Well I hunted the last couple of days and saw does in the evening so I decided I would go this morning early and it paid off very nice. I got an 8 pt with a large body. I have no scales so no exact wieght. Here are some pics, story tomorrow I am bagged right now.
Very Happy...
Picture this, 80 acres of standing corn, 150 yards to the North; 60 acres of pasture to the East; a mix of slash, large cedars and old pasture to the West; and, to the South is 500 acres of hardwood swamp and cedars. He calls this home. It also describes my stand location hidden in a cedar tree along the fence line.
The night before a friend and his father-in-law came out for a late season hunt. There were tracks everywhere. As luck would have it, we didn’t see anything ‘til after dark and they were heading out of the corn to the bush. I decided I would try in the morning to see where they were travelling.
December 30th, 2007, 5:50am. I start out with a short ATV ride and then walk the remaining 1 km to my tree stand. Silence everywhere, except for the crunching of my feet on the hard crisp snow. Not even the sound of howling of wind or coyotes (which are rampant in Greely right now).
When I arrive at my stand there are tracks everywhere from overnight visitors. I noisily climb into the cedar and get prepared, with that, I sit there, hot and sweating. I think to myself, “There isn’t going to be a deer come within a mile of me”. After a 30 minute cool down period, I put my balaclava on and sit enjoying the silence and crisp morning. Another 30 minutes pass and I hear a noise to my left, but I can’t see anything for the thick branches. Then through the trees I can see “brown” moving, I notice a piece of antler and try to get into position.
He is walking towards me. I look again and see what I consider to be a good rack. My heart begins to pound and I tell myself to calm down, “yeah right”! He is now 4 ft in front of me and 5 ft to my left, no shot ‘cause of the branches below. The tip of the left limb of my crossbow scrapes a branch; he stops and is looking around to see what made the noise. For three minutes he stands there, as if frozen, checking the wind with his tongue and then he starts to play with the branches above his head. What a relief, he is comfortable again.
He takes a few steps and it’s as though we make eye contact and I pray, “don’t look up here...”. All I can see is his head; I don’t want to look at the rack. He moves out from under the branches but still no clear shot on the vitals, finally two more steps and he is angled away with his head down and I have a clear view of his body. I raise my crossbow and put the glowing red crosshairs of the Lumizone on the spot and pull the trigger. He sprints to the right and hooks back left towards the bush. I wonder, “Why can I still see my green and white fletching just above his back as he’s running?”. I watch until the branches again block my view. I look to the spot where he was standing, no blood or bolt on the ground. Fear hits me and I’m replaying the shot in my head. The placement seemed perfect for the angle, but, then I realize that the bolt must have stopped when it hit the opposite shoulder blade trying to exit. It’s 7:36 am.
I am still sitting and waiting, it’s been 40 minutes. I’m listening for the sound of a buck falling, but I don’t hear any sounds. I decide to give him time just in case. I climb down to check for blood again. Nothing, no blood trail. So I head home for breakfast.
My wife and son want to come help track him down. We start out at 11 am. It only took me 10 minutes to find the start of a blood trail, about 40 yards from where I shot him. He went down about 175 yards from the stand in the meanest slash and cover you can imagine. At 12:30 we start to extract him from the bush on a borrowed toboggan. The snow is deep and the trail is untouched. In our area we have accumulated approximately 170 cm of snow to date... in some places the snow was crotch deep. At 3:30 pm we had pulled 200 pounds of dead weight out into open field but we can’t drag him any further we are so exhausted. Luckily my hunting buddy phones and says he can bring his snowmobile to pull him the rest of the way.
The shot was good; it broke two ribs on entering, severed the main artery and sliced the top of the right lung. The bolt was still sticking out of his back when I found him. No waiting was required he would have been dead within minutes. He ran until he dropped. He has been eating so much corn the fat was yellow, just like corn fed beef. Yum Yum.
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Boo do you like his "whiskers"....
[img][img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v675/ ... 007031.jpg[/img][/img]
Now it ain't so fun....believe me
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my 1 day to go 8 pt w/long story
Moderator: Excalibur Marketing Dude
my 1 day to go 8 pt w/long story
Last edited by fletch on Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Congrats. Nice looking buck. There is nothing like scoring when you're running out of time is there. Especially if you're willing to take almost anything and then a nice shooter walks out.
Last edited by Partikle on Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Population Control Specialist
00 Buck - Licensed to kill
00 Buck - Licensed to kill
Good going! It's a very nice buck and awesome pictures. Didn't take long to set up did it? You've got pictures that I hope you get blown up and hung up! Nothing better than a great deer and a great smile is there?
Thank you for showing off your string, I love seeing them in pictures!
Thank you for showing off your string, I love seeing them in pictures!
Some people just like stepping on rakes
My 1 day to go 8 point
Congratulations on a fine animal.
Just a word of suggestion: pull a deer by the head as the hair lays facing towards the tail. Pulling by the head, the hair lays flat whereas pulling the opposite way, the hair is being turned backwards.The difference in direction of pull is very noticeably easier, especially without snow.
bbbwb
Just a word of suggestion: pull a deer by the head as the hair lays facing towards the tail. Pulling by the head, the hair lays flat whereas pulling the opposite way, the hair is being turned backwards.The difference in direction of pull is very noticeably easier, especially without snow.
bbbwb
Re: My 1 day to go 8 point
I think there is a sleigh buried in that snow under the buck.bbbwb wrote:Congratulations on a fine animal.
Just a word of suggestion: pull a deer by the head as the hair lays facing towards the tail. Pulling by the head, the hair lays flat whereas pulling the opposite way, the hair is being turned backwards.The difference in direction of pull is very noticeably easier, especially without snow.
bbbwb
Population Control Specialist
00 Buck - Licensed to kill
00 Buck - Licensed to kill