First Point reflections and lessons learned...

[RLB]

Challenge is an understatement!!

[Wade22]

I have to apologize for the late update. We were at FP Dec. 14-17. We arrived there to a mud pit and if you did not have an ATV or 4-wheel drive, well you just had to walk. Mike checked us in and told us that we were going to hunt in pasture 3, which had not been hunted in 3 weeks due to the rain. He also said the bucks are running. We were excited about that, due to less hunting pressure. My brother and I set my dad up next to a feeder where Mike informed us the deer were hitting it real hard. He ended seeing a shooter buck every hunt. The last morning he finally got a shot opportunity. Well instead of the 10 pnt. ducking the arrow as we are all told, the buck jumped the arrow. Oh well, better luck next time is what my dad said. My brother saw a few deer during the hunt and had a really nice 10 pnt. feed down the road but ducked into the brush only leaving the back half of the deer to shoot at. As for me, well it was a little heart breaking. I only saw 1 shooter buck the entire time, but he was a nice 8 pnt. around 18 inches wide with tall tines. He fed down the road from the feeder and presented me with a 25 yd. shot. He never knew I was there. I put my 20 yd. pin on him expecting hm to duck as well, but he did not. My arrow did not go through, which I thought was odd. I heard the buck crashing through the brush a long ways. I decided to wait and call Mike to bring Bo out to make trailing the deer easier. Well we trailed him for about 125 yards following decent blood until we found the arrow all in one piece. After that, the blood slowed down until there was none for Bo to trail. Bo came back to Mike and I knew it was bad news. Mike said he wanted to let Bo run the trail one more time to be for sure. Well, we had the same outcome. Kudos to Mike for trying a second time. Well it would have been my first buck with my bow, but there is always next time. We had a great time and we can't wait for next year.