on my hands and knees with the assistance of Grant's Dad. It is slow going and I loose blood just before last light.
After going home and breaking the bad news to my 7 year old who's eagerly awaiting my return I hit the hay early and first light finds me back on the trail. By now blood is down to drops smaller than a pin head on individual blades of field grass and I'm worried. The trail took a lot of deciphering with him looping back on himself and no longer running a straight line - my progress is too slow and with snow in the forecast I fear he's gone for good.
By 10am Grant is out with me. I'm belly crawling the bucks trail at a rate of 20m and hour and he's cloverleafing out in front checking game trails and bedding areas. At 11am he finds a large patch of blood where the deer had fallen down and blown out. We know he's nearby and start the trail again from there.
50 yards father on and there he is!!!! My first whitetail buck ever lies on the trail with my arrow waving like a flag. He had covered less than 250m in what was obviously his death run and died not far from a huge nest of blow down he'd clearly been heading for. My first impression of the shot was right and my arrow took out both lungs - he wouldn't have lasted 60 seconds but boy did he leave me a trail to follow!!!!
Anyway, I couldn't be happier! I've taken my first ever big game animal and I did it with my longbow - a dream I'd had since I was a pre-teen 25 years ago.
Hope you all enjoyed the story, hopefully it won't take another 3 years for me to post another success.
Thanks to Grant and his Dad for letting me hunt their property and to all my fellow Tradgangers for their advice along the way!
On this day I was hunting with my Toelke Whip longbow pulling 52lbs @ 27 inches, beeman MFX 500 arrows and a 175gr terminator VPA broadhead (which highly impressed me).
Ross
Topic: First ever big game success! (Read 797 times)
