My Traditional Journey...

[Sockrsblur]

As the deer entered my shooting window between the trees he was 15 yards moving left on a normal walk, mostly broadside but quartering to me slightly. My bow was up, fingers on the string. I concentrated hard behind his shoulder and began a steady draw, he saw the movement and stopped perfectly centered in the opening, the fetching went through the air and appeared to hit the buck very tight behind the shoulder. At the impact the spike dropped low and spun hard to his right. As he turned I could see a lot of the arrow sticking out, honestly, more than I would have liked. Multiple deer behind the spike spun and crashed through the woods. I never noticed any of them following behind him, I was concentration on the deer I shot so much. I replayed the shot and rethought it as I waited for some time to pass. I wondered if I didn't draw back fully and lost penetration, wondered if I hit more of the shoulder than I thought, I was unsure and light was fading. I assessed the impact site, some hair and some blood, nothing overly exciting. Initially his tracks were easy to follow as he ran, so I followed them. I slipped along quietly and found my broke off arrow shaft in 20 yards, more of it than I would have liked to. Maybe 6" missing measuring the broadhead too. It was tough to call so I decided to wait over night. It was clear and cool without any rain in the forecast. Morning would come slowly...

[kadbow]

   

[talkingcabbage]

   

[Sockrsblur]

Light couldn't come to the forest fast enough the next day! I was eager to take up the track and hopefully recover my buck. I eased back into the spot where I took the shot and quickly took the trail back up. After fifty yards on the blood trail the woods was fairly open with rolling contour. Once out of the thicker underbrush I could see my young buck,a 5" spike, laying on his side dead. He had traveled about 80 yards from where I shot him. As I walked up on him my smile faded when I noticed his hair every where around and that he had been significantly eaten by coyotes. UGH!

He was laying on his left side so I rolled him over to examine my shot. The 150 grain 2 blade Magnus Stinger entered into the back of the lower left leg making a notch in the leg bone I could feel, continued down between two ribs, entered  into the chest chest cavity and hit the heart. The arrow tip and broadhead was still inside the deer. I felt confident he never had the chance to bed down but rather fell dead from his feet. With the other deer that were following the spike running off through the underbrush after my shot I never heard what I could distinguish as the spike crashing or falling to the ground. I had mixed feelings for certain and there was a lot of wishing this and that. I was impressed with what the two blade head did going into the deers anatomy. I had never shot a deer so low in the chest before and it reminded me of something  Roy from the archery shop said when Dan and I were spending some time with him. "Ya know... those two blade heads can move around in an animal a little"  I couldn't argue with that.

[23feetupandhappy]

[Izzy]

Wow your gonna send Charlie Lamb back to the drawing board.  

[Cyclic-Rivers]

quote:Originally posted by Izzy:
Wow your gonna send Charlie Lamb back to the drawing board.            

Great shot!

[Tsalt]

I guess it's like a good book...we get a chapter a night.      

[Sockrsblur]

Ha.    

[Big Ed]

Very nice!!

[Sockrsblur]

I love this next 2011 hunting story! Yup, I'm starting it with that. It did have a huge effect on my 2012 season, you will understand why after. The evening I shot the spike on October 29 2011 I wanted to share my story  and started calling everyone that could care to share in my excitement. When you call a hunting buddy there is usually an exchange of the most recent information that goes along with any primary reason for dialing that number. I called some hunters and word was the bucks were on the move. Excited i called my brother Dan and told him to give the winter wood pile a break and get in the woods hunting. Dan heats with wood and he gets a great big pile of it under the roof before the snow sets in.

 

[Sockrsblur]

The next day Dan took an evening hunt and rather than sit in his ladder stand like normal he took his longbow to a new spot for a ground hunt. There is an enormous beautiful thicket that use to be a goldenrod field when Dan was 10yo. It's shaped by property lines and holds deer like we all understand. Almost yearly without fail it is surrounded by large rubs and scrapes, this year was no exception. Near his ladder stand this thicket comes to a corner, at this corner there happens to be a huge fallen tree. Dan settled in behind the fallen tree all in camo with a head/face net, facing the thicket for the evening hunt. He took the time to pull all the leaves away under and around him to keep his movements quiet.

 

[Sockrsblur]

After some time passed he saw movement coming from the north along side the edge of the thicket. Time reviled it was a group of three does. As they came closer Dan prepared for a shot that was not to be. The does came into thirty yards or so but knew something wasn't right and picked a safer direction to wonder. With the does gone and the sun having set my brother decided to give rattling a try. He keeps a set of small 8 point antlers in his backpack most all the time. He took them out and did a short reasonable sequence with a few grunts. Immediately after he finished he could hear walking in the leaves from the direction of the thicket but couldn't see a deer so he turned and prepared for a possible shot. After a minute or so the walking became quiet and distant so after another five minuted had passed he tried the horns again thinking he had little to loose as the day light was fading quickly. Dan tickled and clanked the antlers together and added a few grunts and instantly again here came the walking, louder,louder, this was it! This time he was coming.

     As Dan turned on his knees to situate him self with the log he pushed the antlers clear and raised his bow arm slowly, checking he had room to draw. The walking was steady and growing louder still he couldn't see a deer. Hunkered down low behind the log, he reminded himself to not shoot the few small trees in front of him as the buck came into view from the thick cover on a steady walk, moving by the log Dan hid behind. It was not until Dan had to lift his whole body up to shoot that he realized how low he was hunkered down as the deer came in. As he raised his arm and put increasing pressure on the string, he focused on the bucks large chest moving between the 4" small trees and when the timing looked right he gave a soft mouth grunt. The buck stopped in his tracks a short ten paces away, clear of the trees and turned his head toward the large fallen log hiding a hunter at full draw. The arrow covered the short distance in a flash and with a loud WHAP! buried deep into the bucks right side, he turn and bound away crashing through the brush, making more noise at a distance as he traveled, then a large crash followed by a deep, long silence. Dan sat back on his heels quietly and drew a deep breath of cool evening air, silence and suspense filled the woods around him.

[Hopewell Tom]

Fantastic Tale, very well told.
It's an impatient bunch here, but you're telling it like I hope to be able to do - dragging it out.
It's a while off to the Fall anyway, What's the rush?
You'll probably have this wrapped up by the end of the month...won't you?

[Sockrsblur]

Replaying things in his head Dan felt the shot was true and the noisy crash was the deers last movement but he tried to take some time putting his gear together before starting to look for sign. After a little time he went to where the buck stood at the shot. It was obvious in the leaves and dark dirt where the deer turned to run. In a few steps more good sign was in the leaves, there was an obvious blood trail to follow.

 

[Sockrsblur]

Thanks a lot Tom. Yes,ha... all the tellin will be told by then. I was very eager to tell my first story here, I have enjoyed so many others. I waited till after hunting season to start so I had the time to do it the best I could. Before I started typing it I never really intended it to be this long or about 2011 at all but there were so many things that happened in my first year with a longbow that added to the story behind the story of the Hurricane Buck that I just wanted to tell it all. I guess this turned more into my traditional journey than one hunting story. Thanks for reading along with me...

[Sockrsblur]

In the back of his mind he still worried about jumping the deer out of a bed, not wanting to make any mistakes with his first traditional deer he really tried to go slow and easy. 20 yards from where he shot the buck he found his arrow in the leaves laying beside the blood trail. He picked it up and carefully held it, it was covered in blood end to end and fully intact. To that bow hunter, it was a sight of hard earned beauty, his first traditional arrow shot at any deer. Considering it retired all ready he put it carefully in his quiver and continued on the trail.

 

[Sockrsblur]

It was about this time I called my brother on his cell phone to see how his evening hunt went. He was on the blood trail and had not found the deer yet. lol I threw question after question at him and it sounded clear to me the deer had expired but there was no rushing Dans progress I think he was really enjoying the tracking, the woods, the night... simply the moment. Well, I said, how big is he ? What is he? I'm not sure, Dan said. I can still remember my brothers excited chuckle as easily as my impatiens to be there with him but I was at camp in Cuba, NY and he was two hours to the north in Barker, NY... so I left him to track. As much as I can be irritated by a cell phone at a dinner table or a campfire, sharing an otherwise missed moment like that seems priceless. Without physically being there with him I was there as things unfolded almost real time. The next text picture forced an audible gasp out of me and when Dan answered my phone call he was laughing. It was a laughter I couldn't hear enough of, one born of emotions... relief, joy, excitement, pride, and more.

 

[Sockrsblur]

We laughed and talked excitedly as he sat there in the dark woods with a head lamp on that big bucks antlers as he held them in his hands describing them best he could to me. This was Dan's biggest buck ever with any weapon, I was so proud of him! It had taken him thirty minutes form the first text photo to the last to recover the buck, it took me two beers under the cabin porch. He retold the story and I asked every question I could think of. 8 points, 18.5" wide. The Shot was perfectly tight to the shoulder as the buck crossed from left to right. The 150 grain Magnus Stinger serrated with bleeder blades on his arrow penetrated mid cavity through to the opposite side, not quite puncturing the hide on the opposite side. There was some rib bone damage I can't remember exactly but the pictures tell an impressive tale. Before we were off the phone I asked for more photos, he happily sent many, here are some more.

 
deer as found.

[Sockrsblur]