First, I'd like to begin by thanking Mitch (Krivoman) for the amazing hospitality, and for allowing me to come hunt his beautiful ranch! Mitch is the definition of a true hunter, he knows his land like the back of his hand, and also knows his deer.
Mitch had patterned a couple of mature culls that needed to be thinned and gave me the choice of which one I wanted to take. He had patterned a pretty big 7 and two good size 8 points that at their age just didnt have the potential he was looking for, but for me I was looking to bag my first bow buck. After 4 years of hard bowhunting and never having a shooter buck in bow range, I wasn't being picky, I wanted venison in the freezer and a memory on the wall. Friday morning found us in the blind he had patterned them coming to, not long after the feeder went off we had some doe and yearlings start to filter in, as they ate and through out the morning we watched several nice bucks and doe filter their way in for a bite to eat, but none of which were on the hit list. Eventually they filtered out of the area and we headed back to camp. That evening found us heading back to the same location for round 2. While cruising to the stand on the ranger, we discussed the plan that Mitch would drop me off at the stand and he would throw a little corn in front of the stand with the tailgate feeder, then he would park and come back to the stand. He also told me that the previous weekend while dropping off one of his buddies at this stand, when they drove up one of the bucks on my hit list was already under the feeder. No sooner than Mitch had finished the story we rounded the last corner heading to the stand and what do you know, there is the same buck Mitch is telling the story about already under the feeder and staring right at us and holding his ground. We devise a plan that Mitch would hit the tailgate feeder in hopes of running the buck off a short distance and buy me enough time to slip unseen into the blind and he would go park the ranger and come back to the stand. The plan worked, he hit the tailgate feeder and the buck slowly trotted off in the brush and I booked it to the stand, Mitch headed out on the ranger to park. No sooner than I had half way shut the door to the blind and sat down the buck was already back under the feeder! Mitch gave me a ring on my cell asking if he could ease into the stand or if there was deer under the feeder already. I advised him that the buck was already at fifteen yards and closing! He gave me the green light to go ahead and take the buck with out him in the stand but asked me to not take the shot unless I had it on film. I end the call and glance up only to see the buck at 8-10 yards broadside eating corn. It took me a little bit to get the camera set up to where the sun was not glaring into the lenses and still had to manage to lower the plexiglass windows on the stand without spooking the buck. Somehow I managed to do it and I got settled into the chair and removed my mathews from the hook and knocked an arrow. I mentally prepared for the shot and drew back only to make rookie mistake number one and bumped the back of the stand with my elbow half way to full draw. The buck whirled his head up and glared at the stand trying to pin point the noise, seconds later, which felt like minutes, he put his head back down and began eating again, as I came to full draw the buck took one more step forward and opened up the sweet spot at 8 yards! A slight touch of the release and the arrow was on its way finding it's mark, with a quick leg kick and a jump the buck took off and I watched as he disappeared into the brush. I had done it! Drilled my first bow buck, I was on top of the world, now the wait was on to go recover him. Mitch made his way back to the stand, a few high fives were exchanged and we reviewed the tape to make sure that the shot was as good as I thought it was. After reviewing the tape we found where I made rookie mistake number two, everything had happen so fast I did not take into account that my short distance pin is set at 20 yards, this buck was at 8! I did not compensate for the closer distance and with the buck ducking slightly, the arrow did its damage about 3 inches above the sweet spot catching high lung. Although usually a fatal hit, Mitch and I knew that with this hit there would be virtually no blood trail and boy were we right. After 40 mins had gone by we headed out on the track. We located my arrow which had good blood on it, there was no blood where the buck had been standing or ran from so we started to search where I had last saw him disappear into the woods. The only blood found was spatter and the drops were literally the size of a ball point pen. We followed the few spots we found here and there and about a hour into the track and 80 yards in we jumped a deer but could not get a glimpse of what it was, so we decided to back out till morning in case it happen to be my buck. At this point I had been taken from an all time high to the lowest of lows, fearing that I had hit the buck in the no mans land and we would not recover it. The next morning we headed out about 830 and went to the spot where we had jumped the deer in hopes of finding a pool of blood, only to find absolutely nothing, the spots from the night before had vanished and had no clue which direction he had headed after he got into the woods. We started a zig zag pattern across the land we thought he would have went through and spent the next 3 or 4 hours uncovering nothing. At this point I was sick to my stomach and was at the lowest of lows. Mitch tried to assure me that we would find him eventually, that we could back out and go post up on a hill looking down in the area he had ran and watch to see if buzzards would start to gather. He also said buzzards can be a hunters best friend when locating lost game, all though I probably wouldn't recover any meat. We got set up on a hill and not long after we began to see buzzards start to circle the area, but they were way too high in the sky to tell where they were pin pointing so we headed to camp to give them time to find what they were looking for. We headed back out that evening and planned to scan for buzzards after running a memory card to the trail cam just down the way from the stand I was hunting. As we were driving on the ranger, I was feeling more depressed than ever, we drove behind the stand I was hunting and continued down the road heading to the next stand. About seventy yards further down the road about fifty buzzards flew up out of some brush not 6 yards off the side of the road and we pulled up only to find my buck! I was back on top again and happier than ever. After looking at the buck, we found that the arrow had hit high lungs and passed through both. In all, the buck made it about 350 yards and almost made a complete circle, almost ending up back behind the stand. The sad thing about it is, we had stopped searching that morning only 50 yards from where he lay, and drove past him the night before. Although I was unable to recover any meat from the deer, I was able to get the shot on video, some high quality ldp's and a memory that will last a lifetime. Sorry for the long write up, thanks for following along and good luck to the rest of you this season!!
Aged him at 5, and he rough scored 114 3/8th here are the ldp's ill post the video when its ready.
Mitch had patterned a couple of mature culls that needed to be thinned and gave me the choice of which one I wanted to take. He had patterned a pretty big 7 and two good size 8 points that at their age just didnt have the potential he was looking for, but for me I was looking to bag my first bow buck. After 4 years of hard bowhunting and never having a shooter buck in bow range, I wasn't being picky, I wanted venison in the freezer and a memory on the wall. Friday morning found us in the blind he had patterned them coming to, not long after the feeder went off we had some doe and yearlings start to filter in, as they ate and through out the morning we watched several nice bucks and doe filter their way in for a bite to eat, but none of which were on the hit list. Eventually they filtered out of the area and we headed back to camp. That evening found us heading back to the same location for round 2. While cruising to the stand on the ranger, we discussed the plan that Mitch would drop me off at the stand and he would throw a little corn in front of the stand with the tailgate feeder, then he would park and come back to the stand. He also told me that the previous weekend while dropping off one of his buddies at this stand, when they drove up one of the bucks on my hit list was already under the feeder. No sooner than Mitch had finished the story we rounded the last corner heading to the stand and what do you know, there is the same buck Mitch is telling the story about already under the feeder and staring right at us and holding his ground. We devise a plan that Mitch would hit the tailgate feeder in hopes of running the buck off a short distance and buy me enough time to slip unseen into the blind and he would go park the ranger and come back to the stand. The plan worked, he hit the tailgate feeder and the buck slowly trotted off in the brush and I booked it to the stand, Mitch headed out on the ranger to park. No sooner than I had half way shut the door to the blind and sat down the buck was already back under the feeder! Mitch gave me a ring on my cell asking if he could ease into the stand or if there was deer under the feeder already. I advised him that the buck was already at fifteen yards and closing! He gave me the green light to go ahead and take the buck with out him in the stand but asked me to not take the shot unless I had it on film. I end the call and glance up only to see the buck at 8-10 yards broadside eating corn. It took me a little bit to get the camera set up to where the sun was not glaring into the lenses and still had to manage to lower the plexiglass windows on the stand without spooking the buck. Somehow I managed to do it and I got settled into the chair and removed my mathews from the hook and knocked an arrow. I mentally prepared for the shot and drew back only to make rookie mistake number one and bumped the back of the stand with my elbow half way to full draw. The buck whirled his head up and glared at the stand trying to pin point the noise, seconds later, which felt like minutes, he put his head back down and began eating again, as I came to full draw the buck took one more step forward and opened up the sweet spot at 8 yards! A slight touch of the release and the arrow was on its way finding it's mark, with a quick leg kick and a jump the buck took off and I watched as he disappeared into the brush. I had done it! Drilled my first bow buck, I was on top of the world, now the wait was on to go recover him. Mitch made his way back to the stand, a few high fives were exchanged and we reviewed the tape to make sure that the shot was as good as I thought it was. After reviewing the tape we found where I made rookie mistake number two, everything had happen so fast I did not take into account that my short distance pin is set at 20 yards, this buck was at 8! I did not compensate for the closer distance and with the buck ducking slightly, the arrow did its damage about 3 inches above the sweet spot catching high lung. Although usually a fatal hit, Mitch and I knew that with this hit there would be virtually no blood trail and boy were we right. After 40 mins had gone by we headed out on the track. We located my arrow which had good blood on it, there was no blood where the buck had been standing or ran from so we started to search where I had last saw him disappear into the woods. The only blood found was spatter and the drops were literally the size of a ball point pen. We followed the few spots we found here and there and about a hour into the track and 80 yards in we jumped a deer but could not get a glimpse of what it was, so we decided to back out till morning in case it happen to be my buck. At this point I had been taken from an all time high to the lowest of lows, fearing that I had hit the buck in the no mans land and we would not recover it. The next morning we headed out about 830 and went to the spot where we had jumped the deer in hopes of finding a pool of blood, only to find absolutely nothing, the spots from the night before had vanished and had no clue which direction he had headed after he got into the woods. We started a zig zag pattern across the land we thought he would have went through and spent the next 3 or 4 hours uncovering nothing. At this point I was sick to my stomach and was at the lowest of lows. Mitch tried to assure me that we would find him eventually, that we could back out and go post up on a hill looking down in the area he had ran and watch to see if buzzards would start to gather. He also said buzzards can be a hunters best friend when locating lost game, all though I probably wouldn't recover any meat. We got set up on a hill and not long after we began to see buzzards start to circle the area, but they were way too high in the sky to tell where they were pin pointing so we headed to camp to give them time to find what they were looking for. We headed back out that evening and planned to scan for buzzards after running a memory card to the trail cam just down the way from the stand I was hunting. As we were driving on the ranger, I was feeling more depressed than ever, we drove behind the stand I was hunting and continued down the road heading to the next stand. About seventy yards further down the road about fifty buzzards flew up out of some brush not 6 yards off the side of the road and we pulled up only to find my buck! I was back on top again and happier than ever. After looking at the buck, we found that the arrow had hit high lungs and passed through both. In all, the buck made it about 350 yards and almost made a complete circle, almost ending up back behind the stand. The sad thing about it is, we had stopped searching that morning only 50 yards from where he lay, and drove past him the night before. Although I was unable to recover any meat from the deer, I was able to get the shot on video, some high quality ldp's and a memory that will last a lifetime. Sorry for the long write up, thanks for following along and good luck to the rest of you this season!!
Aged him at 5, and he rough scored 114 3/8th here are the ldp's ill post the video when its ready.
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