I hunted hard all earlier archery here in Indiana, weather patterns, bounce around a lot, visited new spots and some old haunts and had a terrible time seeing, let alone getting on a big deer. I had one good encounter with a very nice 8 the second weekend of November but I just couldn't get a decent shot as the deer passed directly underneath me. Saturday was our gun opener and the wind just wasn't right for the spot I really wanted to hunt, so I chose a spot I haven't hunted in three or four years. An island of trees in a CRP field with some pine thickets scattered about. I used to love bow hunting this spot because the doe trails come to it like the spokes on a bike wheel, but unless a buck is right on a doe trail, they always seemed to cross cut the doe trails 50 yards out. This has lead me to stop hunting the spot in bow season, I have seen several good bucks from this location but I could never kill them because of the travel routes the mature bucks take. I was mentally to the point where I was just ready to shoot the first thing that walked by with antlers. I got into my perch about a 1/2 hour before shooting light. At 7:15 this deer passed upwind of me, but with the clear skies and frosty morning the thermals were taking my scent almost straight up and over this deer. I initially heard him making a ground scrape but due to the brush growing up quite a bit since I last hunted this spot all I could see was the top of his rack at 50 yards, so I let him walk on. He made his way into a pine thicket about a 100 yards away, right in front of two fence sitters (neighbors
). He either caught them moving or smelled them (they were moving alot) and started blowing at them from inside the thicket, up to this point they were oblivious to his presence. When he first passed by me I assumed he was a yearling, but when he blew at them is was very deep and I knew right away it was a better deer than I initially thought. Once the fence sitters started bleating at him he had enough and began making his way back towards me. He stopped broadside at 50 yards but was directly in line between them and I. I let him come another 20 yards and put the cross hairs on him, I could see a 4 point side and what looked a snapped off main beam. As he stepped into an opening in the pine trees it was pretty obvious this wasn't a yearling, but still looked like he would have only been about a 100" deer. O well it's cold, I'm tired and he is standing right there and I have an audience
, BOOM. He ran about 20 yards into another pine thicket and stopped, no crash. I heard the bullet impact but his reaction told me it wasn't the hit I had hoped for. I waited a half hour and didn't hear him again, text my wife and told her I thought I was done for the season and that I wasn't real sure what I had shot, other than it was a buck that looked like it had a big body. She decided to call me, so I answered, as we were talking I finally heard him take some hard stagger steps and lay down. I waited another half hour and then climbed down, shed some clothes and had a cup of coffee at the base of the tree. I eased my way over to the spot where I shot him and couldn't find any blood or hair, there had to be some but I couldn't find it. I was able to find his track, a couple of 4 finger walking tracks where he came in and then where he dug in after I shot him. I followed his tracks for about 10 yards and still not seeing any blood, I was pretty sure I was going to need help, I stood in one spot for probably 10 minutes trying to decide what I wanted to do, back out or take the chance of pushing him. As I stood there I heard some weed snap and looked to my left, I could see the hind end of a deer, curled up like it was bedded, and then I saw his hind legs straighten out, I'm pretty sure he was already dead and I witnessed rigamortis set in. As soon as I saw him I knew it was not a yearling, body looked really big. Huge head and roman nose (I have never seen one like this around here). Field dressed 215, the pictures I took don't really do him justice, I need to get better at that, I sprayed him down with the hose to wash blood off which didn't help with good photos either. I get the feeling that he's a real old deer but I don't know, the 4 point side looks like a 2.5 year old but I wouldn't think the body or head would be that large if he was. Honestly a pretty ugly deer with a lot of character but he's going on the wall regardless.
Sorry for the long read, my brother also was able to get a six pointer and a doe on a different farm, not to bad for only hunting 2 hrs all season.
