My Traditional Journey...

[Sockrsblur]

The majority of the cover consisted of various height saplings up to 10 feet, they were close enough together to make it difficult to maneuver through. It was maybe 20 yards out into the field  from the pines, hour glass shaped and filled with goldenrod and grasses between the trees, some bushes along the edges. As I approached from this direction I thought it best to cut through the center or narrow point of the hour glass leaving at most 30 yards of saplings to my right and 30 yards to my left, with approximately 15 yards of depth through the narrowing .

 

[Sockrsblur]

I slowly walked to the side of the cover and then continued toward the narrowing in the middle. As I entered into this narrowing it was like turning a corner because the saplings had blocked my view. Two steps into the cut and I saw light antlers clearly in the wet dark goldenrod, I saw a head and ears motionless facing away. In the fraction of a second it took my soggy mind to realize it was a live bedded buck i dropped into the goldenrod as low as I could.

He was no farther than ten paces and his antlers stood out clear as can be. He was bedded in the middle of that narrowing facing into the wind, only goldenrod between us. Through the golden rod I could see he had curved main beams and tines and that looked like a big upgrade from last years 5" spike.

[snakebite]

  I love it. Great story. Thanks for taking us with you.

[Sockrsblur]

I was shocked to be so close undetected, this was a first for me and my mind raced with thoughts. I felt like with every breath I drew that deer would surly discover me and bolt to safety. The thought that I was taking to much time came next and I decided all I had to do was draw my longbow as I stood and then shoot when I could see the bucks shoulder. After a quick look at my bow, arrow and broadhead to assure it was free of weeds, I put my feet at a better angle then some tension on the string and started to rise.

My heart raced and breathing was deep as I slowly elevated out of and finally above the weed cover with my eyes fixated on the deers head and ears. I fully expected him to snap his eyes around to meet mine and explode out of the cover but he remained absolutely motionless as I came all the way to my feet and an anchored full draw. I couldn't see!!!  His body, even at 10 yards was totally hidden from view. As I eased pressure off the string my stress level shot up instantly and I quickly lowered back into the weeds to hide.

[Sockrsblur]

How could this be?!?  Even now as I hid low in the weeds, looking through the goldenrod I could clearly see his motionless antlers and ears, the top of his neck. I decided to try again, to look harder or better. I slowly rose to my feet again as I drew my bow, searching for a body outline but there was none to see. Frustrated I sank back into the weeds to hide again. My mind raced through options. I could shoot blindly to the right or to the left of his head, 50/50 odds, ugh no! Bad!  I could shoot him in the head?! At ten paces I could hit that spot. I decided to do it!

[Sockrsblur]

I looked at the motionless rack, to their bases and then the ears, picked a little spot between them and started to rise out of the weeds for the third time drawing the string as I elevated, up higher I came,  pulling smoothly to anchor and full draw, staring hard at that little spot I picked.

I don't remember the release but in slow motion the arrow flashed through the spattering of dark weeds toward that little spot and there was an explosion of deer upward and out, my eyes widened and I dropped into the weeds looking ahead. The now standing buck bound away once, then turned and stood facing me. I thought fall down!!! Looking at his head I saw no blood, no arrow, no wound, he was still standing motionless looking to my right. Did I miss???  I didn't kill him?!?  

I reached for another arrow from my quiver staying low as I could, nocked it as best I could in the thick weeds. I looked back to the deer and he was still motionless, 15 yards away facing me head on and to the left side of the cut. He started swinging his head to the right and the left searching for something he couldn't find. I managed to get an arrow on the bow and position myself to rise and shoot when he turned. If he went to my right the cut would provide an opening for a shot, if he turned to my left he would instantly be behind the saplings and safe from any possible shot.

As I kept thinking right,right, the deer stood with a motionless body and continued erratically moved his head to the right and then to left in a jerky manner, trying to pick up anything abnormal.

[Sockrsblur]

I could see his antlers well now. He looked to be a 2.5 yo 14" 8pt, 4/5"tines, two tines broken off his right side. He stepped once, started turning to my right, then stopped, stepped twice the other way and turned left a little, stopped, turned back and angled to the right a little, stopped, head looked right and left, UGH!! Come on, I thought!! He snorted loud, stomped his foot, jumped to my left and started running, he was instantly hidden behind the saplings! UGH!

I jumped out of the weeds and ran back the way I entered the cut and around the cover patch only to watch him run and trot 150 yards across the field and into the woods I hunted this morning. Wow! I was shocked. I was excited and bummed. I really believed I could hit him, it was a small target, but I believed.

[Tsalt]

Oh this is to good!    

[Sockrsblur]

As I walked back to where I took the shot everything on me started feeling wet and heavy again, my stocking cap, jacket, I could make a fist and squeeze water out of my gloves. It was easy to see the smashed weeds where I shot from and moved around in. I moved to the clear outline of the deer bed, it was less than ten yards from where I shot, wow.

Three feet away and centered in front of the deer bed was a thumb sized sapling freshly cut by my broadhead, I never saw it through the goldenrod. I knelt down and took off my backpack, that little tree was coming back to camp as a souvenir. I cut it with my folding saw and strapped it to the side of my backpack, shouldered it and started what turned out to be a long hunt for my arrow. It took forever but I found it a ways past the deer bed buried down  flat to the ground.  Walking back and forth from where I shot, the deer laid in his bed, the arrow stopped, I tried to put the pieces together.

[Sockrsblur]

This was the best hunt ever! I tried not to make excuses and be honest with myself as I held that broadhead cut sapling in my hands, coulda, woulda, shoulda! I didn't cut a hair on the deer, it was a clean miss. I pulled out my cell phone and took pictures as best I could in the rain. I spent a lot of time walking around that little area with the photos, cutting the little sapling, and looking for my hidden arrow. I was just more lingering now, part of me didn't want to move on, I was still taking in the moment, the hunt.

As I stood in the goldenrod, in the wind and rain of Hurricane Sandy, I admitted to my self In hind sight I was shooting at a very small target. The buck never so much as flinched, yawned, or moved until that arrow went by him. He had no clue I was there. I probably could have walked up closer, probably to 5 yards and put an arrow through his lungs. I remembered well that exciting but paralyzing feeling of being so close but that was all me, he was simply bedded in a field during a storm. Final answer... I thought to my self... I should have walked closer. I thought of Jenna and telling her the story, that made me wish I didn't miss more. I was fortunate and grateful for the opportunity, awesome. I gathered and organized my soaked gear spread around the trampled golden rod, strapped and readjusted my backpack. Standing there in the rain I munched on a Cliff bar looking around the field trying to let more than the rain soak in. It was after 11 am, I had spent over 30" matting down the weeds in that little patch of cover where I shot.

[Hopewell Tom]

HOLY SMOKES! (mouth agape here...)

[Sockrsblur]

I decided to hunt the rest of the field.

[Sockrsblur]

I nocked an arrow standing at the cut in the middle of the cover patch. Rather than walk through the cut like I had originally I passed it and walked toward the other end of that same cover looking along the pines and into the field toward the next island of cover I would stalk to. I had walked no more than 25 or 30 yards from where I shot reaching the end of the saplings, when I looked left around them, I saw light colored antlers standing out against the wet dark goldenrod.

I dropped low into the weeds as quickly as I could, He was no farther than 10 yards again! As I stared through the weeds I was truly dumbfounded! He was noticeably larger than the first buck. I could definitely see there were more tines and a couple acorn like swells on some tine tips, I noticed a crocked tine not matching the others. His rack seemed opened angling toward me?! How could that be possible? He looked less hidden by the goldenrod and I thought... trees, look good for saplings! I did, there were none, it was clear to the deer this time, only a four foot bush to his right. I could not see his body again. So okay, just like last time I thought, draw as I rise and shoot his chest.

[Sockrsblur]

His antlers worried me, they were facing me 45 degrees to my left but rock solid still. If he would have seen me already at 10 yards he would be gone, right?! The wind, the rain, the hurricane, this was some kind of unrepeatable gift. Ok, I'm taking to long again, I thought! I slowly came out of the weeds drawing my bow as I elevated. All the way up and almost to anchor and I can't see the bucks body! I look and look, nothing. Back down into the weeds I go, how is this possible?! After standing I was sure now, he was definitely facing me at an angle and the feelings of getting busted any second swelled up in me like a rising flood.

[Sockrsblur]

I tried to think, walking closer FELT impossible so I came back to the idea of taking a head shot. I really felt like I could hit it. I decided to do it! I looked below the base of his left antler, behind where his eye should be, in front of his big ear, that perfect little spot...ok  

slowly I rose above the weeds drawing as I elevated, staring at that little motionless spot, higher and higher, I don't really remember the release, like slow motion the arrow fetching flashed through a spattering of wet swaying goldenrod and there was an explosion of deer up and out. I remember taking a step back as he elevated he was so close, so big, going so high, he went straight up into the air, higher than a standing deer, he went up on to his hind legs, rotating his back to me as he rose up and then started tipping toward me into that 4 foot high bush he was bedded beside. He landed in it thrashing back and forth water and blood flying every where until he fell completly back to the ground near motionless on his back with no arrow visible, blood turning the side of his wet head a deep crimson red, and his big white belly up to the sky.

[Sockrsblur]

That was a trigger! Having seen a big motionless white belly before with poor outcomes, It snapped me back into action. I quickly pulled another arrow from my quiver, nocked it, looked back up to see the deer laying on his right side moving to try and regain himself. At less than 10 yards I drew and put a second arrow into his left chest behind his shoulder. At the impact he pushed up again with his hind legs and jumped in the goldenrod but landed in a great big heap rolling and turning making a matted wet circle in the weeds.

As I hurried to nocked a third arrow he repeated this hop,crash, fall down, roll, a second, third, forth time till he was into the cover of the saplings thrashing around, snapping and cracking limbs as he faltered and moved around. I quickly circled around as he struggled with his antlers stuck in the saplings. I moved inside the patch of choaked little trees to 10 yards dropped down on one knee to shoot through a slot under some branches and shot a third arrow, striking him behind his right shoulder angling up crossing through his chest cavity the broadhead pierced through this hide on his left side.

[threeunder]

:eek:    :eek:    :eek:  

More! More!

[Sockrsblur]

At the impact he reacted violently again breaking the 9' tree off cleanly that his antlers were stuck on. I remember clearly the top tipping and falling over into the cover slowly. He went back to the the hoping, falling, rolling two, three, four more times and came to rest beside two small pine trees. I nocked the forth and last arrow in my quiver, the one i shot and cleaned mud off of after missing the first buck. I walked over 10 yards away and lowered on one knee in case I needed to shoot again but he took his last breath and was still, rack sticking up out of the goldenrod.

I sat my bow down in the weeds and lowered to my butt sitting in a puddle of water in a steady, windy rain just looking at my best traditional buck killed still hunting in a goldenrod field at 10 yards on our worst day of weather Hurricane Sandy would bring. I was exhausted, emotionally drained and I just sat there for some time, not moving closer to the deer, I was feeling a lot of things and wanted to take it all in.

[Sockrsblur]

[Sockrsblur]

Moving closer the buck was a 15" ten point with 4-5" tines and some nice character. The arrow had hit his skull exactly where I was looking and broke off flush at the deers hide and at the start of the threading that goes into the arrow. There was a lot of blood soaked and running down the side of the his head, I tried to wipe it off with weeds for the photos. I couldn't help but wonder if  I could have walked closer waiting for a lung shot but at the time I did what felt best. It's certainly a learning experience being that close on the ground.

I've shot bigger deer but this was my greatest hunt by far. Looking over the area it's hard to acuratly describe the scene all the matted goldenrod, broken limbs, broken trees, smashed bushes, and arrow pieces to pick up. The deer was actually beded facing me on a old wood chip pile to stay out of all the water laying on the ground. All I can guess is that he was taking a nap with his eyes closed or he would have seen me walking up to him. He never moved a bit until the broadhead struck him. In the stress of an unuasual hunting situation and moving deer I hit him three times with three arrows at ten yards! lol that sounds like not a lot to be proud of but after my ten yard misses in 2011... I,m really happy with that!