Made it about an hour ago. That 16 hour drive is rough but when I look in the rear view mirror and see the rack it makes a little easier. I hunted 15 days only missed two morning hunts to recharge my batteries. I saw many nice bucks and let a bunch walk. I missed twice, deflected on a branch on a 155-160 and missed a huge 150" at 8 yards as he trotted by. When I bleated to stop him he sped up and I lost focus shooting under him...
Had planned to head home this morning and picked all my stands and cameras after the morning hunt yesterday except for the one I would hunt that evening in a last ditch effort to fill my tag. Got setup by 2 and waited and waited. I had seen 12 deer from this spot the evening before but nothing was moving this eve. It was just about the end of legal shooting time and I hear leaves crunching! I grabbed my bow and got ready just in case it was a good one. Sure enough here comes a nice 8pt. I had to turn to my left as he was going behind my stand. I drew and bleated, picked a spot and dropped the string only to hear a loud crack! My bottom limb hit the seat of my muddy lock on. Of courses arrow went low missing the buck. He ran a few yards and stopped for a few then continued of crossing the creek and then up the other side to a scrape. I nicked another arrow and as he was working the licking branch I sent another arrow. He buck kicked and ran out across a crp field like he was on fire! I felt confident it was a good shot even though I couldn't see exactly where my arrow hit him. I pulled my stand and left to go eat a bit to give him plenty time. My wife and I went back and found blood where he was standing. We followed the trail into the crp where it got difficult to follow. I then found my arrow fully coated with good blood and bubbles. We couldn't find blood again so we spaced out and started a grid search and on the first sweep I spotted him. He was dead in seconds, already stiff an hour later. 15 days and over a 100 hours on stand, I'm happy to have this beauty
Topic: A Hard Earned Buck (Read 1605 times)
