This year marks the first year I’ve been able to get out deer hunting during the rut. I’ve never done much deer hunting before nor took it seriously… so this year was definitely a year to put effort into getting my first buck. I finished working at the end of October so I’ve had some time on my hands to sit in the duck blind and chase some whitetails.
Two weeks before I started hunting, I took my girlfriend for a walk around the property where we deer/turkey hunt. I scouted while she was amazed at the property and just being out together. She’s a full time nurse, getting her as far away from work duties is what I try to do in our down time. She was amazed at the whole process of setting out apples, salt licks, and then getting into a standing corn field and taking the cobs to toss them over where we had put our apples. It was neat when we arrived at the corn, we flushed up a young buck but neither of us could tell how big. So we found ground scrapes and a couple broken twigs. Good scouting trip in my books. About a week later we returned and brought more apples to the same spots and found everything had been hit by the deer or nibbled by the turkeys and more broken twigs and ground scrapes where evident. We also found rubs in some of the areas too… This proved to be another successful scouting trip.
Nov. 8th. I returned to the farm a third time, and this time I had my recently purchased bow… A simple phoenix is all that I could afford, but I’m learning that I may with to upgrade when my brother in law decides to take up bow hunting. I decided to check all my apples and identified 4 areas that have serious action. I checked the closest 3 and decided to goto the farthest area where we dropped off the salt lick. Upon arriving to the location, I flushed two does. One was within 15yards of me. I sat down and settled on a fence line. I quickly learned that the squirrels never knew I was present, but after an hour or so some started to act up with me being there. That was lesson learned #1 from the forum… Squirrels are indicators of what may be coming through. So the night starting closing in and nothing had come my way. I packed it in, and as I was leaving I flushed something in the exact position where I flushed the two does from… No luck on the first hunt.
Nov. 10th. Three days later and after an unsuccessful morning getting permission of honkers, I decided to go back in and bring more apples to the 4 areas that have been getting action. I returned to hunt the area where I flushed something as I was leaving on the first hunt. The area was a fence line between a woodlot and open clover field. About an hour before sunset, a doe ran from the woodlot straight through to the clover field and I heard a loud Ting. She hit the top fail of the fence as she jumped… That woke me up good. Darkness started setting in quick since I was hunting under and enclosed canopy and the trees removed daylight faster. I put my bow down to put on my orange fest and low and behold, a deer less than 10yards to my left walking down the pathway of the woodlot. He spots me and stares at me and I stare back at him. I didn’t even blink and at this point my heart was racing like mad. First deer, no bow in my hand, oh crap what do I do now. It was like being caught without your gun and honkers have their landing gears on coming in to your decoys. I can credit waterfowl hunting for being so patient with this situation and being calm so I didn’t move. The deer returned to feeding and at that time he was right in front of me – broadside – walking down the path, from left to right. There was a buckthorn tree about 4 inches in diameter and cedar tree about 15inches in diameter that blocked the deer from seeing me move my head and slowly putting my hand on the bow. I hit the safety and he looked back at me. I stared again for about a minute then returned to feeding. At that point I brought the bow on my lap. I got my hand secure and shouldered the bow faster than anything I have ever shouldered before and had a second to look through the scope and then fired. I heard a thud; I just couldn’t believe what was going on. The buck jetted right into the open clover field and I didn’t pay much attention thereafter. My first shot at a deer with the phoenix. At this point, my ride was waiting up at the entrance of the farm and had no clue that I just shot. I couldn’t find the arrow at the time (it went into the ground level and was covered with white cedar leaves. I had to trust my gut that I hit him. Got my father and my visiting uncle from newfie who were waiting at they were amazed that I got one. They were also amazing that I ran about 2km in my bibs and coat to find them. We got the truck to the clover field and started looking, and sure enough 75 yards from where I shot, he was expired with an entrance and exit hole. Perfect shot placement and just a great fat young buck. We didn’t get to weigh him, but after I butchered him up on the 13th, I figured I got about 70 lbs of meat in steaks, roasts, and hamburg.
Nov. 14th. Friday AM was an okay morning for chasing honkers with my father and uncle on the water. We managed to get 6. In the afternoon we found a field and secured a hunt for Saturday morning chasing more honkers. All three of us decided to return to the farm to bring more apples and see if we could fill my father’s tag. This was more an opportunity to get out of the house than anything and we didn’t have any expectations but to scout more. My father and uncle were together with one phoenix and I was next to a scrape that had a couple fresh rubs on some ash trees without any of the apples I left behind. We get settled in and where hunting a semi-dry swamp woodlot with a laneway that intersects the area. I setup on the ground and placed myself where I thought the deer would go for the apples. My father was about 120yards directly to my north sitting on the fence line of the laneway where he’s shot deer in the past during shotgun season. After settling in, we hear something making notice to the west in the woodlot, but nothing comes out. About 30min later, I started to hear squirrels sound off and then I started hearing something walking through the upcoming ash stand. About 60yards and closing, I spot a larger buck. This guy looked huge compared to the one I already harvested. As he got closer I could see his rack and started to position myself while he was behind some trees. He stopped and looked my way, and I couldn’t tell how many points where there through the scope. After a minute or so he started walking again and continued on the path where I’ve left apples in the past. Finally, the buck shows himself and he’s a big 8pt. I didn’t want to shoot directly down the lane way due to my father and uncle, so I have an angled shot and only had a few options. I didn’t have the complete broadside shot available. I didn’t think to shoot him while he was walking, but as he got to the laneway, which was a couple feet high that he would have to climb, he looked right at me. At that point… I fired my 2nd shot and hit my 2nd deer. Truly amazing; the accuracy of the phoenix. This deer was a bit farther and I didn’t hit him as accurately as the previous deer. From what I saw, I was under the impression he was coming directly out of the path that had the apples, but in fact he was about 5-10yards farther. The shot ended up being 30yards and I fixated him to be 22-25yards. The shot was low, and any lower, I may have missed him. The arrow went through the front of his chest and came out the front shoulder. The arrow deflected and I found it hanging in a red dogwood shrub covered in blood. That confirmed the hit… I got my father and uncle to come down immediately and we waited 30min or so before starting to follow the blood trail. This was quite the event. 3 newfie’s, two LED flashlights and 2 pairs of rubber boots. I didn’t have a light or rubber boots… We had a blood trail that was about a foot or so off the ground at times for about 2 hours and had to cross a decent creek where my father and uncle got through the creek, but I couldn’t… My father tossed me his rubber boots after he’d gone through. This was hilarious at the time! The blood trail got thicker after he was out of the woodlot and into an open hay field. We started to see larger pools of blood and finally started seeing areas where he laid down, then got back up and continued. The buck did a massive circle of the property and expired about 100yards directly in line to the south from where the first buck expired. What a thrill. The 8pt was massive and I’m glad we were able to make the recovery. We weighed this guy and he was 200 lbs with his head and hide still attached. We estimated he was about 165-170 lbs with the head and fur off. There was lots of meat and a decent amount of fat on this buck so I put it into steaks, roasts and sausage a couple days later.
What a year it’s been. I just want to say thanks for Excalibur as well as the online community that have been able to help me harvest my first two deer this year. The sad part about getting these two bucks is that I was tagged out by nov 14th. I had a lot of extra time on my hands and was unable to get any additional tags for my area. I didn’t even go out for the shotgun season… (YES!!
)Happy holidays to all and I’m looking forward to the new year already.
after finding that big one.