Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Medicineman's 2017 season as live as possible

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    WAY TO GO SHILOH!!! Man that is one good looking animal, congrats.

    Comment


      Well, finally back to the real world and slowed down a bit before getting back after deer this weekend with the wife during our muzzleloader season opener.

      So the story of the red deer.... John dropped me off about 4:30 Saturday evening in a ground blind surrounded by a clump of cedars kinda in the middle of a small field. He strung out a line of corn out my two shooting windows so hopefully if they came through they'd stop long enough to give me a shot. We'd seen a group of bulls and hinds on that side of the ranch earlier in the day so I was hoping I'd get lucky and they'd show up. I had barely got my face mask on and looked up and spotted a couple young bulls headed my way. Not thinking much of them, I continued to get all my stuff settled into the blind and I looked back up and here comes another small group of bulls. I kicked it in gear grabbing everything I needed to get settled, only to look back up and see the group of cows heading my way followed by the herd bull! I got my arrow nocked and settled in waiting for them to come into range and hoped I could get a clear shot at the big bull. As it always seems to go, it was like he knew I was there and either stayed between the two lanes I could shoot thru, behind the cows, or would be perfectly clear but quartering straight towards me. After playing musical shooting windows a few times, trying to draw only for him to take off after a cow or one of the younger bulls, a big gust of wind blew thru spooking on of the younger bulls causing everything to clear out and into the thick timber around me. I was shocked and let down thinking I'd had him right there all that time and never got a shot at him. A little later, a few started to slowly reappear and make their way back out of the timber. Luckily, the cows fed back around and the big bull stayed right with them. After playing the same games we'd played a while earlier, the bull finally stepped into my shooting window in the clear at 17 yards. With his front leg forward and slightly quartered away, I picked a spot, drew back and let the arrow fly. The arrow struck perfect left to right, but was a bit higher than I'd have liked it to be, but in my mind was still a solid lung shot. That was at 6 o'clock. 6:45 John and Frank pulled up and we made our way into the timber where the bull had entered, and about 10 yards in started finding blood, followed by part of my arrow, and lots more blood. It was easy trailing with several big pools of foamy lung blood for the first 250 yards or so that led across a creek and up to the base of a steep hill in some tall timber. At this point we backed out to go get some dinner, give him a bit more time, and get our lights. We returned shortly after 8:00 and resumed trailing. At first the trail was great, then we got into some areas were the ground was loose, dark dirt that blood basically disappeared in. It was touch and go for a while, but we would always seem to pick the trail back up. The last long run of blood was super easy to follow as the bull had walked down a trail across the top of a big hill, then down the side, and back into the timber over a span of several hundred yards. The last pool of blood we found was the size of a football and after that nothing. We called it a night around 11:30 deciding to come back and search the thickets in the daylight.
      Overnight, a thunderstorm rolled in an left the ground saturated and standing in water washing all the blood away so basically we were left with nothing even a dog could follow. We grid searched every block of timber on the place the remainder of the day with no luck. I was heart broken, sick at my stomach, and stunned. With all the blood he'd lost the first couple hundred yards, I just knew he'd be dead at any point, but that wasn't the case and by late Sunday afternoon I'd chalked it up as a big loss. At about 4:15, we decided to go for a quick spin again around the last area we'd found blood the night before. Literally almost to the exact spot we had started the search at that morning, we rounded a corner out of a creek and John spotted a bull bedded in a big brush pile. I jumped out of the ranger and got my glasses on him and confirmed it was him!! He was still alive, but not in good shape at all buried deep into a pocket of shade. At that point, I elected to pull out the rifle to finish him off and put an end to an incredibly long day and long search by literally everyone on the ranch. Many prayers were answered and I was finally able to get ahold of my bull!

      Comment


        So did you check what the arrow actually hit internally?

        Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

        Comment




          Where we found my bull laid up.



          This is honestly my favorite picture from the whole trip. John was taking pics as I was wading thru the brush trying to look the bull over and I didn't know it. I guess sometimes the best ones come from the least expected moments.


          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

          Comment


            That's an awesome stag!! Congrats again and way to stay with it.

            Comment


              Fantastic harvests! Thanks for sharing your stories Medman.

              Comment


                Great job Shiloh.

                Comment


                  Congrats, brother!

                  Comment


                    Thanks everyone!


                    Originally posted by DRT View Post
                    So did you check what the arrow actually hit internally?

                    Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk
                    Just looking from the shot from an outside point of view, the shot looked perfectly fine, just a touch high, and I'd still look at it now and say high lung shot. When I gutted him, I pulled out everything basically one little section at a time to see what exactly was hit. From what we could tell, I hit the upper part of his left lung was hit, and due to him dropping down on me the arrow must have angled a bit upward since I was shooting from the ground. It also looked like his liver was roughed up pretty good as well, with the only conclusion coming from that being the broadhead continued to cut at him as he went half way across the country side after the arrow broke off.

                    Comment


                      That is a GREAT picture!

                      Comment


                        Heck of a fine Stag! Congrats man!

                        Comment


                          Congrats again brother

                          Comment


                            Thrilling account of that hunt and recovery. Tremendous stag! What a tough beast! And, yes, that photo really captures a sense of his enormity and your quiet respect for him.

                            Sent from my SM-J327V using Tapatalk

                            Comment


                              Congratulations Shiloh excellent !

                              Comment


                                Originally posted by jreyna920 View Post
                                Congrats again brother
                                Thanks again for all your help! I'd still be kicking rocks right now like Bisch if you hadn't spotted him in that brush pile!

                                Originally posted by R.Armendariz View Post
                                Congratulations Shiloh excellent !
                                Thanks sir! Thought about ya while I was roaming around down there wishing I'd have had some of those fajitas and tortillas you brought last year!

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X