Yesterday morning was a great time to be in the woods for me. Took my first turkey with a bow in the morning.:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=133073 I took the afternoon off to watch my Spartans put on a defensive display to absolutely annihilate the Woverines. Time well spent watching the game with my dad and the wind and rain would have made for a tough sit anyway.
So this morning, I was back at it. Weather was just about perfect. 29 degrees and very little wind.
About 9AM, an 8 point strolled by just out of range. I hit the grunt tube a few times but he showed no interest. After lazily browsing through the woods for awhile the buck bedded down about 30 yards from my stand with only one eye and his nose visible. The wind was right but it felt like he was looking right at me so I stood very still for quite a while.
Maybe an hour later I heard a chainsaw fire up 1/4 mile directly upwind of the deer. The buck didn't pay much attention at first but eventually he stood up and milled around eating a few leaves. I was still softly trying some grunts and bleats to coax him my way but to no avail.
He was slowly working his way towards me and as I readied for a shot I couldn't believe it when bedded down only 15 yards from my stand!
Now I'm really on red alert and afraid to make a noise or really move much at all. It was nearly 11AM at this point and I needed to make the trip home within the next few hours so I started thinking about how I could force the action a little.
In one of my favorite G. Fred Asbel hunting stories Fred had a bedded mule deer buck that he need to get to stand up in order for a shot. In that story, Fred tossed a few items from his pack in the direction of the muley. If I remember right, Fred tossed a knife case and some other gear and the buck eventually stood up. Since I have a pack of about 20 pounds worth of "essentials", many of which are fairly aerodynamic, I thought maybe "The G. Fred Toss" would work for me.
I decided my orange handled, folding saw would be about right. I picked out a whole in the remaining canopy above the buck and tried to gauge where to land it on the ground near him. After a few pump fakes I was able to put the saw in just about exactly the spot I wanted to and it landed with a thud about 10 feet upwind of the buck.
The bedded buck was under-whelmed by my attempt to say the least! He didn't even bat an eye lash. It didn't appear that he even noticed that it was raining saws.
Dejected, I dug a mini Snickers from my pack that I'd raided from my boys Halloween stash and started to formulate another plan.
The wheels were really turning now. Thankfully before I tossed anything too valuable the buck decided to stand up. He slowly feed towards a shooting lane and eventually gave me a quartering away shot at about 10 yards.
I've been shooting this new Tall Tines recurve real well in the last week with a 6 point last Sunday and a hen turkey yesterday and this shot proved to be no exception. I took him a little higher than were I was aiming but it was still a good double lung shot. The buck crashed off only 40 yards or so and was down in sight.
As I walked up to the buck I was surprised at his body size. He looked huge for a basket-racked 8 point. I later weighed him at 160# on my scale. I would have guessed more like 180 after dragging him 100 yards to the truck! The six point from last Sunday weighed 120# for example.
60#@28" 60" Tall Tines
Easton FMJ 400
Abowyer 145gr Bonehead with 100gr steel adapter
Topic: The G. Fred Toss (Read 586 times)
