This year started out a bit different than usual. I actually haven’t hunted much at all this season. I spent most of the season so far scouting and looking for something bigger than what I already have on the wall. I’ve seen a lot of deer and some good young bucks but nothing I really wanted to shoot. I saw one really nice 8 point a few weeks ago but with the amount of other hunters and long hike in and out I decided not to hunt that area.
I had decided if I couldn’t find anything by Thanksgiving I would hunt this area because I knew they would be getting hungry by then. I knew about this buck and several other mature bucks in the area just not anything really big. Last week was tough with other hunters in the area and deer only moving at night. I finally started getting a few daylight pictures this week and had the right wind. I had more pictures in the morning but I would blow them out if I tried to hunt so I was pretty much limited to evenings.
I didn’t get set up until almost 5:00 because they have been moving late. I saw the first deer at about 5:40, a little 4 point. Shortly after another yearling joined him with this buck right behind. It was getting pretty dark so
as soon as he turned broadside I let him have it. It sounded and felt like a solid hit but I couldn’t tell for sure.
It was dark and the weeds are thick this year so I couldn’t find the arrow. I started walking down the trail he ran down and started finding blood about 30 yards in but it wasn’t much. I was using a different broadhead than what I’ve used in the past so wasn’t sure what happened. I kept going and started seeing a lot more blood but it was different than what I’m used to. I thought he might be close but it kept going and he ended up crossing onto private property.
I walked back to the truck and called the game warden and sheriffs office trying to get a phone number to get permission to track. With no luck I drove down a nearby road thinking he probably crossed it. Sure enough there was blood going across the road. My brother and a friend that lives down the road showed up to help. There is a house just up the road so we went and told the guy what happened. He said sure go find it, even said he would take his dog out there if we couldn’t find it. We had good blood at first then just drops. We lost the trail a couple of times and I called it off at 9:30 planning to come back in the morning. We were walking through an opening back to the road and my brother said “here he is”. It ended up being a liver shot and he had gone up in the bedding area and circled back towards the road to lay down under a cedar tree. Probably went 500-600 yards total. He’s not exactly what I was looking for but he was one of the best in the area this year and I believe he was 7.5 years old.
I had decided if I couldn’t find anything by Thanksgiving I would hunt this area because I knew they would be getting hungry by then. I knew about this buck and several other mature bucks in the area just not anything really big. Last week was tough with other hunters in the area and deer only moving at night. I finally started getting a few daylight pictures this week and had the right wind. I had more pictures in the morning but I would blow them out if I tried to hunt so I was pretty much limited to evenings.
I didn’t get set up until almost 5:00 because they have been moving late. I saw the first deer at about 5:40, a little 4 point. Shortly after another yearling joined him with this buck right behind. It was getting pretty dark so
as soon as he turned broadside I let him have it. It sounded and felt like a solid hit but I couldn’t tell for sure.
It was dark and the weeds are thick this year so I couldn’t find the arrow. I started walking down the trail he ran down and started finding blood about 30 yards in but it wasn’t much. I was using a different broadhead than what I’ve used in the past so wasn’t sure what happened. I kept going and started seeing a lot more blood but it was different than what I’m used to. I thought he might be close but it kept going and he ended up crossing onto private property.
I walked back to the truck and called the game warden and sheriffs office trying to get a phone number to get permission to track. With no luck I drove down a nearby road thinking he probably crossed it. Sure enough there was blood going across the road. My brother and a friend that lives down the road showed up to help. There is a house just up the road so we went and told the guy what happened. He said sure go find it, even said he would take his dog out there if we couldn’t find it. We had good blood at first then just drops. We lost the trail a couple of times and I called it off at 9:30 planning to come back in the morning. We were walking through an opening back to the road and my brother said “here he is”. It ended up being a liver shot and he had gone up in the bedding area and circled back towards the road to lay down under a cedar tree. Probably went 500-600 yards total. He’s not exactly what I was looking for but he was one of the best in the area this year and I believe he was 7.5 years old.
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