) I finally have some free time for myself.First thing I did was tune my 405 and get ready for the early bow season for mule deer.
On August 31, we arrived at our buddy's cabin. After some rest, we busted out the crossbows to make sure their holding zero.
My setup:
-M405 with boostrings. Pretty much stock xbow.
-18" black eagle zombie killer topped with 125gr QAD exoduas and lumenocs
Buddy's:
-An overated compound xbow with 22" arrows
Morning of Sept. 1 rolls in and my buddy's son shot a mully at 250 yards. Youth season coincides with bow season here in BC. After retrieving the deer, it was my turn. We turned into a road and saw a small herd of deer. I quickly jumped out and spotted the buck. I was so excited that I rushed, over compensated and missed the buck at 25 yards! I was the butt of the joke at the camp during lunch time. Felt pissed at myself for rushing so I spent the next 2 hours just target shooting...
After lunch, we hopped on the truck around 2:30, everyone was sleepy inside the truck. We got tho the end of a logging road and did a u-turn. i was half asleep at this point. My buddy smacked me in the shoulder and shouted deer. We spotted a buck 150 yards away from our truck and it hasn't noticed us! So i hopped off of the truck and began my stalk.
I went all the way around the deer on foot to get downwind from it. Slowly creeping in using anything as cover. My buddies watching my every move. "Don't miss this time" was my buddy's word when I exited the truck. I got to a small hill and lost sight of the buck... I crept up slowly to peek over the ridge and spotted the buck still feeding. My heart was beating really fast. It was hard to stay calm and think things through.
But I remembered the mistake I made earlier. Slowly, I grabbed my range finder. Ranged the deer at 31 yards. Aimed my bow at the buck. there was a small bush covering the kill zone. I held the pose for an eternity hoping that this deer will go forward and present me with a full broadside shot. Finally it did! I resisted the urge to quickly squeeze the trigger and slowly squeezed it and held the bow as steady as I could.
*TWANG!* went my 405. The arrow disappeared so fast that my eyes could not follow it. "Did I hit it?" "did I botch the shot again?" All these questions ran inside my head in probably under 1 second. I've never felt so focused that I could think as if time has slowed down.
Then the deer jumped! Ran for about 10 yards on top of a log pile and was looking around wondering what happened. I was motionless. He looked my way and I felt as if time had stood still. Then it looked away. I noticed a stream of blood running down behind its shoulder and saw him coughing of precious blood! "Thank you Lord!" was the only thing in my head as I now know that I hit the vitals! Then the buck started to stagger. In its confusion it ran some more for 60 yrds before finally expiring.
There was silence between me and my friends. We held the cheers and congratulations until we find this buck and make certain we harvest it. When we finally found the buck, we made a pretty difficult uphill retrieve to the truck.
This is the very first buck I harvested in my life and the fact that I did it with my crossbow and not my rifle made it felt even better.
Well, Pics or it didn't happen.
Oh wait. I have to complain about my xbow! My arrow was traveling too fast!!! It sliced through a 180# deer and broke ribs on its way out and the arrow still managed to pile drive into dry ground for another 15"! I almost lost my precious memento if it were not for my other buddies looking for it.
I would also like to thank Paulaboutform. He would spend hours on the phone just to help me get my xbow tuned. Thanks a lot bud! I do wish we can spend some time on the range together but life is really busy right now.
