Shot my PB(again) the day after Christmas this year!
By again, I mean I shot this buck last year the last morning of bow season. I thought I smoked him, watched him trot out to about 60 yards, get wobbly legged and lay down. He laid his head down, then after a minute or so he just got up and walked off like nothing happened. Arrow wasn’t as promising as I hoped...looked like barely nicked lung, liver, and some paunch. I backed out till after lunch, came back, and jumped him about 150 yards from where he walked into the cedars. I assumed I’d never see him again and he would end up being coyote bait.
Last year two days before I shot him.
Arrow after the shot.
To my surprise he showed back up a couple weeks later, but never had a day picture of him until late December. He looked like he was in pretty good shape considering he had an arrow run through him.
Fast forward to this summer and I didn’t have a picture of any mature bucks, much less the Ghost Buck until September. And dang if he didn’t show back up.
He’d show for a day or two every few weeks, but there was no consistency to him this year. I laid eyes on him one morning leaving my little place about a mile as the crow flys on someone’s driveway right before Thanksgiving, so I knew he was at least alive. I went hunting on a buddy’s place at the beginning of Dec and dang if he didn’t visit 3 days or so in a row, even in the evenings...I never had a picture of him in the evenings before.
My camera batteries got low enough that right after these pictures, it wasn’t taking pictures in the mornings until the sun warmed it back up, so for 3 weeks I had no idea what had been there at the morning spin. I decided to go sit the morning after Christmas mostly as an observation sit with the muzzleloader. Had some deer on the hand corn before daylight, but couldn’t make anything out. Protein feeder spun and deer left the hand corn and went to the feeder...still a hair dark to make out what was what. I was watching the feeder for a few minutes, panned the binos back to the road, and he was standing there looking at me. No question what buck it was. I put my binos down, eased up the smokepole, and looked through the scope. Nerves kicked in, took a few deep breaths, looked back through the scope and he was nice and broadside. Settled the crosshairs for a shoulder shot, touched it off, and got smoked out. Smoke cleared and he was gone. My stomach dropped a bit since I purposefully tried to shoot him in the shoulder. I knew he didn’t run right or left, but couldn’t see straight away from me after the shot. I waited 15-20 minutes and eased over to the shot. No blood, no hair, no nothing. My heart sank thinking I had botched this two years in a row. I figured I’d ease down the main trail that would have been straight away from me in the cedars. After 25 yards, still no blood. Made it another 10 and knelt down to glass through the cedars. No white belly anywhere. Happened to look between my knees and found three pin drops of blood. I was sure I screwed this up at this point. I crawled about 5 yards and found another pin drop and scanned with the glass again. Nothing. Hung my head, and just happened to look over my left shoulder behind a big clump of roots and there he was.
Turns out he was quartered away just slightly, so bullet nicked backside of near shoulder and front side of far shoulder. Missed the off switch literally by a hair.
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By again, I mean I shot this buck last year the last morning of bow season. I thought I smoked him, watched him trot out to about 60 yards, get wobbly legged and lay down. He laid his head down, then after a minute or so he just got up and walked off like nothing happened. Arrow wasn’t as promising as I hoped...looked like barely nicked lung, liver, and some paunch. I backed out till after lunch, came back, and jumped him about 150 yards from where he walked into the cedars. I assumed I’d never see him again and he would end up being coyote bait.
Last year two days before I shot him.
Arrow after the shot.
To my surprise he showed back up a couple weeks later, but never had a day picture of him until late December. He looked like he was in pretty good shape considering he had an arrow run through him.
Fast forward to this summer and I didn’t have a picture of any mature bucks, much less the Ghost Buck until September. And dang if he didn’t show back up.
He’d show for a day or two every few weeks, but there was no consistency to him this year. I laid eyes on him one morning leaving my little place about a mile as the crow flys on someone’s driveway right before Thanksgiving, so I knew he was at least alive. I went hunting on a buddy’s place at the beginning of Dec and dang if he didn’t visit 3 days or so in a row, even in the evenings...I never had a picture of him in the evenings before.
My camera batteries got low enough that right after these pictures, it wasn’t taking pictures in the mornings until the sun warmed it back up, so for 3 weeks I had no idea what had been there at the morning spin. I decided to go sit the morning after Christmas mostly as an observation sit with the muzzleloader. Had some deer on the hand corn before daylight, but couldn’t make anything out. Protein feeder spun and deer left the hand corn and went to the feeder...still a hair dark to make out what was what. I was watching the feeder for a few minutes, panned the binos back to the road, and he was standing there looking at me. No question what buck it was. I put my binos down, eased up the smokepole, and looked through the scope. Nerves kicked in, took a few deep breaths, looked back through the scope and he was nice and broadside. Settled the crosshairs for a shoulder shot, touched it off, and got smoked out. Smoke cleared and he was gone. My stomach dropped a bit since I purposefully tried to shoot him in the shoulder. I knew he didn’t run right or left, but couldn’t see straight away from me after the shot. I waited 15-20 minutes and eased over to the shot. No blood, no hair, no nothing. My heart sank thinking I had botched this two years in a row. I figured I’d ease down the main trail that would have been straight away from me in the cedars. After 25 yards, still no blood. Made it another 10 and knelt down to glass through the cedars. No white belly anywhere. Happened to look between my knees and found three pin drops of blood. I was sure I screwed this up at this point. I crawled about 5 yards and found another pin drop and scanned with the glass again. Nothing. Hung my head, and just happened to look over my left shoulder behind a big clump of roots and there he was.
Turns out he was quartered away just slightly, so bullet nicked backside of near shoulder and front side of far shoulder. Missed the off switch literally by a hair.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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