Well my whole deer season came down to last weekend. I'm switching jobs next week, and getting married Nov. 5th. Planning for those events and then the holidays put a good dent in my trips to the lease this year. I was able to get Friday off, and so I showed up at the lease on Thursday night. Friday morning was a wash with me seeing not a single deer.
I climbed in the blind at 3pm Friday afternoon. I had hand corned the heck out of this set earlier when coming in from my morning hunt. I sat and I sat, and I sat and I sat... and time passed, and mosquitoes buzzed, and I read an entire book on my Kindle. Then that magic half hour came.
I saw movement on a trail about 150 yards away. Like birds on a wire were 3 deer. The first looked like a doe or large button buck, the second was a 3 point, and then.... and then my heart hit mach 5... because trailing 30 yards behind was a hawse. It was about 15 minutes till the end of legal shooting, and I knew that there was a good chance this wasn't going to happen.
Fortunately they made good time to my blind, but then the shooter walked up put his head down to nibble and was directly facing me. No shot. Then the spike walked into the way. Light was fading, time was running out. My heart was going nuts. I had the shakes... bad... really bad, was trying to keep from dropping my release type bad. What was probably only a minute or two, but felt like eternity,saw the spike step to one side, and the buck I wanted turned broadside. His head and front of his shoulder were behind the spike. The bread basket was right there though.
The draw was anything but smooth, but instinct and muscle memory soon took over. My eyes zeroed in low behind the near side leg, the pin hovered in that area, I remember hoping the shot would break soon....
A dull thud followed by a solid thump announced that my 2" Grim Reaper tipped Axis had found its mark. The buck bolted about 25 yards and stopped looking around. He had no clue what had just happened. I could see the top of his back and head from the blind. Then he took a few steps and and I lost sight of him, but heard a thump.
After 5 minutes or so I snuck out of the blind just to check the arrow. It was laying around 20 yards past where the buck was standing covered in bright red blood. There was blood everywhere in big patches. I took a few deep breaths and headed to get my truck and calm down a little. I was pretty sure he was down, but I didn't know if the thump had been him falling or him jumping a patch of cactus or something.
Upon returning with the truck, I found the buck a grand total of 31 yards from where the arrow hit. The blood trail was great. The thump had been him tipping over. The entrance hole was nice, but the exit hole was extreme. Grim Reaper isn't joking when they advertise "Watch em drop."
He had 11 scorable points and was in the 150-155# range. He is by far the best deer I have ever harvested in my life. I needed a magical weekend, and the Man Upstairs delivered a truly awesome one.
I have to admit it was pretty cool to be sitting on the picnic table, sipping Shiner when Mike D and Todd P pulled into camp, I can only imagine the grin I had on my face
I climbed in the blind at 3pm Friday afternoon. I had hand corned the heck out of this set earlier when coming in from my morning hunt. I sat and I sat, and I sat and I sat... and time passed, and mosquitoes buzzed, and I read an entire book on my Kindle. Then that magic half hour came.
I saw movement on a trail about 150 yards away. Like birds on a wire were 3 deer. The first looked like a doe or large button buck, the second was a 3 point, and then.... and then my heart hit mach 5... because trailing 30 yards behind was a hawse. It was about 15 minutes till the end of legal shooting, and I knew that there was a good chance this wasn't going to happen.
Fortunately they made good time to my blind, but then the shooter walked up put his head down to nibble and was directly facing me. No shot. Then the spike walked into the way. Light was fading, time was running out. My heart was going nuts. I had the shakes... bad... really bad, was trying to keep from dropping my release type bad. What was probably only a minute or two, but felt like eternity,saw the spike step to one side, and the buck I wanted turned broadside. His head and front of his shoulder were behind the spike. The bread basket was right there though.
The draw was anything but smooth, but instinct and muscle memory soon took over. My eyes zeroed in low behind the near side leg, the pin hovered in that area, I remember hoping the shot would break soon....
A dull thud followed by a solid thump announced that my 2" Grim Reaper tipped Axis had found its mark. The buck bolted about 25 yards and stopped looking around. He had no clue what had just happened. I could see the top of his back and head from the blind. Then he took a few steps and and I lost sight of him, but heard a thump.
After 5 minutes or so I snuck out of the blind just to check the arrow. It was laying around 20 yards past where the buck was standing covered in bright red blood. There was blood everywhere in big patches. I took a few deep breaths and headed to get my truck and calm down a little. I was pretty sure he was down, but I didn't know if the thump had been him falling or him jumping a patch of cactus or something.
Upon returning with the truck, I found the buck a grand total of 31 yards from where the arrow hit. The blood trail was great. The thump had been him tipping over. The entrance hole was nice, but the exit hole was extreme. Grim Reaper isn't joking when they advertise "Watch em drop."
He had 11 scorable points and was in the 150-155# range. He is by far the best deer I have ever harvested in my life. I needed a magical weekend, and the Man Upstairs delivered a truly awesome one.
I have to admit it was pretty cool to be sitting on the picnic table, sipping Shiner when Mike D and Todd P pulled into camp, I can only imagine the grin I had on my face
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