After spending the last 2 months in the woods without a chance at a mature buck I was looking forward to the rut here in Montana to begin. Our rut hits peak a couple weeks later than most places in the midwest so after seeing so many posts with so many big bucks going down a guy gets a lot of anticipation to seeing the rut in person.
Last weekend a few bucks started to come out of the woodwork and poke around a little bit, so I was very excited to have a 3 day weekend this weekend to hunt hard and hope the bucks were rutting.
Friday I was in my stand before light until after dark and besides a little far off chasing action and one really cool flying squirrel encounter I was left frustrated. I had 3 different bowhunters wander past my stand and I knew I would be hunting elsewhere Saturday.
Saturday morning found me in my new spot in a stand I had hung last weekend. The spot looked awesome and I was excited and anticipating action at any moment. It was a full 2 hour before I saw my first deer but once I did things got crazy. I had four bucks chasin one doe in circles all through me woodlot. They kept teasing but none ever came in good range. The rest of the morning was spent watching a few mature bucks push does around on a chunk of nearby private ground. This continued all through the mid morning and into early afternoon until I had enough. I had a stand set bordering this ground and decided to sneak over to it for the final couple of hours. On the way I was spotted by a real nice 6x5 which I had a close encounter with last week. He finally ignored me and went back to following his doe. Once I got in my stand I wondered if I had spooked all the deer out going in there but soon I spotted that same 6x5 cruising the timber I had just walked through.
From here on out things got real interesting. It seems everytime I turned my head a new buck would pop out from a different direction. The bucks were pushin does, making scrapes, and rubbing trees and I was just in awe of it all.
I saw more big bucks than probaly any day I had ever hunted. The problem was I couldnt get there attention. My grunting was falling on deaf ears. The bucks would occasionly look then go back to whatever they were doing.
With only 30 minutes of shooting light left I had a big buck heading right for me. He was on a mission and closin the distance fast. When he got to about 40 yards he locked up on a does scent trail and then proceded to follow it the wrong way. I tried grunting and snort wheezing and he acted like he never heard me. I was shaking from the encounter and texted my wife letting her know I just had a great buck close but no cigar. I watched as the buck proceeded to make a couple scrapes about 200 yards from me.
While he was scraping a small 4x4 walked up to him and then headed my way. He ended up walking by at 25 yards and I was amazed as it was the first deer actually in bow range after such an awesome day. About that time I heard another deer coming and lo and behold here comes mister big following the 4x4s footsteps. I thought holy cow I actually might get a chance at him. Well just to get me frazzled he stops at 75 yards and makes two scrapes under a tree I had hunted many times.(some guy put his stand in the tree and I havent been able to hunt it for 3 years- not happy)While the buck finishes his scrape and heads right up the trail the little guy came by on. I get ready for the shot and here he comes. He gets to my shooting window and right when Im thinking I had better grunt to stop him he looks up at this tree like he wants to make a scrape there and stops and gives me a perfect shot opportunity. I draw back and feel target panic hit about 3 inches from full draw. I conciously remember telling my self to finish the draw. Im not sure if I did or not but the next think I know the buck is running away with an arrow hanging out of his lower shoulder/ base of neck region. I watched the buck make a big circle and walk right through the scrapes he had just made and head into the timber he came from. The buck was obviously having a hard time and I wasnt sure if he was getting weak or just because of an injured shoulder.
I waited and listened til well after dark and snuck over to the scrape to check the bloodtrail. When I got there I was excited to see ample blood and I realized i might have a decent chance. I snuck out and went to get help and give the buck a couple hours.
When we got back we followed an awesome bloodtrail for about 150 yards straight to the buck. Talk about relief! The Simmons interceptor had entered just in front of he knuckle on the shoulder and exited just on the far side of center between his legs. The amazing thing was the amount of damage. The broadhead must have stopped there and opened up a huge hole cutting some arteries in the process.
A beautiful 5x5 with an additional sticker point off one of the bases. After 25 years my best whitetail with a longbow.
We loaded up the buck for his ride home.
An amazing hole. Simmons continue to impress me. I have never seen anything like the holes they put in animals and they do it time after time.
For those who are interested i used: 47# centaur dark matter bow, axis 500 shaft, Simmons interceptor, and a lot of praying to the good lord after the shot.
Topic: Montana beauty comes home with me!!! (Read 1257 times)
