BUCK RECOVERY BY CANOE
On Friday October 24th 2014, my best friend Jimmy from South Carolina arrived here in Maryland with his lovely wife Jean. Jimmy was here for 2 reasons. One to help move his wife's sister back down south to Charlotte North Carolina ,and 2 for him and I to do some bowhunting together. I had not seen Jimmy since I was in Destin Florida 15 months ago at his Son's wedding. On Saturday morning(10/25/14) I met Jimmy at the local Highs store, and we shook hands and embraced each other with a hug. It was really great to see him. We got some coffee and stood there talking awhile before we headed down to the Sod farm for the morning hunt. I had recently put up another treestand that was seeing some fairly good action in both the morning and evening hours. I put Jimmy in that stand, we said our good lucks to each other and then I walked across the sod field to another stand that I have had there for a few years. In the years that I have been hunting this particular spot where this stand is, it have always been an evening stand. I never see anything from that stand in the morning. But on this particular morning as I walked to that stand, I bowed my head and said Lord I know that this is not a morning stand, but let this be the morning that something comes through. I got into the stand before first light. I am sitting there sipping my coffee, while waiting for first light. I hear some commotion way across the sod field to my right, and with my binos I see the farmer loading some sod onto someones trailer, and its not even fully light yet. During this time while I am looking across the field, my bow is on the bow hanger and I had just finished my coffee and hung up my coffee mug on the hook. At approx 7:10 am I see movement to my left and here comes a doe (did I say God answers prayer}. She catches me without my bow in my hand. I quickly reach up and grab the bow, but she catches the movement. Needless to say I did not get a shot at her. I am now kicking myself for not being ready. I am now standing up with a arrow knocked. 5-8 minutes later here comes a Buck trailing the doe. I don't know what size he is, all I know is I see white antlers. He does not take the same trail that the doe did, but he stayed farther out in more thick stuff. As he is moving from my left to my right I look for an opening. When I see the first chance, I really rushed my shot thinking I might miss my chance if he gets farther than where he already is. I let fly and the arrow looks to be much farther back than where I want it to be. The buck takes off, but he don't act like he was hit at all. So I decide to sit for an hour before I get down to go look for my arrow, which I am not even sure at this point whether I really hit him or not. Approx 5 min past and here comes a Fox. He goes over to the area where I shot at the Buck and picks up the pace and go right in the same direction the Buck went. I am now thinking I hit the Buck and the fox is on his blood trail. This makes me get down sooner than I want to. Because if the buck is down, I fear the fox will find him and began eating on him. I lower my bow and climb down. I walk over to the area where the buck was standing(22 yards) when I shot to see if I can find my arrow, and sure enough there is my arrow covered in blood from broadhead to fletching. There is no stomach matter on the arrow. I then take up the blood trail and is tracking when at 8:05 I get a text from Jimmy saying he saw 2 does, 1 small buck, 1 red fox and a bloody arrow, end of text. The blood trail leads through the woods right out to the big open sod fields. The last drop of blood I find is approx 8 ft inside the woods edge. I see no blood in the field, and frankly I don't know which way he could have gone. But I know down to the left of where I came out into the field there is a known deer trail that I know of that leads into another section of woods, and this section of woods run right behind the Farmer's house. I was hoping and praying that maybe the buck took that trail and did not head out somewhere over the large sod fields. I say another prayer to the Lord and asking him to let me find a spot of blood that would indicate that the buck have indeed gone that way. I head to the known trail, and I may have gone about ten yards onto that trail and Praise God there is a single drop of blood on a green leaf. I thank and Praise God for answering prayer. I stick an arrow in the ground and decide to come back sometime later and take up the trail. Incidently while I was tracking this buck, a doe and 2 bucks came by me while I was still inside the woods edge. I go out to meet Jimmy and sure enough he have arrowed a nice doe. So we take some pics and then take the doe away quartered it up and then put her on ice, deciding to come back later and look for my deer. This pic is of part of the Sod farm where we were hunting.
. We get back approx 2-1/2 hours later and began looking for more blood. But we don't find any more blood. So he and I fan out and head in the direction where we think the buck may have gone. I was looking at the thickets that run up behind the farmers house and Jimmy was looking closer to the edge of the water. We may have been looking for maybe 15 minutes, when Jimmy walks over to me and say, lets get your deer. I looked at him and thought maybe he was joking, but he said no I see your deer. And sure enough over near the edge of the water the buck was laying there. That buck had seen us long before we saw him, but I think he was hurt pretty bad form my first arrow that he did not get up and run off. So we began to move in closer to him, and he just layed there watching us move. Jimmy says you have to shoot him again. But as fate would have it, where the buck was laying, he had debris covering up his vitals and there was no really clear way of getting an arrow through to him. We also did not want him to jump up and take off back towards the sod fields and woods if we got too close. So I put an arrow on the string and looked for an opening to get the arrow through, all the while he is looking at us. I pick a spot from about 15 yards away and let fly with the second arrow. When that arrow hit him in the chest in front of the shoulder, he came up off the ground and started running, he stumbled and regained his footing, and much to our surprise and horror, that buck jumped off the bank and over into the river marsh. He was trying to get away. But because of the soft mud and the effects of the arrow he was not moving very well. Here are the pics of the debris where the buck was laying behind when we found him, and also the pic of the bank where he jumped off of into the water.
. Jimmy said I think you need to go and find a boat, but I was prepared to jump into the water on my own two feet and go after him, but I would probably be sinking into mud up to my knees. I knew the farmer use to have a boat laying up next to his house. So Jimmy said he would stay there and watch the buck, while I go and see if I can get a boat. I grabbed my bow and back pack and headed through the woods to get to the Farmer's house(his house is on the water). I get to the house, and his wife is home. I told her what we were up against with the deer and she went and got the paddles to an old aluminum canoe that was laying on the bank tied to a tree not far from their pier. She wished us luck in recovering the deer. I untied the canoe and turned it over. I put my bow and back pack into the canoe and pushed off into the river. I had to paddle all the way around to the opposite side of the Farmer's property to get to where the buck was out in the water. I paddle as fast as I can. It takes me approx 10 minutes to get around to the point of the property where I can see the buck, and he was still alive. Here is the Canoe that I borrowed.
Here is where I pushed off from to get around to the other side of the property.
This is where the buck was in the water when I came around the bend, and was able to see him.
. When he saw me coming he tried to make a move, so I had to paddle hard to get in front of him so that he would not make it across the marsh/river to the other peoples property. I was trying to get in position in case I had to shoot the buck again, but the wind and current of the water kept driving me back. Let me say this here and now, under normal circumstances I would not shoot or pursue any animal that have taken refuge in the water. But because this animal was already wounded, I was prepared to do what I had to, to bring the animal to bay. So I had to paddle back toward the buck to get close, but as I was doing so I noticed the buck's head getting lower, he was weakening. He really tried to keep his head up, but the effects of his wounds was doing him in. He made one last desperate surge, but he was succumbing to the effects of the arrow. Finaly he lay still, thank God I did not have to shoot him again. The wind and water was so contrary to me in that canoe, that I had to throw a rope over to Jimmy who is still on the bank watching and giving advice on what to do(LOL). With his help by pulling the rope, I was able to get close enough to the buck and grab his antlers, which by now was partly submerged under water. I grab the bucks antlers and of course he is now deceased and Jimmy began to pull me into shore. Once on shore, we then had to hoist the buck up over the bank. So we attached the rope from the canoe to his antlers and we heaved and pulled until we got him up without him sliding back down the bank, and let me tell you that was no easy task. Jimmy mentioned something about getting old, but I did not allude to that fact(LOL). But we worked for that buck. And what a great time it was to share this adventure with my BEST FRIEND all the way here from South Carolina. My first arrow had taken the buck through the kidneys, but I thank the Lord that he went and layed down and we were able to recover him after much effort. It’s a time Jimmy and I will never forget, and we both agreed that this tops all of our hunting adventures that we have shared together over the 35 years we have hunted together. This is kind of long, but thanks for reading.
Here is the buck when we first got him up the bank onto the shore. You can see he is somewhat muddy, and you can also see where my first arrow took him through the kidney, and where the second arrow took him through the chest in front of the shoulder.
Topic: The Buck That Tried To Get Away, But Was Recovered With A Canoe (Read 1797 times)
