I've been planning to hunt today for a couple of weeks. New moon today, so it is completely dark at night. Last day of bow season before the rifles start blasting away tomorrow. Necks starting to swell and bucks starting to chase does just a little. Just the beginning of the pre-rut. The weather forecast was looking good for today. Frosty this morning and not hot enough this afternoon to have the wasps swarming like crazy. Time to hunt.
I decided to hunt this morning before going in to the office. I got in the blind at 6:30am, an hour before legal shooting. I watched the sun come up and melt the frost off the blind. The wasps started to thaw out and wake up. I stomped 'em. No deer. Saw some coyotes on the way back to town. The best moon time today was 12:52pm. Coyotes definitely got the message, as they were out hunting at 10am.
Had to go to work. I'd hoped to get wrapped up there and get back out in the blind by 1pm or so. It didn't happen. Had to stay and do some business (not a bad thing). Didn't get back in the blind until almost 4pm. By myself too. Zach decided to go to the Brownwood vs. Wylie game to watch Brownwood beat the crap out of Wylie.
At 4:30, this young 8 came in before the feeder went off (at 4:45).
Good sign.
He left right before the feeder went off. An hour or so later, a yearling fork horn came in. A doe and a fawn came soon after. A 2.5 yr old 8-point came in with them. The 8-point from earlier in the day came back and chased the does off about sundown.
The 2.5 yr old 8 came back to feed. It was getting dark. With about 5 minutes of legal shooting time left, I saw a big body coming. He came in to the feeder facing me. No shot. It looked like a pretty nice and wide 8-point, but looking through mesh into the sun at dusk made it hard to tell for sure. I could tell by the body that he was a mature enough deer. I decided I'd shoot if given an opportunity.
Just as the buck started to turn broadside finally, the young 8 stepped in front of him. Dang it! The buzzer is about to sound. Seconds are ticking off the clock fast. If it's gonna happen, it had better be quick!
The bigger buck took a step forward. Just about clear enough, so I drew my bow. The young 8 heard the arrow slide across the rest, and he stood up. He turned away, leaving a wide open shot to the big buck. I settled the pin behind the shoulder as he was just slightly quartering to me. Not really quartering, but just off of broadside a little. It's now or never, so I sent the Shuttle T-Lock through the mesh. THWACK!
I didn't have a lighted knock on, so I didn't get a good look at the entry. It sounded good, and the buck didn't duck or dive. Should be fine. I watched the two bucks run off toward the north. The hit buck went behind some mesquite, so I lost sight of him after about 75 yards. I wished he'd gone down before going that far.
After about 15 minutes, I got out of the pop-up and slipped back to my pickup to get a flashlight and wait. CRAP! I didn't have my good flashlight in the toolbox. Went and visited with the landowners for a while. They didn't have a good flashlight either, so I drove into town and got one. As I was coming back to start the search, I saw lights in the camp across the road from my lease. Several TBHers hunt there. I decided I'd pull in and see if one of them had a dog, by some miracle. I met Ron and Tyler Parrish and Randy Arrington. They didn't have a dog, but they were nice enough to grab flashlights and come help me look for my buck.
By the time we got to the scene of the crime, it had been a good 2 hours since the shot. Should be a dead deer laying out there in that tall CRP grass somewhere. Ron and Tyler found the arrow that had blood all over it after a pass through shot. So far so good. But no blood trail yet. We split up and went back and forth across the general direction of where the buck ran. There was so much grass that was speckled red - not blood, just red speckled grass. There had to be blood out there somewhere, but we weren't finding it. Finally, about 100 yards out from the feeder, I found a spot of blood. Then another. Then a bigger splatter of blood. Then some more. We were getting closer.
Just about then, Randy hollered, "Here's your buck!". He was about 10 more yards down the trail. Found him! But......
Ground shrinkage.
I thought he was a bigger 8, but in the near dark and in my haste to shoot before it was too late, I shot a big old cull 7-point. Not a bad thing though. I'd been seeing him on camera all year, and I have been hoping somebody could cull him. He was old enough to know better than to just grow 7 points in a good wet year. Entry was right above the elbow on his left side. Exit was a couple inches further back on the right side (in the pics). Got one lung and the liver. No wonder he ended up 200 yards from the feeder.
I figured I'd name him Lucky 7. I was lucky to be able to hunt on a good day, and I got lucky enough to get the cull even though I didn't realize it was him. Then I was lucky that I didn't have a good flashlight in my truck. If I'd had one, I probably wouldn't have ended up getting to spend time with the guys across the road. I might not have even found the sucker by myself either. The coyotes would have eaten him before tomorrow morning.
Guess I'll spend the World War III opening morning skinning and butchering a deer instead of dodging bullets.
Randy, Ron and Tyler, I sure do appreciate your help tonight. It was a lot more fun tracking and searching with y'all than it would have been by myself.
I decided to hunt this morning before going in to the office. I got in the blind at 6:30am, an hour before legal shooting. I watched the sun come up and melt the frost off the blind. The wasps started to thaw out and wake up. I stomped 'em. No deer. Saw some coyotes on the way back to town. The best moon time today was 12:52pm. Coyotes definitely got the message, as they were out hunting at 10am.
Had to go to work. I'd hoped to get wrapped up there and get back out in the blind by 1pm or so. It didn't happen. Had to stay and do some business (not a bad thing). Didn't get back in the blind until almost 4pm. By myself too. Zach decided to go to the Brownwood vs. Wylie game to watch Brownwood beat the crap out of Wylie.
At 4:30, this young 8 came in before the feeder went off (at 4:45).
Good sign.
He left right before the feeder went off. An hour or so later, a yearling fork horn came in. A doe and a fawn came soon after. A 2.5 yr old 8-point came in with them. The 8-point from earlier in the day came back and chased the does off about sundown.
The 2.5 yr old 8 came back to feed. It was getting dark. With about 5 minutes of legal shooting time left, I saw a big body coming. He came in to the feeder facing me. No shot. It looked like a pretty nice and wide 8-point, but looking through mesh into the sun at dusk made it hard to tell for sure. I could tell by the body that he was a mature enough deer. I decided I'd shoot if given an opportunity.
Just as the buck started to turn broadside finally, the young 8 stepped in front of him. Dang it! The buzzer is about to sound. Seconds are ticking off the clock fast. If it's gonna happen, it had better be quick!
The bigger buck took a step forward. Just about clear enough, so I drew my bow. The young 8 heard the arrow slide across the rest, and he stood up. He turned away, leaving a wide open shot to the big buck. I settled the pin behind the shoulder as he was just slightly quartering to me. Not really quartering, but just off of broadside a little. It's now or never, so I sent the Shuttle T-Lock through the mesh. THWACK!
I didn't have a lighted knock on, so I didn't get a good look at the entry. It sounded good, and the buck didn't duck or dive. Should be fine. I watched the two bucks run off toward the north. The hit buck went behind some mesquite, so I lost sight of him after about 75 yards. I wished he'd gone down before going that far.
After about 15 minutes, I got out of the pop-up and slipped back to my pickup to get a flashlight and wait. CRAP! I didn't have my good flashlight in the toolbox. Went and visited with the landowners for a while. They didn't have a good flashlight either, so I drove into town and got one. As I was coming back to start the search, I saw lights in the camp across the road from my lease. Several TBHers hunt there. I decided I'd pull in and see if one of them had a dog, by some miracle. I met Ron and Tyler Parrish and Randy Arrington. They didn't have a dog, but they were nice enough to grab flashlights and come help me look for my buck.
By the time we got to the scene of the crime, it had been a good 2 hours since the shot. Should be a dead deer laying out there in that tall CRP grass somewhere. Ron and Tyler found the arrow that had blood all over it after a pass through shot. So far so good. But no blood trail yet. We split up and went back and forth across the general direction of where the buck ran. There was so much grass that was speckled red - not blood, just red speckled grass. There had to be blood out there somewhere, but we weren't finding it. Finally, about 100 yards out from the feeder, I found a spot of blood. Then another. Then a bigger splatter of blood. Then some more. We were getting closer.
Just about then, Randy hollered, "Here's your buck!". He was about 10 more yards down the trail. Found him! But......
Ground shrinkage.
I thought he was a bigger 8, but in the near dark and in my haste to shoot before it was too late, I shot a big old cull 7-point. Not a bad thing though. I'd been seeing him on camera all year, and I have been hoping somebody could cull him. He was old enough to know better than to just grow 7 points in a good wet year. Entry was right above the elbow on his left side. Exit was a couple inches further back on the right side (in the pics). Got one lung and the liver. No wonder he ended up 200 yards from the feeder.I figured I'd name him Lucky 7. I was lucky to be able to hunt on a good day, and I got lucky enough to get the cull even though I didn't realize it was him. Then I was lucky that I didn't have a good flashlight in my truck. If I'd had one, I probably wouldn't have ended up getting to spend time with the guys across the road. I might not have even found the sucker by myself either. The coyotes would have eaten him before tomorrow morning.
Guess I'll spend the World War III opening morning skinning and butchering a deer instead of dodging bullets.
Randy, Ron and Tyler, I sure do appreciate your help tonight. It was a lot more fun tracking and searching with y'all than it would have been by myself.
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