I've said that phrase a few times in the past few years. I never seem to see the "big ones", unless they are already dead from someone else's arrow.
Veteran's day morning, I walked in to my stand on my 10 acre deer woods in southern Illinois. As it started to get light, I could see something white on the ground, about 30 yards from my stand. The lighter it became, the more the white spot looked like the belly of a deer. Soon, I could see that a nice 8 point buck was lying there dead. I couldn't help becoming upset about a nice buck wasted, and maybe poached on my property. The longer I sat there, the more it bothered me.
About 8am, I decided to get down and drag the deer out of sight. As I reached up the unhook my harness; I spotted "him" coming my way through the woods. It looked like the buck might pass to my left, and as I shoot left handed, I turned around in the stand, and got ready for the shot. I kept telling myself: "don't mess this up! This never happens to you, and may never happen again!"
About 30 yards out; the buck was grunting, and suddenly turned away from me, and went into the brush. Just my luck. I knew it was too good to be true. Then, a doe came out of the honeysuckle, and trotted right past me in my best shooting lane. She saw the dead 8 point, but didn't spook. I knew the buck would soon follow the doe, and sure enough, here he came! As I prepared to draw for the shot; the buck spotted the dead deer. He stopped in his tracks, facing me, and started stomping. I had to hold my ready position for an eternity. Probably a minute or two. Suddenly, the buck started to my right, and I had to swivel around, and pick a spot through the brush to put an arrow through. The buck was walking fast, but still only about 10 yards. However; he bolted at the shot, and I hit him dead center, about 6 inches back from where I aimed. He was slightly angled away, so I thought I got liver, and maybe the far lung. I could see about a foot of arrow, with a bloom of blood around it, as he ran off. The wood are thick with autumn olive, and I lost sight of him after about 40 yards. I didn't hear him crash, so sat down to wait.
After a while, I decided to ease out of the woods and give the deer 4 hours. I stopped to check the 8 point, and could not find a mark on him anywhere. I became concerned that maybe a hunter on the neighboring woods shot that deer, and might be looking for him, and jump my buck. It's strange what thoughts will go through one's mind at times like this. I had to fight the urge to go after my buck, before someone else found him. I imagined all sorts of bad things that could happen, from coyotes, to trespassers.
I walked out and found my hunting partner, Tuck. We drove to town for breakfast, and to see if anyone else was hunting the other side of my property. One vehicle was parked on the side of the property away from the deer, but I waited until the hunter came out to be sure he didn't know anything about the dead 8 point, and to ask him not to go into my woods. I was relieved to find he had only been to and from his stand, and never got near where my buck ran.
Finally, after 4 hours, we quietly walked back to my stand. I could follow the hoof prints dug into the soft dirt, and found blood after 20 yards. Most of the leaves on the ground had red spots on them, so finding blood was a challenge. I followed blood and tracks another 40 yards or so, and looked up to the only open spot in the woods. There he was! He had gone about 70 yards, and I could see my stand tree from him. He was stiff and cold, so probably had died within minutes or seconds. The arrow had gone through most of the liver, and cut the diaphragm. It had backed out as he ran, and cut the liver up from the inside.
What a beautiful deer! 12 symmetrical points, unusual coloring, swollen neck, and big bodied. He field dressed 205 pounds. The deer in far southern Illinois run smaller on average than in northern Illinois, but not this one.
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I used a fir arrow by Rick Stillman, and a Tuffhead 225 grain broadhead by Joe Furlong. My bow is a 45# Black Rhino 3 piece takedown.
Topic: This NEVER happens to me! (Read 1368 times)
