Every hunt has a story, this one i will remember the most for the rest of my life.
I am fortunate enough to be able to hunt with my best friend on a regular basis, although he got in to bow hunting a bit before i did, we were both determined to harvest with a bow this year, well, we both did that. 3 weeks ago we went out and antonlsu was able to lock down on a doe and get a good harvest, i was not as lucky.
This past weekend we were able to get down to the ranch for the last weekend of bow hunting before rifle opened up and this is the story.
Friday 10-26-18 what a heck of a day.
I was in my stand for the evening hunt, at around 17:30 1 of 2 target bucks walks up named "hightower", he is right under me about 10 yards out just smelling around and catching the VS-1 scent i had put out, he's just out of reach due to the fact that he is right behind a brush pile and cant get a clear shot off at him. He was my buddies target buck and as much as i wanted to harvest him i had to pass. i knew my buck wouldn't be too far behind him. Sure enough, just an hour later "Crook" comes out, following the same path that hightower just took. im patiently waiting for him to take 3 more steps to where he is in an opening and perfectly broadside, finally it happens, heart racing, blood pumping, he presents me with the perfect shot. he has his head lowered and im completely out of sight, i raise my bow draw back, take time to aim and WHACK!!!!!!!!! the next thing i knew, my arrow was flying through the air i can see my knock flashing red and blue as it disappears in the distance and of course "Crook" is hauling *** away. I HAD NEVER FELT SO SICK!!! I look at my bow and see my string just dangling as the cam is winding down. The anger and frustration was unbelievable. At that moment i was sure that my hunt was over. when i made it back to camp, we caught up with the Neighbor at the ranch next door i told him what had happened and he got me in contact with Brush to Bay Outfitters. I decided then that i would head out the following morning from Victoria to Hallettsville and see what they could do with my bow, at this point i was prepared to buy a new bow just to be able to hunt that evening, i was hooked!
10-27 7:30am, I was headed to hallettsville when my buddy called saying he got a buck.(first buck with a bow) i was so stoked for him. turned around and met him at camp, picked up the deer, got him dressed, quartered, and in the cooler. we went ahead and headed back up to halletsville to Brush to Bay Outfitters and Tim over there was able to get me squared away in 10 minutes, he said that he had at least a dozen bows brought in this year from de-railing. I was so stoked that i was going to be able to hunt that evening, Tim was very helpful and got me up and going in no time!
We made it back to the ranch in time to put a few more arrows in the target to make sure my bow is still sighted in and headed back to the stands for the evening hunt. Before heading to the stand i clarified with my buddy that hightower was good to go since he got his shooter buck that morning. we headed off to the stands for the evening hunt. Sitting there just after 17:00 i had a young 6pt walk up checking out the grounds and constantly looking over his shoulder, i was not able to see what he was looking at, sure enough another young buck came walking in to the clearing, this one was another youngin 7pt. im sitting there watching them cruise the area for about 30 minutes when i look back over my left shoulder i see hightower on the far side of the field about 70yards away. Knowing that he is open for the taking, again my heard starts beating a million miles an hour as im cautiously watching him making his rounds in the clearing being still as I possibly can because I have a 7pt sitting right under me and I don’t want him to spook and run the other deer off. Hightower finally starts circling back towards me pushing the younger buck away. he gets within shooting distance and stops, looks directly at me and stays there for about 5 minutes only dropping his head for 5 seconds at a time and looking at me again. Once he was comfortable he starts continuing on his path towards me. he gets to a spot where there is a tree between us and i am able to raise my bow, just needing him to take 2 more steps to be in the perfect position showing me his left shoulder. finally he does, he takes two steps out, drops his head and i am halfway through raising and drawing my bow back WHEN HE STOPS AND STARES AT ME FOR A MINUTE AN A HALF!!!! My arms are burning heart racing, i wasnt sure that i was going to be able to hold it at half pull! he dropped his head and i let it fly! CRACK!!!!!!!!!! he hunkered down and tore off! i knew it was a solid shot! i see him run off about 60 yards with my arrow glowing along the way until it drops out. once he and the other bucks were gone i got down out of the stand and went to check the shot location to see if there was blood before heading back to camp and waiting to track him.
When i got to the point of the shot i found half of my arrow with the boradhead not deployed. I was in awe. At this point I had no idea what was going on and could only think of the worst. The night was upon us so I headed in an snagged my buddy on the way in, we went back up to camp and cooked up some steaks and had a couple coldypops to pass the time until we went out to look for my buck. The neighbor met us up top and offered an extra set of eyes to help finding the blood trail, I couldn’t turn down extra eyes at night.
A couple hours later we head down to the spot of the shot and other than the broken arrow, we don’t see signs of anything, not blood at all. We head down to where the arrow came out about 60 yards away, and once we come upon the arrow I notice that the broadhead had deployed and that it had blood all the way to the fletching, this telling me that it was a solid hit. (much to my relief this meant that the arrow I found at the shot point was from when my bow derailed the night before).
We start circling around and around to find one drop of blood on one blade of grass, reference back to the arrow and take that course, all in all the blood trail lasted another 80 yards until we found him laid up at the base of some tobacco weeds, I couldn’t be more excited that I got my first buck with a bow, had good friends who helped to see it through, and the help of Brush to Bay Outfitters getting me back in the stand.
I am fortunate enough to be able to hunt with my best friend on a regular basis, although he got in to bow hunting a bit before i did, we were both determined to harvest with a bow this year, well, we both did that. 3 weeks ago we went out and antonlsu was able to lock down on a doe and get a good harvest, i was not as lucky.
This past weekend we were able to get down to the ranch for the last weekend of bow hunting before rifle opened up and this is the story.
Friday 10-26-18 what a heck of a day.
I was in my stand for the evening hunt, at around 17:30 1 of 2 target bucks walks up named "hightower", he is right under me about 10 yards out just smelling around and catching the VS-1 scent i had put out, he's just out of reach due to the fact that he is right behind a brush pile and cant get a clear shot off at him. He was my buddies target buck and as much as i wanted to harvest him i had to pass. i knew my buck wouldn't be too far behind him. Sure enough, just an hour later "Crook" comes out, following the same path that hightower just took. im patiently waiting for him to take 3 more steps to where he is in an opening and perfectly broadside, finally it happens, heart racing, blood pumping, he presents me with the perfect shot. he has his head lowered and im completely out of sight, i raise my bow draw back, take time to aim and WHACK!!!!!!!!! the next thing i knew, my arrow was flying through the air i can see my knock flashing red and blue as it disappears in the distance and of course "Crook" is hauling *** away. I HAD NEVER FELT SO SICK!!! I look at my bow and see my string just dangling as the cam is winding down. The anger and frustration was unbelievable. At that moment i was sure that my hunt was over. when i made it back to camp, we caught up with the Neighbor at the ranch next door i told him what had happened and he got me in contact with Brush to Bay Outfitters. I decided then that i would head out the following morning from Victoria to Hallettsville and see what they could do with my bow, at this point i was prepared to buy a new bow just to be able to hunt that evening, i was hooked!
10-27 7:30am, I was headed to hallettsville when my buddy called saying he got a buck.(first buck with a bow) i was so stoked for him. turned around and met him at camp, picked up the deer, got him dressed, quartered, and in the cooler. we went ahead and headed back up to halletsville to Brush to Bay Outfitters and Tim over there was able to get me squared away in 10 minutes, he said that he had at least a dozen bows brought in this year from de-railing. I was so stoked that i was going to be able to hunt that evening, Tim was very helpful and got me up and going in no time!
We made it back to the ranch in time to put a few more arrows in the target to make sure my bow is still sighted in and headed back to the stands for the evening hunt. Before heading to the stand i clarified with my buddy that hightower was good to go since he got his shooter buck that morning. we headed off to the stands for the evening hunt. Sitting there just after 17:00 i had a young 6pt walk up checking out the grounds and constantly looking over his shoulder, i was not able to see what he was looking at, sure enough another young buck came walking in to the clearing, this one was another youngin 7pt. im sitting there watching them cruise the area for about 30 minutes when i look back over my left shoulder i see hightower on the far side of the field about 70yards away. Knowing that he is open for the taking, again my heard starts beating a million miles an hour as im cautiously watching him making his rounds in the clearing being still as I possibly can because I have a 7pt sitting right under me and I don’t want him to spook and run the other deer off. Hightower finally starts circling back towards me pushing the younger buck away. he gets within shooting distance and stops, looks directly at me and stays there for about 5 minutes only dropping his head for 5 seconds at a time and looking at me again. Once he was comfortable he starts continuing on his path towards me. he gets to a spot where there is a tree between us and i am able to raise my bow, just needing him to take 2 more steps to be in the perfect position showing me his left shoulder. finally he does, he takes two steps out, drops his head and i am halfway through raising and drawing my bow back WHEN HE STOPS AND STARES AT ME FOR A MINUTE AN A HALF!!!! My arms are burning heart racing, i wasnt sure that i was going to be able to hold it at half pull! he dropped his head and i let it fly! CRACK!!!!!!!!!! he hunkered down and tore off! i knew it was a solid shot! i see him run off about 60 yards with my arrow glowing along the way until it drops out. once he and the other bucks were gone i got down out of the stand and went to check the shot location to see if there was blood before heading back to camp and waiting to track him.
When i got to the point of the shot i found half of my arrow with the boradhead not deployed. I was in awe. At this point I had no idea what was going on and could only think of the worst. The night was upon us so I headed in an snagged my buddy on the way in, we went back up to camp and cooked up some steaks and had a couple coldypops to pass the time until we went out to look for my buck. The neighbor met us up top and offered an extra set of eyes to help finding the blood trail, I couldn’t turn down extra eyes at night.
A couple hours later we head down to the spot of the shot and other than the broken arrow, we don’t see signs of anything, not blood at all. We head down to where the arrow came out about 60 yards away, and once we come upon the arrow I notice that the broadhead had deployed and that it had blood all the way to the fletching, this telling me that it was a solid hit. (much to my relief this meant that the arrow I found at the shot point was from when my bow derailed the night before).
We start circling around and around to find one drop of blood on one blade of grass, reference back to the arrow and take that course, all in all the blood trail lasted another 80 yards until we found him laid up at the base of some tobacco weeds, I couldn’t be more excited that I got my first buck with a bow, had good friends who helped to see it through, and the help of Brush to Bay Outfitters getting me back in the stand.
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