I had gotten trail cams pics of this buck on public land 2 days ago while he was checking his scrapes. I hung a stand in a funnel consisting of a mix of red pines and small oaks coming off a big hardwood ridge with a ton of mature oaks and it connects to a thick stand of cedars they were bedding in. The deer here are still hitting acorns as there are a ton of them around here this year.
The wind was perfect for that stand this evening and I had high hopes for the spot. I was running late getting out there this afternoon and didn't slip into my stand until about 4:45. I had the first group of does filter through at about 5:00 and I almost dropped the string on one big doe that was just at the edge of my comfortable shooting range of 25yds. It just didn't feel right so I let her continue on her way unharmed.
The next group of does came through at about 6:00 and they were inside 20yds but as it was getting later I was really hoping that buck, or any buck, would be coming behind them. It didn't happen and nothing was with them.
At 6:50 with just about 10 minutes of shooting light left I could hear some deer coming fast toward me. A lone doe came through very quick and right on her heels was the buck. He slowed to a walk and was only about 14-15yds out and I picked a spot. The arrow was on its way before I even realized I was drawing the bow. The hit was solid and he whirled around to run back the way he had came and I could see blood coming out the exit side. He made it just out of sight and I heard him pile up.
I could see my arrow in the dirt from the stand and when I climbed down the blood trail was massive right from the start.
You could follow the blood trail on a dead run and it was spraying out both sides and ended just about 50yds from the hit. That is the entrance in the pic, the exit was right at the elbow on the off side. The heart was centerpunched and that big Centaur head was pretty impressive to me. I knocked the dirt off and it still shaves hair. This is my first season switching to the big single bevel heads as I've only shot either 2 blade Zwickey's, or Magnus', for the past 15 years or so. From this sample of 1 I'm very impressed with them.
I'm as happy as can be with this buck. I was acutally gonna hunt the same spot in the morning as there is another good buck in the area but I'm so worked up still that I can't even sleep.
Topic: Bloodied my Centaur (Read 641 times)
