It has been a very warm year for the rut out here in Pennsylvania, I shot my buck on Tuesday November 3ed, 74 degrees no wind calm conditions very quiet. One thing I would like to say is, because these bows are so quiet even though I missed the first shot at 25 yards, this buck came back and gave me another shot at 32 yards he gave me a second chance. Luck was on my side.
I sat in the morning in a beautiful oak forest but the acorns have already been on the ground for weeks now and most of that food source is now completely gone from the many animals that use this food to fatten up before the cold temperatures start eating away at their fat reserves. It seems the acorn crop has been very weak for the past five years in the up state Pennsylvania area, at least in our part of the state. I saw a young buck chasing a doe at first light it looked like the five point that I had seen on a couple different occasions. Then 15 minutes later a doe was sneaking past my stand at 40 yards heading for the thick stuff I suppose. It got quiet for about an hour and a half then I saw a small doe feeding on the far side of the ridge I was on. A couple minutes later a spike made his way past my stand so close I thought I could step on him. Then the heat started to rise and the deer stopped moving. From 6:45 until about 9:45 the deer were on the move once the temperature started to go up and above 50 the deer stopped moving. I sat and watched turkeys doing what turkeys do for a while, then I climbed down from my lone wolf and went back to camp it was well into the 70s now and I was soaked from the short walk back to camp.
I did some chores around camp and then I decided I did enough of that, and had to kick back and take it all in, being in hunting camp is hard on a man all alone. I was trying to come up with a plan for the evening hunt, I decided to hunt the oak ridge that I had seen this buck I called clubber two weeks before. Clubber came to me on this ridge after I found this great tree that was engulfed by a beach tree, I climbed this tree and was at my best shooting lanes at 12 to 14 feet up, Clubber came that evening and walked 3 yards under my stand, at first I thought he was a one horn 4 point, just on the right side. Then he turned and I thought his left horn was growing from out of his jaw, I pulled my binoculars up and It turns out his horn on the left side grew down the side of his head to his cheek and out into a round club like thing, “Clubber”. I wanted to hunt out further than that tree because the leaves have fallen and I knew I would be a sitting fat man in a tree to the deer from the direction the deer would be coming from.
After cleaning myself up and a nice hot shower, I was on my way out for the afternoon hunt. I found the tree I was looking for and climbed up for the rest of the day. Once I reached my best shooting position in my tree I started to screw my bow holder into the tree, something didn’t seem right, as I looked up I found out quick, In my haste I didn’t take notice but my tree was dead ,not good. So I climbed down very carefully as there was a widow maker right above me, not good at all. I got down and was looking for a new tree but could not find one that I liked with the wind direction and decided to try the other side of the property. A ¾ mile hike didn’t sound like a lot of fun in this heat, but that is exactly what I was going to do.
I move to a spot I saw a really nice buck while sitting there the previous year. I got there around 2:30 and settled in, it was very dry and I wanted to give the woods time to settle down from my approach. I may have given too much time because at 4:15 I woke from a deep sleep, it was so peaceful.
I awoke and was startled, not knowing where I was, and it took a long time just to be able to get my legs under me in my stand, once I was able to shake off my sleepiness I was back on my game. At 4:30 I looked behind me and saw a deer coming down from a clear cut field we have on our property. I lifted my Binoculars and knew instantly it was a nice buck and that I wanted this beautiful deer. He walks right down this gut from about 80 yards out to an overhanging branch, and then he started making a scrape. I know now that I most likely rush the first shot, I believe I would have had all kinds of time, but I also know how many times I've been regretful for not taking a shot when I first had the opportunity. I drew and my arrow was just over his shoulder, now I have seen deer drop and duck an arrow on video, and if he did I never saw any sign of that happening. He jumped out another 10 yards and his head was behind a tree. I knocked another arrow and grunted with my grunt tube, he looked in my direction and instantly started a half circle heading my way. He walked to my left very cautious, he was walking on a trail that would pass my stand in the open. The buck walked into an opening and I grunted with my mouth to stop him, I picked a spot drew my bow and the arrow was gone, instantly I knew it was a good shot. I only had one slight concern the arrow did not seem to penetrate very deep. It was starting to get dark and I wanted to get on his trail so I could use the last light, even though it was only 15 minutes or so, I needed to get on his trail, 99% of the time I would not have done this but because the temperature were not going to be cool enough to leave him over night, I wanted to find this deer. After hunting deer for a while It almost seems like you can tell when a deer has been fatally hit by the way they react after the shot. I was very confident the deer was down; I believed I could hear him fall after his short run just as he got out of sight. I walked over to the spot where he was standing when I shot him, I had a blood trail instantly. After tracking him for two hundred yards I found him lying on the trail, it looked like he was dead on the run and just fell over. After examining the shot and checking his organs I found I hit the top of his heart and found both of his lungs with the broad head, it could have been from the arrow still inside his chest moving as he ran, but there was a lot of blood. The arrow penetrated completely through and hit the far leg, that's why I didn't make a complete through shot.
Dave Windauer made this bow for my son Zack this last year as a surprise from me, I named the bow “the setting sun” after my bow, “the rising sun”, it’s a 62” Schafer Silvertip 48 lbs. at 27.5” this bow is smooth and shoots like a butterfly cannon.
My son Zack could not make the hunt with me because of his college classes, He was so happy when I told him I had broken his knew bow in for him.
Bruce Deaver
Topic: "The Setting Sun" (Read 1023 times)
