Its taken me a few days, but I wanted to post up the story of what has been the start of a great deer season so far. My best friend and his Dad headed to the to try and get his Dad his first bowkill and me to chase my hit list. There wasn't a lot of activity the first morning, but we all at least saw deer. The first evevening, all moved spots and settled in for a rather warm evening sit. At this point due to weddings and business travel, I had gotten roughly 6 or 7 hours sleep in the last 72 hours. That may come into play shortly...
On cue, about 10 minutes before the end of shooting light a 2.5 year old starts moseying his way past me. I smile, its always nice to see a deer. I pull up the binos to see what kind of potential this youngster has and to see if I recognize him. He looks familiar, and then something pops out... 6 point, obviously his second rack... no brow tines. Not having brow tines on our property, is an immediate freezer ticket. He's about 15 yards, broadside guzzling hand corn. I turn on my sight light, wait for his head to be below the grass, and bring the Chill R to full draw. Lots of trips to kill foam at CCR trigger an automatic sequence. I line my sight post (1 pin sight) with the back of his front leg, I lower the pin to the bottom quarter of the deer, preload the trigger, start to pull..... and the buck takes a sharp left step putting him at a severe angle. I slowly let the bow down. The unconcerned deer proceeds to nibble corn while walking straight away from me. He starts for a well worn trail to leave the area. This is when its clear I wasn't thinking straight. I draw, grunt, and put my pin even with his back and half way between his hip and shoulder as he's quartering away at a decent angle and he's now moved out to 30 yards and my sight is still set on 20.
The deer has frozen, head on a swivel. I had a decent case of buck fever going, pull, pull, pull.... click, the Chocolate Addiction released the string and the arrow was on its way. In the low light I could not see it in flight, but that was irrelevant considering what was about to happen. The arrow struck, and it sounded like I hit a 2x4... THWACK! The deer went to the ground, nearly rolling over, but struggled to his feet shortly. That's when my heart sank. I could make out 6" of arrow sticking directly from the middle of the right ham. How? Why? Crap! The deer hobbled a few yards to the right. I was frantically trying to load another arrow. Now the deer had doubled back heading the direction he had come from, and in a few seconds disappeared behind a mesquite. I sat there shaking and shaking my head. A minute or so later, I heard the crack of a limb in the general direction the deer had headed. I knew he was hit hard, and would probably lay down quickly given how hard of a time he was having walking. I was stuck in the blind. Five minutes later a spike walked in, ate some corn and continued on his way. After not hearing anything for about 10 minutes I packed up and snuck out of the blind, walking directly away from where I suspected the buck was.
I met up with crittergetter76 at the property gate, and we decided we would wait at least an hour before even walking to the area around the feeder to look for blood. We went back to camp, got a snack, grabbed my dog, and headed back. There wasn't any blood on the ground where the arrow hit, but the ground was pretty torn up from the deer going down and then scrambling to his feet. We started just slowly scanning the area I knew he had walked after the hit. Right about where he had made his turn, was the first speck of blood. A few yards later, another. The trail was not great, but we were making it out pretty well in the dark. We had gone, maybe 30 yards, when crittergetter76 points and half whispers... "He's down right there! He's not moving." Sure enough there lay the buck, a mere 40 yards in front of the blind, and having traveled less than 60 yards. Dead as a doornail. It was by far not the shot I was aiming for, but the results were hard to argue with. I severed both femorals, and the body cavity was full of blood when we cleaned him. God is good, that was all I could think as we drug him back toward the truck.
The next day was pretty slow, but we saw deer. Then the next morning I'm sitting, and a really nice buck comes in, to this day I don't know why I passed. My gut when he was in front of me was that he was too young. Reviewing photos later, he didn't look that young. Oh well, as Flufster says, you can't call an arrow back, so I erred on the side of caution at the time. It was to be rewarded as two does and a yearling shortly showed up. Like most of our mature does she looked like a skitzed out meth addict who was scared of her own shadow. As soon as she entered the clearing I drew, then she decided to turn directly away. I let down. Then she turned broadside behind the feeder, with the leg squarely covering her vitals. Finally the buck was clear, the feeder leg was clear, I was at full draw. She had inched out to 25 yards or so, so I put my pin halfway up, and anticipated her dropping and a small amount of drop from the distance. Aim..... CLICK..... SMACK!! The doe toppled to the ground where she was standing. She was down for the count, there was a pool of bright red blood already spreading from underneath. Same arrow, same broadhead as the buck... after all I believe in "lucky" arrows
.
It was a great way to put some meat in the freezer, before settling in for the long waits for a big buck. A few equipment comments are in order.
First the BloodRunner broadhead is a beast. If you have the KE and arrow for it, it will do its job. I'll post a picture of the entrance wound on the doe... it was surreal. Looked like I shot her with a machete or an axe. It also provided a great cut ensuring both femorals were severed on the buck.
Second, DaTorch arrows with brass inserts, are my new favorite hunting arrows. They are leaving my rig over 300fps, with high FOC, and the results are devastating.
I look forward to zipping a Bloodrunner tipped DaTorch through a monster in the next few months. Makes sense to me, it takes a monster, to hunt a monster.
On cue, about 10 minutes before the end of shooting light a 2.5 year old starts moseying his way past me. I smile, its always nice to see a deer. I pull up the binos to see what kind of potential this youngster has and to see if I recognize him. He looks familiar, and then something pops out... 6 point, obviously his second rack... no brow tines. Not having brow tines on our property, is an immediate freezer ticket. He's about 15 yards, broadside guzzling hand corn. I turn on my sight light, wait for his head to be below the grass, and bring the Chill R to full draw. Lots of trips to kill foam at CCR trigger an automatic sequence. I line my sight post (1 pin sight) with the back of his front leg, I lower the pin to the bottom quarter of the deer, preload the trigger, start to pull..... and the buck takes a sharp left step putting him at a severe angle. I slowly let the bow down. The unconcerned deer proceeds to nibble corn while walking straight away from me. He starts for a well worn trail to leave the area. This is when its clear I wasn't thinking straight. I draw, grunt, and put my pin even with his back and half way between his hip and shoulder as he's quartering away at a decent angle and he's now moved out to 30 yards and my sight is still set on 20.
The deer has frozen, head on a swivel. I had a decent case of buck fever going, pull, pull, pull.... click, the Chocolate Addiction released the string and the arrow was on its way. In the low light I could not see it in flight, but that was irrelevant considering what was about to happen. The arrow struck, and it sounded like I hit a 2x4... THWACK! The deer went to the ground, nearly rolling over, but struggled to his feet shortly. That's when my heart sank. I could make out 6" of arrow sticking directly from the middle of the right ham. How? Why? Crap! The deer hobbled a few yards to the right. I was frantically trying to load another arrow. Now the deer had doubled back heading the direction he had come from, and in a few seconds disappeared behind a mesquite. I sat there shaking and shaking my head. A minute or so later, I heard the crack of a limb in the general direction the deer had headed. I knew he was hit hard, and would probably lay down quickly given how hard of a time he was having walking. I was stuck in the blind. Five minutes later a spike walked in, ate some corn and continued on his way. After not hearing anything for about 10 minutes I packed up and snuck out of the blind, walking directly away from where I suspected the buck was.
I met up with crittergetter76 at the property gate, and we decided we would wait at least an hour before even walking to the area around the feeder to look for blood. We went back to camp, got a snack, grabbed my dog, and headed back. There wasn't any blood on the ground where the arrow hit, but the ground was pretty torn up from the deer going down and then scrambling to his feet. We started just slowly scanning the area I knew he had walked after the hit. Right about where he had made his turn, was the first speck of blood. A few yards later, another. The trail was not great, but we were making it out pretty well in the dark. We had gone, maybe 30 yards, when crittergetter76 points and half whispers... "He's down right there! He's not moving." Sure enough there lay the buck, a mere 40 yards in front of the blind, and having traveled less than 60 yards. Dead as a doornail. It was by far not the shot I was aiming for, but the results were hard to argue with. I severed both femorals, and the body cavity was full of blood when we cleaned him. God is good, that was all I could think as we drug him back toward the truck.
The next day was pretty slow, but we saw deer. Then the next morning I'm sitting, and a really nice buck comes in, to this day I don't know why I passed. My gut when he was in front of me was that he was too young. Reviewing photos later, he didn't look that young. Oh well, as Flufster says, you can't call an arrow back, so I erred on the side of caution at the time. It was to be rewarded as two does and a yearling shortly showed up. Like most of our mature does she looked like a skitzed out meth addict who was scared of her own shadow. As soon as she entered the clearing I drew, then she decided to turn directly away. I let down. Then she turned broadside behind the feeder, with the leg squarely covering her vitals. Finally the buck was clear, the feeder leg was clear, I was at full draw. She had inched out to 25 yards or so, so I put my pin halfway up, and anticipated her dropping and a small amount of drop from the distance. Aim..... CLICK..... SMACK!! The doe toppled to the ground where she was standing. She was down for the count, there was a pool of bright red blood already spreading from underneath. Same arrow, same broadhead as the buck... after all I believe in "lucky" arrows
. It was a great way to put some meat in the freezer, before settling in for the long waits for a big buck. A few equipment comments are in order.
First the BloodRunner broadhead is a beast. If you have the KE and arrow for it, it will do its job. I'll post a picture of the entrance wound on the doe... it was surreal. Looked like I shot her with a machete or an axe. It also provided a great cut ensuring both femorals were severed on the buck.
Second, DaTorch arrows with brass inserts, are my new favorite hunting arrows. They are leaving my rig over 300fps, with high FOC, and the results are devastating.
I look forward to zipping a Bloodrunner tipped DaTorch through a monster in the next few months. Makes sense to me, it takes a monster, to hunt a monster.
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