Now for the story...well the wind was out of the West and that makes my Ol' Faithful treestand worthless. I thought about not hunting our property at all and go to a neighbor's we'd gain permission on but I had a feeling that maybe I should go hunt the other side of our property near some red oaks and our main food plot (still small at 1/2 an acre). This treestand was perfect for western wind, I'd just never had much luck at all here with a bow seeing as how the deer movements normally are 50 yards away and I just don't shoot that far with my bow (even though the bow is capable). Well morning hunt was a good one, I had a nice 8-pointer feed on acorns in front of me for at least 25 minutes and then filter on back to bedding area.
It wasn't until 6:00 that stuff started happening. Squirrels started coming out, as did a flock of 20 turkeys who came right under my stand. The wind had died and things were finally moving. Not only did the turkeys move but now the Northern Indiana Militia of Squirrels was making an appearance. With about 8 squirrels all around me a doe came in at 6:30pm. Even though it isn't the rut I knew instantly to stand (I normally am standing but wasn't) when I could, get bow in hand and be ready in case a buck would filter in as well. around 6:50 the doe was still feeding on acorns when I saw it. The buck had stepped out of the bedding area in the exact same spot the doe had and was heading my way. I instantly knew this buck would use one of my arrows if presented the chance, I stopped studying the rack all together and focused on not moving and waiting.
The buck filtered around a mere 20 yards in front of me, for what seemed like an eternity, before I finally decided I couldn't wait any longer. I squeezed my arrow into a volleyball sized hole and immediately knew it found it's mark. The buck ran off with tail tucked, a great sign, and would eventually be heard crashing (or so I thought).
Here's where the story turns to the ugly. We searched for over 2 hours for that buck...and the blood went cold. At this point we were assuming it was a high shot, hence the slow blood trail. We decided we had to wait till the next morning...talk about a restless night!
Next morning I wake up, shower, dress and head outside to hop into the truck...only to be greeted by rain! The absolute worst experience of my hunting career just took a turn for the worse. What was going to be a track the blood trail in daylight, would now be nothing more then searching for a needle in a haystack. We started looking for it in the briar patch where I thought I heard it crash, but sadly after a full hour of crawling, army crawling and forcing my way through briars it turned up nothing. So we continued on East, the direction he was heading at last blood, and kept making circles and zig-zags throughout the woods. At one point my father decides he's gonna go back to last blood and restart fresh...I decide to search the area he just came from and maybe go towards the road more. In order to shorten the story I finally did find my buck but not until I'd given up hope of ever finding him. He was a mere 3 feet from a watery marsh that sits over 400 yards away from the stand I shot it in....
So now I can say I've been there when guys call me saying they couldn't find a deer...it's a gut wrenching, sleep depriving, hunger stealing type of feeling only true hunters can relate too. My advice though would be to stick with it. If you know you hit the deer good, don't push the thing that same night and the next day...what ever you do don't give up. That deer deserves you to keep looking...nothing worse than a dead deer to go unfound. That creature called the Whitetail deer is in my opinion one of the most awesome creatures God ever created and all of us need to respect that creation. Keep lookin'...you just might stumble upon your deer and be like me...a kid again hopping up and down yippin and hollerin so loud people from miles around could hear!
Good luck this season everyone!
1 comment:
Congratulations on a beautiful buck.
OV
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