Hunted the same stand morning and evening ( deep in the woods in cedars). My buddy was breaking in a new stand location for me on a different property about 1 km away. At 6:50pm this guy came down the trail to my stand.
11 yard shot with the Phoenix...nap spitfires....the deer was very close to me and put his nose to the ground facing me. I put the bolt down in his back between the shoulder and vertebrae(should have waited)......3 feet in front of my trail camera. I was not confident with the shot as I saw the bolt(luminock) snap in half as the buck run away. Found the bolt very close to the shot ...6 inches still in the deer. Decided not to track right away and hooked up with my buddy for a quick sub at Subway before we went back in the bush.
The high shot with no exit left very little blood but easy to track with blood starting 15 yards from the shot. 60 yard recovery...found in 10 mins...very dead with massive internal bleeding as the lungs were disconnected from the heart.
Got the ATV within 150 yards but used the deer cart to get to the bike. I am sure glad my buddy was there to help get the buck out of the bush! Trail cam pic at shot location as we went by it on the way out....good thing I had shut the camera off in the morning hunt or the flash may have scared the deer.
Not a monster( my guess 2.5 yr old )but I am very happy to have some early meat in the freezer!!
I feel kind of sad about this one as I have 2 pictures of him at the same location one moth prior to the harvest...sort of torn about not letting him walk but I am a meat hunter and he will be a trophy on my plate.
Thanks for reading...cam pics below!
Hunting shouldn't be about the biggest rack. It's about getting some good fresh meat, experiencing nature, and spending time with friend/family.