Long read but a long time coming:
My wife and I purchased our land in December of 2010 with plans to build a home and farm. Many of you followed along with our farm house build and barn build. I’ve been working hard at creating a habitat appealing to the deer in our area since then. We dealt a lot with predator pressure making deer sightings minimal. Predator management, planting food plots and letting the few small deer that we did see, live on, finally paid off. Having a great relationship with our neighbors plays a big role as well. Everything fell into place recently!
Cold and drizzling out, I rolled myself out of bed and made my way to the stand before daylight. I had found a crossing that seemed to be utilized quite a bit and had a nice oak tree with good cover. I had placed my tripod in the crop of the tree intersecting a 3-way point. I’m sitting in the same tripod that I purchased in high school, back in 1997, which I shot my first bow buck out of. Just after 8:00 my wife text to see how I was doing? “Hadn’t seen a thing but it all looks perfect for something to come out,” I responded. I swapped my phone for my grunt tube and gave 3 good loud grunts and placed it back in my bag. I figured why not, couldn’t hurt. The oak tree created a blind spot hard to my left and as I leaned forward a bit, it was like he appeared out of thin air, 15 yards to my hard left and walking straight at the crossing. I grabbed my bow from the hook as he passed behind one tree, came to full draw as he passed behind a 2nd and short grunted him to a stop in my shooting lane. I let it fly! 12 yards to the crossing, he turned and ran with the arrow sticking out of his right side just behind the shoulder. Just as fast as he appeared, he seemed to disappear!
I text my wife “Babe!! I just shot a buck! I hit him in a good spot I think. The arrow was sticking out of him when he ran off though!!! I don’t know if it was a good enough shot or not????? “
I gave him a little while and climbed down to see if I could find blood. The ground was wet from the drizzle and I was afraid any blood trail would be lost quick. I found the broken arrow with a few drops of blood. I remembered a trick I had read about once and placed pieces of toilet paper stuck in the ground with a stick at any drops I located. I followed the trail about 100 yards and lost all track of blood. I looked back and could see a straight line of toilet paper markers behind me. I continued on that line with no blood anywhere. I called my neighbor for permission to cross the fence and continue looking for him. The paper markers led straight to a trail that ran parallel with the creek. Just after crossing through a ravine and topping the other side I could see white belly up ahead!! Heck yeah!! There he is!! I let my wife know I had found him and by that time she had made it halfway down to the bottom with my daughter, two dogs and cat in tow! They had come to help me look and were so excited to see that I had located him. The patience, hours of sitting in the stand, filling feeders, planting, and not to mention the enjoyment of owning our own little piece of paradise allowed me to be able to harvest an awesome buck!! I am so thankful to be able to do so many things I enjoy and for my family being right there in the middle of it all!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My wife and I purchased our land in December of 2010 with plans to build a home and farm. Many of you followed along with our farm house build and barn build. I’ve been working hard at creating a habitat appealing to the deer in our area since then. We dealt a lot with predator pressure making deer sightings minimal. Predator management, planting food plots and letting the few small deer that we did see, live on, finally paid off. Having a great relationship with our neighbors plays a big role as well. Everything fell into place recently!
Cold and drizzling out, I rolled myself out of bed and made my way to the stand before daylight. I had found a crossing that seemed to be utilized quite a bit and had a nice oak tree with good cover. I had placed my tripod in the crop of the tree intersecting a 3-way point. I’m sitting in the same tripod that I purchased in high school, back in 1997, which I shot my first bow buck out of. Just after 8:00 my wife text to see how I was doing? “Hadn’t seen a thing but it all looks perfect for something to come out,” I responded. I swapped my phone for my grunt tube and gave 3 good loud grunts and placed it back in my bag. I figured why not, couldn’t hurt. The oak tree created a blind spot hard to my left and as I leaned forward a bit, it was like he appeared out of thin air, 15 yards to my hard left and walking straight at the crossing. I grabbed my bow from the hook as he passed behind one tree, came to full draw as he passed behind a 2nd and short grunted him to a stop in my shooting lane. I let it fly! 12 yards to the crossing, he turned and ran with the arrow sticking out of his right side just behind the shoulder. Just as fast as he appeared, he seemed to disappear!
I text my wife “Babe!! I just shot a buck! I hit him in a good spot I think. The arrow was sticking out of him when he ran off though!!! I don’t know if it was a good enough shot or not????? “
I gave him a little while and climbed down to see if I could find blood. The ground was wet from the drizzle and I was afraid any blood trail would be lost quick. I found the broken arrow with a few drops of blood. I remembered a trick I had read about once and placed pieces of toilet paper stuck in the ground with a stick at any drops I located. I followed the trail about 100 yards and lost all track of blood. I looked back and could see a straight line of toilet paper markers behind me. I continued on that line with no blood anywhere. I called my neighbor for permission to cross the fence and continue looking for him. The paper markers led straight to a trail that ran parallel with the creek. Just after crossing through a ravine and topping the other side I could see white belly up ahead!! Heck yeah!! There he is!! I let my wife know I had found him and by that time she had made it halfway down to the bottom with my daughter, two dogs and cat in tow! They had come to help me look and were so excited to see that I had located him. The patience, hours of sitting in the stand, filling feeders, planting, and not to mention the enjoyment of owning our own little piece of paradise allowed me to be able to harvest an awesome buck!! I am so thankful to be able to do so many things I enjoy and for my family being right there in the middle of it all!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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