I never posted about my first encounter with this buck. On October 5th, I put an arrow into him and was certain that I had killed him. No pass thru and the only blood we found was what was on my arrow. We looked for him for several hours and never found him. I was sick. About two weeks later he showed up on our trail cam at the same feeder! The wound was clearly visible in the pictures and was too high to be fatal. I have sat many times since hoping to finish what I had started to no avail. In the meantime, I took advantage of the buck tag not reserved for him and shot a cull buck that evaded us last season.
The Cull
We headed back to the lease Friday morning after Thanksgiving. I went back to the scene of our first encounter and he was a no show Friday afternoon. Saturday morning was more of the same. Saturday afternoon came and found me back for one more round. I was covered up in deer with approximately 12 does and fawns cleaning up the corn. About 5:15 I hear a deer walking in from over my left shoulder. It was a buck but not the right one. The does scattered and he made his way to the feeder. After about 10 minutes I hear a low long deep grunt away from me and to the left. As soon as I hear the grunt the eight pointer under the feeder turns and trots away. As I am peering thru the top of the oak trees that block my view I finally see movement from the direction that I heard the grunt. In what seemed like and eternity he slowly made his way toward the feeder. We knew from the trail cam photos that he had broken off his right G-1. I confirmed that and then saw the wound on the right side and knew that the game was ON! He went to the feeder and ate a few bites of what the does and the eight point had left. I had to get him in my throw corn to have a shot and I feared there might not be enough to interest him as the does had really hammered it. He finally picked his head up and headed toward the does in the throw corn. He had to search but found a kernel or two but was facing me. Then he seemed to lose interest and headed toward me and just to my left and started browsing on some greenery about 10 yards from my quad pod. There was no way that I could shoot that direction and I was certain that I would get to watch him walk off as darkness neared. Then as if on cue he picked his head up and headed back to the area where I had thrown my hand corn earlier. As soon as I saw him start that way I drew my bow even though the does that had filtered away from the feeder were all around me. I felt he wouldn’t be there long so I figured it was now or never and that if they busted me at least I had made an attempt. He found a few kernels that I had thrown in a patch of cactus and turned with his butt to me as he proceeded to pick them out of the cactus. I was relieved when I was able to get drawn with getting busted by the does and now feared that if I tried to let down that they would bust me for sure. I held for an eternity, moved the bow down and rested the cam on my leg at one point to take some of the pressure off of my shoulder. Pretty soon I started to feel the burn in my shoulder but I continued to hold. My estimate was that I held for 2 to 3 minutes but if felt like 10. Finally as he turned to his right and took a few steps I raised the bow still at full draw and settled the pin low on his chest and kept telling myself “low in the chest, low in the chest” and slowly relaxed my hand and the thumb release on my Carter sent the arrow on its way. I saw the lighted nock zip thru his chest and watched as he ran away. Blood appeared low on his side and at first I feared the shot might be too low but as he neared the 40 yard mark I could tell he was losing control of his back legs. As he disappeared behind some brush it looked as if his rear end was almost on the ground. I could see glimpses of movement thru the brush and told myself that he was going down right there. Then suddenly is coming back down the trail he left on. As he came into sight he reared up on his back legs and pawed the air with his front legs and then fell over. He was down in sight! I started shaking like a leaf and was afraid I would fall out of the quad pod. I checked him with my binoculars and he was not moving. He was down for the count. I immediately picked up my phone and called my wife so I could share as much of this moment as I could. I really think that she understands why I put in all the hours of work and hours in the stand. I crawled down, looked to the west and witnessed one of the prettiest sunsets that I have seen in a while. I stood there and sang the Doxology as I waited for my buddy to make the walk to my stand.
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Then I whispered a quick prayer of thanks for the many blessings in my life and for the blessing of this harvest. He is not my biggest and is not a monster but is a good mature buck for the small Hill Country lease that I hunt. You can see the old wound in the pictures.
Here is the result of the shot. Heartbroke!
The Cull
We headed back to the lease Friday morning after Thanksgiving. I went back to the scene of our first encounter and he was a no show Friday afternoon. Saturday morning was more of the same. Saturday afternoon came and found me back for one more round. I was covered up in deer with approximately 12 does and fawns cleaning up the corn. About 5:15 I hear a deer walking in from over my left shoulder. It was a buck but not the right one. The does scattered and he made his way to the feeder. After about 10 minutes I hear a low long deep grunt away from me and to the left. As soon as I hear the grunt the eight pointer under the feeder turns and trots away. As I am peering thru the top of the oak trees that block my view I finally see movement from the direction that I heard the grunt. In what seemed like and eternity he slowly made his way toward the feeder. We knew from the trail cam photos that he had broken off his right G-1. I confirmed that and then saw the wound on the right side and knew that the game was ON! He went to the feeder and ate a few bites of what the does and the eight point had left. I had to get him in my throw corn to have a shot and I feared there might not be enough to interest him as the does had really hammered it. He finally picked his head up and headed toward the does in the throw corn. He had to search but found a kernel or two but was facing me. Then he seemed to lose interest and headed toward me and just to my left and started browsing on some greenery about 10 yards from my quad pod. There was no way that I could shoot that direction and I was certain that I would get to watch him walk off as darkness neared. Then as if on cue he picked his head up and headed back to the area where I had thrown my hand corn earlier. As soon as I saw him start that way I drew my bow even though the does that had filtered away from the feeder were all around me. I felt he wouldn’t be there long so I figured it was now or never and that if they busted me at least I had made an attempt. He found a few kernels that I had thrown in a patch of cactus and turned with his butt to me as he proceeded to pick them out of the cactus. I was relieved when I was able to get drawn with getting busted by the does and now feared that if I tried to let down that they would bust me for sure. I held for an eternity, moved the bow down and rested the cam on my leg at one point to take some of the pressure off of my shoulder. Pretty soon I started to feel the burn in my shoulder but I continued to hold. My estimate was that I held for 2 to 3 minutes but if felt like 10. Finally as he turned to his right and took a few steps I raised the bow still at full draw and settled the pin low on his chest and kept telling myself “low in the chest, low in the chest” and slowly relaxed my hand and the thumb release on my Carter sent the arrow on its way. I saw the lighted nock zip thru his chest and watched as he ran away. Blood appeared low on his side and at first I feared the shot might be too low but as he neared the 40 yard mark I could tell he was losing control of his back legs. As he disappeared behind some brush it looked as if his rear end was almost on the ground. I could see glimpses of movement thru the brush and told myself that he was going down right there. Then suddenly is coming back down the trail he left on. As he came into sight he reared up on his back legs and pawed the air with his front legs and then fell over. He was down in sight! I started shaking like a leaf and was afraid I would fall out of the quad pod. I checked him with my binoculars and he was not moving. He was down for the count. I immediately picked up my phone and called my wife so I could share as much of this moment as I could. I really think that she understands why I put in all the hours of work and hours in the stand. I crawled down, looked to the west and witnessed one of the prettiest sunsets that I have seen in a while. I stood there and sang the Doxology as I waited for my buddy to make the walk to my stand.
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Then I whispered a quick prayer of thanks for the many blessings in my life and for the blessing of this harvest. He is not my biggest and is not a monster but is a good mature buck for the small Hill Country lease that I hunt. You can see the old wound in the pictures.
Here is the result of the shot. Heartbroke!
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