I’m not going to lie, seeing all of these nice bucks hitting the ground around here lately has had me fired up to get in the stand. Problem is, outside of opening weekend’s 98 degree surprise and the almost non-existent deer movement that came with it, I haven’t had a chance to get back out. Just like the weather, that had to change! We had another long range match on Saturday to interfere with our hunting schedule, but a better plan in place this time. We took all of our stuff with us to the match and headed North the minute it was over.
It gets pretty hard to kill a doe on our place once the pre-rut gets going, so the plan was to get a couple of them knocked out for the freezer early and let the cards fall where they may on the bucks. We really hadn’t seen anything on camera yet that demanded a hard-core plan of attack anyway.
I slipped into the stand early Sunday evening enjoying the awesome cool weather and wondering about how long it was going to take to introduce one of the local girls to a brand new broadhead. I had just been settled in for about 20 minutes when I noticed some movement about 150 yards to the North in some heavy brush. It looked like a deep bodied deer, but I could only see bits and pieces. I finally caught a glimpse of a couple of tines as it dropped into a depression about 120 yards out. My heart rate changed fairly abruptly at that point! So much for my grocery shopping plan!
All I could tell for sure was that I had a pretty good mature buck headed mostly in my direction. I got my stuff together quickly- just in case- while he was still down in the low spot. I didn’t even have my release strapped on yet! Haha.
The next 20 minutes went by agonizingly SLOW. I watched as he tended four different scrapes, working closer to my set up with each one…….and taking his sweet time at each scrape. I swear it sounded like he was tearing every limb off each tree he came to. I finally realized that if he continued on his current route he would pass to my West without ever giving me a shot. And with his current attitude and the feeder still being an hour from going off, he obviously wasn’t here for any of that nonsense!
I did remember that each year before there has been a scrape just to the NE of this setup. IF it was there again this year, and IF he wanted to tend it, it would take him from his current location directly in front of me. Plus the panels for my feed pen would act as a funnel to push him even closer to my blind, EXACTLY how it had played out on the buck I killed here last year. As soon as the thought crossed my mind he left the scrape he was on and headed right where I needed him to go. It was now go time! He would be passing 8 yards in front of me at eye-level and I had to figure out how to get drawn and get him stopped in the small window of opportunity that I had in front of me.
He got a little farther than I wanted before he paused and turned his head away…… and I’m pretty sure I almost yanked the string off my bow trying to get drawn quickly in that moment. He had heard something and immediately looked right at me, but I had already hit my anchor and had the pin settling in. I didn’t waste a second and sent the arrow on its way quartering through him.
He trotted off a little ways then stopped. He didn’t act like a deer that had been hit hard at all. He looked pretty wobbly on his feet, but wouldn’t go down. He finally walked slowly over the hill and out of sight. The next hour seemed like an eternity. The feeder went off and I was covered up with does, but was too worried about what I saw with the buck to even attempt shooting one. I finally got out of the stand with a little light left to assess the scene. Arrow was covered in good blood and no gut smell.
The blood trail was non-existent until I got to where he was standing. Found a large pool and then nothing for 20 yards. Then it opened up like nothing I’ve ever seen for 10 yards, then quit again? I followed little specs and just tracks in the sand for about 150 yards with a lot of doubt building. I finally ran out of any sign at all on top of a brush covered sand hill. As I set there trying to sort out my next move, I saw a white patch in a thick cedar clump to my left. It was him, and it looked like he had been there a while. Tough deer!
I’ve been wanting a 140” 8 pt with my bow for a long time now. I haven’t measured him yet, but I’m betting his weak brow tines take him out of the running for that. It will be close. I honestly don’t care too much about that. I’m just happy I had the opportunity to be back in the blind and the chance to take a great deer. I should go doe hunting more often!
It gets pretty hard to kill a doe on our place once the pre-rut gets going, so the plan was to get a couple of them knocked out for the freezer early and let the cards fall where they may on the bucks. We really hadn’t seen anything on camera yet that demanded a hard-core plan of attack anyway.
I slipped into the stand early Sunday evening enjoying the awesome cool weather and wondering about how long it was going to take to introduce one of the local girls to a brand new broadhead. I had just been settled in for about 20 minutes when I noticed some movement about 150 yards to the North in some heavy brush. It looked like a deep bodied deer, but I could only see bits and pieces. I finally caught a glimpse of a couple of tines as it dropped into a depression about 120 yards out. My heart rate changed fairly abruptly at that point! So much for my grocery shopping plan!
All I could tell for sure was that I had a pretty good mature buck headed mostly in my direction. I got my stuff together quickly- just in case- while he was still down in the low spot. I didn’t even have my release strapped on yet! Haha.
The next 20 minutes went by agonizingly SLOW. I watched as he tended four different scrapes, working closer to my set up with each one…….and taking his sweet time at each scrape. I swear it sounded like he was tearing every limb off each tree he came to. I finally realized that if he continued on his current route he would pass to my West without ever giving me a shot. And with his current attitude and the feeder still being an hour from going off, he obviously wasn’t here for any of that nonsense!
I did remember that each year before there has been a scrape just to the NE of this setup. IF it was there again this year, and IF he wanted to tend it, it would take him from his current location directly in front of me. Plus the panels for my feed pen would act as a funnel to push him even closer to my blind, EXACTLY how it had played out on the buck I killed here last year. As soon as the thought crossed my mind he left the scrape he was on and headed right where I needed him to go. It was now go time! He would be passing 8 yards in front of me at eye-level and I had to figure out how to get drawn and get him stopped in the small window of opportunity that I had in front of me.
He got a little farther than I wanted before he paused and turned his head away…… and I’m pretty sure I almost yanked the string off my bow trying to get drawn quickly in that moment. He had heard something and immediately looked right at me, but I had already hit my anchor and had the pin settling in. I didn’t waste a second and sent the arrow on its way quartering through him.
He trotted off a little ways then stopped. He didn’t act like a deer that had been hit hard at all. He looked pretty wobbly on his feet, but wouldn’t go down. He finally walked slowly over the hill and out of sight. The next hour seemed like an eternity. The feeder went off and I was covered up with does, but was too worried about what I saw with the buck to even attempt shooting one. I finally got out of the stand with a little light left to assess the scene. Arrow was covered in good blood and no gut smell.
The blood trail was non-existent until I got to where he was standing. Found a large pool and then nothing for 20 yards. Then it opened up like nothing I’ve ever seen for 10 yards, then quit again? I followed little specs and just tracks in the sand for about 150 yards with a lot of doubt building. I finally ran out of any sign at all on top of a brush covered sand hill. As I set there trying to sort out my next move, I saw a white patch in a thick cedar clump to my left. It was him, and it looked like he had been there a while. Tough deer!
I’ve been wanting a 140” 8 pt with my bow for a long time now. I haven’t measured him yet, but I’m betting his weak brow tines take him out of the running for that. It will be close. I honestly don’t care too much about that. I’m just happy I had the opportunity to be back in the blind and the chance to take a great deer. I should go doe hunting more often!
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