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When I awoke this morning, I knew it was going to be my
day. I was fully committed to sitting on the hard
metal seat until either I connected or the sun fell on the
evening hunt. As usual, I arrived at the stand well
before daylight. I was well layered against the cold
with warmup bottoms, blue jeans, Brush Country six pocket
pants, and a final layer of Brush Country bib
overalls! The only problem would be if nature
called!
I hoped that the deer would be moving earlier this
morning than they had the previous morning. Luckily,
shortly after daylight, a deer came in. It was one
of the young eights that I had seen yesterday.
The small six also came in. I got excited as two
of the deer I had seen yesterday morning were already
there! I hoped the ten would follow suit! I
spotted a buck coming in from my right. It appeared
to be a big, mature buck with heavy antlers. As he
drew closer, I could see that he only had two tines on his
left side, and three on his right, with no brow
tines. I studied him briefly, then decided he was a
classic cull buck, a heavy five pointer with no brow
tines.
If he presented a shot, I was going to take it,
especially while the big buck was not around. I felt
like it was early enough that I could take him and still
have a chance to see a bigger one later in the
morning. Just as I was getting ready to set up for
the shot, I spotted another deer moving in from my
left. It was a long tined ten pointer with a busted
G3. Click on the image below for a video clip.
(726k)
Once
again, had he been whole, I would have taken him in an
instant. Once again, however, I opted to let him
walk until next season. Then it seemed like someone
opened the gates and deer started coming from
everywhere! At one point, I had four does and six
bucks within 25 yards! That was going to make it
difficult should a big one come in! The good thing
is that all of the deer were either occupied with eating
or chasing each other. The five left after a doe,
and the broken tined ten didn't like it and cut him
off. As the ten disappeared into the brush, the five
elected to come back in. If he presented the shot, I
was going to take it, provided the ten didn't come back
in. Even though I wasn't going to shoot the broken
tined buck, there was no sense alerting him to my
position! Finally, everything was set. Four bucks
were feeding in front of me, but each had their head
behind cactus or brush. My only concern was two does
feeding 15 yards to my left, but they seemed occupied
fighting each other. I slowly began to draw back the
string, focused on the Epsilon arrow shaft sliding across
the Zero Effect rest. As I reached full draw, the
arrow had not fallen into the groove of the rest. I
tilted the bow just a bit and the arrow slid into
place. I was at full draw, with the five pointer
looking directly away from me at a deer across the
road. The five other deer had not noticed me and
were not alerted. I settled my 20 yard pin low on
the elbow and touched off the release. The Jak
Hammer tipped arrow slammed into the deer as he did a high
leg kick. I could see blood pumping out of both
sides as he ran into the brush! Click on image below
for a video clip. (1.1 megs) 
Ordinarily,
I wouldn't continue to hunt without first recovering the
downed deer. However, I knew without a doubt that
this buck would be easy to find. Reviewing the video
only confirmed my confidence. It didn't take long for
deer to start coming back in, first a little yearling
nubbing buck, followed by the goofy-horned seven pointer. 
Almost
exactly one hour after I shot the five pointer, at 9:35, I
spotted the shooter ten approaching from behind me and to
the right. My heart started pumping hard!
Although some of the other bucks I had seen would probably
score better than this one, they were either too young or
had broken tines. This was the buck I had hoped to
see again, and now he was here. It was now only a
matter of everything working together to get the
video. I knew that any number of things could go
wrong, but I remained patient, allowing the buck to get
comfortable before attempting to shoot. The buck
presented me with a good shot, but just as I was ready to
draw, a doe came in from my left. I remained
motionless. 
By the
time the doe had her head behind a bush, my slight
quartering away shot had turned into this: 
I
remained patient, waiting for the buck to turn. He
walked to the right, and I repositioned the camera,
anticipating him heading to that spot. Sure enough,
he made his way there. A small buck was now
approaching the doe from the road, which actually worked
out quite well as she ran back into the brush, while he
started nibbling on corn behind a cactus. Now was
the time. I slowly drew back and watched as the
arrow settled into position. I placed the pin on the
bruiser buck, and as with the five pointer, touched the
release! I watched as the Thunderhead tipped arrow
seemed to disappear low behind the buck's shoulder.
The buck ran back towards me to my right, and I watched in
horror as I could not see either blood or an entry
hole! Certainly I hadn't missed. The buck ran
behind some brush and my mind raced, trying to consider my
next move, as he began to look around to see what the
noise had been. Maybe he would come back in.
Moments later, the buck started to wobble. I quickly
reached around and grabbed my camera and focused on the
buck as he began to stumble around and finally fell within
sight! Click on image to view video clip
(1.5 meg) That was it! I had two downed deer in
one hour! And both on video! I was some kind
of excited! 
I got
down from my stand and took some video from a distance of
the ten, and before I approached him, decided to go find
the five pointer. The blood trail was even more
incredible than that of the hog I had shot earlier in the
week! It's amazing what a properly placed Jak
Hammer will accomplish! 
This
blood was just a few feet from where the buck was
standing. I followed two steady streams of blood for
about 40 yards to the downed cull! I dragged the
buck back out of the brush, then did the same with the ten
pointer, which I rough green scored at 135 P&Y inches,
gross and within 5 inches of that net. 
It
was a chore to get both bucks loaded, but once I had that
chore taken care of, I quickly loaded my gear and decided
to return home a day early. This was one of the best
hunts I'd ever had, but I gotta tell you it's lonely when
you're hunting by yourself, with nobody to share in the
success! I was anxious to get the updates posted and
share it with the folks reading the Live Hunt! I
hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.
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