I've had a very frustrating deer season so far. The deer either scented me or saw me or were at the locations I was not. Plus the biggest frustration was on our little 60 acres, the neighbor's cattle were coming over 2 times per week and the neighbors were walking around the place looking for their cattle (with my permission of course). That blew out all of the mature deer for October and the first week of November. Keep in mind, too, that the cattle were crossing someone else's property to get to mine. The neighbor finally got that fixed and the deer quickly returned. Bad luck this season has continued to hound me. I shot a doe a few weeks ago but made a horrible shot and never found her. I shot a big pig but didn't kill him. I missed more animals than I care to remember. But, at least I got to see animals and I got to hunt.
On Saturday evening I sat in my tripod in the rain, hoping to catch up to a nice 10 pointer. The deer had moved all day and I was feeling pretty good about sitting in the rain. My tripod sits 28 yards off the NE corner of the food plot, which is planted in oats. To the north, my right, is typically where the deer enter and leave the area and it is a brushy section. The the south, my left, if the 1.5 acre food plot and then the dense bedding area and the place were all the critters go when it is really hot because that spot is nice and cool in the thick tree cover and wet soft ground.
This is my view. (Please don't worry about the white pole holding my camera. It is camo now.)
Now let's see here... where was I... oh yeah, so I sat in the rain hoping it would stop at 5 like the weather man said it would. He was wrong again. It rained all night. But, the does arrived but just before dark and before the bucks came, pigs came in and everything left. There is a story in this, but lets skip that part. I shot a pig, she ran off. I climbed down but soon realized my head lamp was at less than 50% power and with the rain and wet leaves the flashback on the light only allowed me to see 5 feet. Dejected, down by one arrow, I went home.
I had planned to go to church on Sunday, but now after failing I was more determined to go hunting for a nice buck. Lord forgive me and I promise I'll be at your house next Sunday.
I got up at 4 got ready with anticipation of getting to the stand by 5:15. But I forgot to start the coffee. It was cold and wet outside and there was no way I was going to the field without something hot to drink. So I arrived at my stand 20 minutes later than I wanted to. I checked my Covert. The 10 pointer was there as I walked in and I blew him out. Saddened, I decided to sit in the tripod anyway.
Sometime later, I checked my phone for the time and a deer snorted and lit out. Dad gum it! As daylight arrived around 645, I didn't see anything. It was quiet until 730. Then a button buck and 2 8's arrived. One 8 I call Short and Stubby. He's 13-14" wide, heavy, heavy beams but short tines. Really short. He's about 4-5 years old. The other 8 had width and height, but was pencil sized. He was 3 years old. Desperate for venison I decided to shoot whichever one came to my hand corn. They drifted around the plot and slowly to my left, behind the tree cover where I could not see them. Then a 4 point came into my hand corn. He kept looking to my left and I had assumed it was those 2 8's.
Then, a big deer appeared at the corn. An 8. But not the 2 8's that were in the food plot. The more I looked at him, the more I said, "that's a real nice deer. Dad gum, that's a really nice deer." And, he's mature but more than likely only a 4-5 year old. I didn't care. I made the decision to take him.
I picked up my bow slowly. He caught me and ran. After one failed attempt, I thought I missed my opportunity. But the 4 point came back to the corn and the rest of the bucks never even picked up their heads. The big one came back! He was looking at all of the other bucks as if to say, "Did anyone see that? I could have sworn I saw something move. Anyone?" He walked slowly over to the hand corn again.
I finally got an opportunity to draw my bow when he was at 20 yards and all of the bucks looked straight away to the SW. Must have been pigs. He brought his head back around and at a 20 degree quartering away, I sent my arrow express mode to him. It found the spot I was aiming at and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. I knew there was no way that shot broke his back or shoulder so I quickly nocked another arrow and waited for him to get up while I was half drawn. He picked up his head and tried to get up. Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep. I watched his breathing until it stopped.
OH MY GOSH! That's a nice buck!
You see his leg is still stiff? Yeah, he was still alive. But not for long. I watched carefully and used my binos to make sure he wasn't breathing. The leg finally went down.
I texted the besties and climbed down, careful to make sure he really was dead. I kicked him in the butt. Then walked around to the front.
I put my tag on him and went to get the Jeepster with the trailer. I brought Cowboy with me. I let Cowboy out about 120 yards away and said, "Find it!" he ran like a banshee to the buzzards who were now on my buck. I tried really hard to load the buck into the trailer and he fell out, landing just like this. There's no way I was not going to take this picture!
Now why did he drop so quickly? Beats me. I skinned him and saw this.
The arrow broke 2 ribs and cut about 2 inches of his liver. That's it. Absolutely nothing else was damaged. Lungs, heart, guts were all perfect. Sometimes, I really do just get lucky.
On Saturday evening I sat in my tripod in the rain, hoping to catch up to a nice 10 pointer. The deer had moved all day and I was feeling pretty good about sitting in the rain. My tripod sits 28 yards off the NE corner of the food plot, which is planted in oats. To the north, my right, is typically where the deer enter and leave the area and it is a brushy section. The the south, my left, if the 1.5 acre food plot and then the dense bedding area and the place were all the critters go when it is really hot because that spot is nice and cool in the thick tree cover and wet soft ground.
This is my view. (Please don't worry about the white pole holding my camera. It is camo now.)
Now let's see here... where was I... oh yeah, so I sat in the rain hoping it would stop at 5 like the weather man said it would. He was wrong again. It rained all night. But, the does arrived but just before dark and before the bucks came, pigs came in and everything left. There is a story in this, but lets skip that part. I shot a pig, she ran off. I climbed down but soon realized my head lamp was at less than 50% power and with the rain and wet leaves the flashback on the light only allowed me to see 5 feet. Dejected, down by one arrow, I went home.
I had planned to go to church on Sunday, but now after failing I was more determined to go hunting for a nice buck. Lord forgive me and I promise I'll be at your house next Sunday.
I got up at 4 got ready with anticipation of getting to the stand by 5:15. But I forgot to start the coffee. It was cold and wet outside and there was no way I was going to the field without something hot to drink. So I arrived at my stand 20 minutes later than I wanted to. I checked my Covert. The 10 pointer was there as I walked in and I blew him out. Saddened, I decided to sit in the tripod anyway.
Sometime later, I checked my phone for the time and a deer snorted and lit out. Dad gum it! As daylight arrived around 645, I didn't see anything. It was quiet until 730. Then a button buck and 2 8's arrived. One 8 I call Short and Stubby. He's 13-14" wide, heavy, heavy beams but short tines. Really short. He's about 4-5 years old. The other 8 had width and height, but was pencil sized. He was 3 years old. Desperate for venison I decided to shoot whichever one came to my hand corn. They drifted around the plot and slowly to my left, behind the tree cover where I could not see them. Then a 4 point came into my hand corn. He kept looking to my left and I had assumed it was those 2 8's.
Then, a big deer appeared at the corn. An 8. But not the 2 8's that were in the food plot. The more I looked at him, the more I said, "that's a real nice deer. Dad gum, that's a really nice deer." And, he's mature but more than likely only a 4-5 year old. I didn't care. I made the decision to take him.
I picked up my bow slowly. He caught me and ran. After one failed attempt, I thought I missed my opportunity. But the 4 point came back to the corn and the rest of the bucks never even picked up their heads. The big one came back! He was looking at all of the other bucks as if to say, "Did anyone see that? I could have sworn I saw something move. Anyone?" He walked slowly over to the hand corn again.
I finally got an opportunity to draw my bow when he was at 20 yards and all of the bucks looked straight away to the SW. Must have been pigs. He brought his head back around and at a 20 degree quartering away, I sent my arrow express mode to him. It found the spot I was aiming at and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. I knew there was no way that shot broke his back or shoulder so I quickly nocked another arrow and waited for him to get up while I was half drawn. He picked up his head and tried to get up. Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep. I watched his breathing until it stopped.
OH MY GOSH! That's a nice buck!
You see his leg is still stiff? Yeah, he was still alive. But not for long. I watched carefully and used my binos to make sure he wasn't breathing. The leg finally went down.
I texted the besties and climbed down, careful to make sure he really was dead. I kicked him in the butt. Then walked around to the front.
I put my tag on him and went to get the Jeepster with the trailer. I brought Cowboy with me. I let Cowboy out about 120 yards away and said, "Find it!" he ran like a banshee to the buzzards who were now on my buck. I tried really hard to load the buck into the trailer and he fell out, landing just like this. There's no way I was not going to take this picture!
Now why did he drop so quickly? Beats me. I skinned him and saw this.
The arrow broke 2 ribs and cut about 2 inches of his liver. That's it. Absolutely nothing else was damaged. Lungs, heart, guts were all perfect. Sometimes, I really do just get lucky.
Better lucky than good any day of the week! Congrats! And thanks for taking the time to share your story.
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