It was not long after before I heard deer chasing in the brush in front of me. My anticipation was growing as I heard the rushed footsteps come closer. Than the noise turned and went into the swamp and all went quiet. I never had the chance to see what the deer were that made the noise. A few minutes later I heard footsteps coming from behind me now. A few grunts from my call had the footsteps coming my way. I could hear tines rubbing against the shrub branches which lead me to believe it was a buck. Unfortunately I never got to see what that deer was either.......
As I stood waiting on the deer to emerge from the brush behind me, I looked to my left and was blown away when I saw a huge buck working along the edge of the funnel 75 yards away. He was walking towards the brush and was about to disappear. I quickly grabbed my call and gave him a few snort wheezes. With that he immediately went to the closest stand of sapling trees and spent the next 10 minutes tearing the trees to shreds. He was angry to say the least!
I gave a few doe bleats and a tending grunt and had the big boy working his way back out of the saplings and into the clearing in front of me. It looked as if he was going to cut diagonal across me 50 yards without getting a shot. Out of nowhere the other buck behind me in the brush started to walk around and the big boy quickly turned back around and stood his ground, making sure the other buck knew he was the boss, even if he couldn’t see him.
After the big boy was content that he had scared away his opponent he started diagonally across me again, this time only 20 yards away. At 15 yards he hit my estrus scent drag and stood there checking it out. He was so close I could hear him stiffing the ground. I stood in position with tension on the string, all I needed was my shot opportunity.
Out of nowhere he looked up right at me! I stood dead still and prayed he wouldn’t bust. He gazed at me for a few seconds than decided he was content. As he turned broadside to walk away I saw my chance. I drew back, hit anchor, aimed tight for his elbow and let tension off the string. The arrow stuck and I instantly worried the shot may be too low. The buck took off like a scalded cat and dashed into the swamp. Everything went quiet and then there was a huge crash! I prayed what I heard was correct and I quickly packed up my stuff. I went to site of impact and found good blood but no arrow. I backed out and called my buddy for back up.
We had a nice dinner and chat as we waited to go out. Finally, after an hour or so of waiting I decided it was time to go search. We got to the impact site again and quickly picked up on the blood trail. There was blood spraying out both sides and I prayed I had hit the heart. As we followed the trail the blood trail got even better. Blood was spraying for 2-3 feet out both sides of the deer. As we entered the swamp we turned a sharp corner and there he lay! He was everything I had hoped he would be. A beautiful tall heavy 9 point that was an absolute toad of a buck. His beams were so heavy and the slight palmation of his right G2 and crab claw Left G2 was just perfect. I was so happy! We flipped him over and I found my arrow. It had gotten full penetration but as he dashed off his leg pushed the arrow back inside of him. My shot was lower than I wanted but it had effectively punched the heart and had a very quick clean kill.
I am so glad I had my deer tracking buddy with me. He is strong enough to pull an ox and it took everything we had to get that deer out of there. We had to cross a creek and pull it through logs and thorn bushes. I have never been so relieved to see the golf cart. We got it loaded up and took it home. My fiancé showed up with her camera and we had a photo session in the dark. Luckily she has the equipment to overcome the darkness. After taking pictures we got the buck hung up and skinned out. It will be turned into a bunch of bologna.
This has been yet another mile stone in only 1.5 years of traditional archery. Last year I was gifted with my biggest buck to date with my caribow wolverine and this deer blew last year’s buck out of the water. I have not measured him yet but would guess he will somewhere around 145-150". It was an amazing experience to say the least! I used my 50# caribow wolverine longbow with a heritage 150 shaft and the awesome 160 grain palmer extreme broad heads. Those big 4 blades due a huge amount of damage and I credit them to such a quick kill. Thank you guys so much for following along and I wish the best of hunting seasons to all of you! I will be after a fat doe and some bushy tailed fox squirrels for the rest of the season. Cheers SS!
Here is a proud fiancé
Here is the Palmer entrance hole. Very happy with the damage and penetration of the head. Also a very accurate head to boot.
Topic: Ohio giant down!!!!! *Story and Pics Added* (Read 3900 times)
