Shot this guy Wednesday morning at 8:30 am. My day started off on a roll. I finally had a southeast wind to hunt a spot where I shot a nice buck 2 years ago, on some MFL land. So I was all pumped up to hunt this spot and as I get to the spot I park, I see a NO Tresspassing sign.
and right next to it, a sign that says New Owners. So now I have to drive back the other way to some other public I hunted last year, the only problem is I don't have any stands right for a southeast wind. So I look through my little book of waypoints and find the one that will work best. I found a spot last year right by the road, a thick bedding area for a Northeast wind. So thinking about it I figured if I walked straight in from the road a hundred yards and then cut straight into the wind I would do the least damage. I finally got set up about 5 minutes after opening. I usually stand in my tree so I don't get caught off guard, but for some reason my mind started to wonder, thinking about some stuff happening back home and I sat down at about 8:15. I was listening to some noise in some thick stuff off to my right when I heard a noise in the marsh grass to my left. I looked over and their is a buck waking the edge of the bedding about 60 yards away. So I fumbled around and got my grunt call out of my pocket and hit it once. He stopped and looked right in my direction for about 45 seconds, then he put his head back down in the grass and when he did, I hit it once more. He instantly turned and headed straight at me, and fast. So when he got behind a windfall I drew back and waited to see which side he would walk around. He went on the side that took him behind me, so once he hit my one little opening I stopped him and shot. Because he was behind me, and I was sitting down I was stretched around the tree, and when I shot I must have pulled and hit him high and back. He ran about 25 yards and stopped between some small pine trees. He stood there for about 2-3 minutes and looked like he was going to go down but didn't. Then I thought, wait a minute how far away is he?? So I pulled out my range finder and ranged him at 39.5yards. I pulled out another arrow and drew back, only problem was about 15yards away their was a horizontal limb covering him up. So I stood on my tip toes and tried to hold on his vital and arc the arrow over the limb. I let it fly and this time hit him in the shoulder. Now he ran to about 60 yards and stood there for another 2 minutes with blood running down his shoulder, before running off and crashing through a bunch of brush out of sight. I waited a half hour and got down to look for my first arrow, but couldn't find it in the marsh grass and moss covering the ground. So I went back and got my dad and uncle and we went back around 1:30 in the afternoon. We only found blood where he first stood and then not another drop anywhere!! And we looked hard for over an hour, not even one drop where he stood the second time?? So we started looking in the direction he headed. We got separated so I started hitting every bedding area I found just looking for him to be laying there. A couple hours later my dad texted me saying they went back to last blood to start over, so I started heading back towards them. Just as I was about to leave some thick bedding I looked back and said, I better go check that windfall over there. As I got closer I looked and could see some brown in it!! And then The buck picked his head up
. I quick knocked an arrow and walked over by him, he was on his last leg but I put one more quick one in him to end it. So 8 hours later he was still alive. Not a pretty kill at all but at least I found him and he didn't go to waste. The biggest thing I learned from this buck was just how important it is to have your head in the game the whole time, because I decided to sit down I made a bad shot that could of been avoided. I am happy with him, he's a nice buck for the public ground I hunt.
