I set up about 150 yds from a bedding point Saturday October 10th. Around 7 p.m. I saw two bucks, but didn’t get a great look at either one. There was a bigger one and a smaller one. Sunday October 11th, I went back to the same stand (left it up over night), and had two bucks come in again. I shot the bigger one this time. It was a really long track job. Emotional highs and lows, and finally the recovery of my first public land buck!
Full Story:
Saturday afternoon, October 12th, I set out for a piece of public that I have hunted for the last 2 years, but have never shot a deer on (had opportunities, but only does and 1.5yr old bucks). I left the house around 2 p.m. I only hunt this spot a handful of times each year because it’s a bear to access. I have to cross a river in chest waders, and then I usually walk about ½ to 1 mile to my stand sites. The site I setup this particular afternoon was 0.86 miles from the truck. The terrain is hilly with elevation changes of 100-150ft in some spots. It’s not true hill country, but is right along a river, so there are lots of drainages, creeks, ridges, etc. By the time I got all geared up, across the river, hiked to my location and set up, it was about 3:45 p.m.
I setup about 150 yards back from a N/S bedding point where the tip of the point is facing north. The timber is pretty mature in this area, and I didn’t feel like I could get a whole lot closer without busting any potentially bedded deer. The wind was out the SW, so I set up on the east side of the point and hoped my scent would be off enough, but the wind was still a good one (south) for the deer to be bedded on the north facing point. I had run a trail camera on this property in late August through early September for about 4 weeks, and I knew this particular point and the small valley on the west side of the point saw regular a.m. and p.m. deer travel. However, even though I had 6 different bucks on camera, I think 5 of them were 1.5yr olds, and 1 looked to be a 2.5yr old 6pt. I wasn’t too excited at these prospects, but hey, it was a bedding area with deer using it, and it was on my rotation. So, out I went!
Setup Pic
It was a pretty uneventful sit until about 7 p.m. I had been looking to the west the majority of the time, because that’s where I expected deer movement based on the trail camera intel. I glanced to the east and noticed a larger bodied deer, then I noticed antlers, and they looked OK to me. At this point, I should re-iterate, I had never shot a public land buck, and my only criteria was that I wanted to shoot something 2.5yr+. Back to the story...so I decide this buck might fit the bill. I drew back and started to settle the pin, then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I look to the south east and there is another buck, but the body is smaller. I immediately look back at the first buck. He is about 27-28 yards away, and in the mature canopy, it is already getting kind of dark. I can’t make out the rack in great detail, and I decide I’m not sure if I want to drag an average buck a mile out of public then across a river, so I let my bow down. The bucks worked away feeding and never got downwind of me. It was a fun hunt, and I had a little more confidence in the area. I had actually been getting more daylight buck activity on the camera in the mornings, so I decided I would leave the stand up over night and come back and try it again in the morning before moving on.
Sunday, October 11th, my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m., and I really didn’t want to get up. I’m not a morning person...at all...it’s probably my Achilles Heal as a hunter. When Dan Infalt said p.m. hunting is better on average, you better believe I was buying what he was selling, but mostly because I now had an expert, the BBSK himself, telling me it was OK to sleep in! Anyway, after a snooze or two, I convince myself that this year, I am going to hunt every opportunity I get, and I will make my own luck. So, off I go, into the darkness to wade the river, hike the mile back, etc. etc.
I got to my tree and still had about 15-20 minutes of darkness before grey light. I felt like I did a decent job of getting in without being obnoxiously loud or tripping over every branch in the woods (I’ve done that too many times before). Dawn was around 7:15 a.m. and by 7:40, the sun was rising. It doesn’t take me long in the morning to think, “Well, this is dumb, you can’t kill a buck in the morning on an early season hunt, they’re already bedded.” I think a lot of the time this is true for mature bucks, but then again, I wasn’t out to kill a B&C buck, I just wanted to shoot any 2.5+ for my first public land buck.
Around 8:10 a.m. I look over to the west, where I expected movement, and “Hey, there’s a deer!, Yep it’s a buck.” So I pull up my range finder to take a better look at the rack, and it’s a 4pt about 45 yards away. I put the range finder down and look to the SW, and “Hey, there’s another buck!” This one is bigger, the body is noticeable bigger than the 4pt, and I can some 2 pts sticking up and a relatively longer main beam (relative to the 4pt’s main beam that is). So this whole process takes about 4-6 seconds to occur. I pretty much instantly decided that this buck meets my 2.5+ criteria for state land. I draw back, settle the pin and shoot. From the time I first saw the buck to the time I shot was probably less than 60 seconds. I see the lumenok on its way, and it buries into the deer. When the deer wheels around to high tail it out of there, I got my first look at the inside spread, and I guessed it to be 13-14”, which is pretty typical of a 2.5yr old deer in my neighborhood. The buck runs about 25 yards and I see the arrow come out. I’m thinking this is good, I just smoked my first 2.5yr old buck on public land. I text my girlfriend and a few hunting buddies that I just arrowed a buck. I waited in the stand about 30 minutes, then I took my stand down leisurely and packed up. Probably about 50 minutes has gone by, and I decide to take up the track. I can still see the arrow where it fell out 25 yards from the shot, so I walk straight over to it. Well, my hunting beast friends, this was the first bad sign. The arrow had good blood the full length of the shaft and on the fletching, so it was a pass through like I thought, but it also had some grit on it, and it smelled like a paunch shot.....now, I’m instantly bummed. Since the forest floor is pretty open, I decided I would take up the track and go very slowly and quietly, looking ahead every few steps for a bedded deer. I wanted to go about 100yds or so to see what kind of blood I was working with, and see if I found any bubbles or more stomach matter. I actually found pretty decent blood, and even had a doe walking within 30 yards of me before she noticed me and took off. Encouraged by the initial blood and no locations where the buck had bedded, I decided to keep looking. I tracked the deer slowly and methodically for another 150yds or so up to a fence line where the public land meets private land. This area isn’t too far from my girlfriend’s parents, and the father in law knows most of the neighbors. I decided that backing out was the best thing to do so I could get permission from the neighbors and give the buck more time to expire, since and this point, I know I didn’t double lung or heart shot him.
I made it back to the house around 1030 or 11a.m. We called the neighbors and got permission, they were both really nice older folks, one lady in her mid sixties, and the other property owner was 88. Believe it or not, the 88 year old drove from his home about 10 miles away and ended up tracking the deer with us through pretty hilly terrain, and the guy never missed a beat. Later he told us he shot a 9pt on his property earlier in the season. If I live to 88, I really hope I am in half the shape that this guy is; it was really inspiring.
So, we decide to take up the track again around 11:45. I’m a little nervous that the deer is still alive, but my father in law is a good hunter with lots of deer under his belt and literally probably 100s that he has helped others track. He is convinced by what I have told him and the arrow that the buck is dead and we will find it. So, with permission from the neighbors, my girlfriend, my father in law, the 88 year old property owner, and a backpack full of water, knives, drag rope, etc, we set off. I had my GPS with me in the morning, so I was able to take the tracking crew right to the fence where the deer had crossed. I marked the crossing with some branches with some leaves in distinctly human fashion so we would be able to find them. That worked well, and soon we were on the track.
The buck started heading down a draw and we made fairly good but slow progress for the next 250 yards or so over the course of about 30 minutes. Then he started up a side hill heading out of the draw. Blood was getting harder to come by and our pace slowed, but we were still making progress. At the top of the hill, the blood trail got very hard to follow. We were finding pencil eraser sized drops ever 30-40 yards if we were lucky. It was enough to keep us heading in the right direction, but just barely. It did take us about an hour to cover the next 100 yards. At this point, we were about 1.5hrs into the track and starting to wonder why we hadn’t found this buck that had a pass through shot and a decent blood trail. Over the next 30-40 minutes, we only made it another 75-100 yards and spirits were starting to fade a little bit. The buck was crossing another area of mature timber with little understory. I had the GPS, so I told the group I would go ahead and hopefully pick up some sign or maybe even find the deer laying just out of sight. I looked behind every log, in every pot hole, and around the few brushy areas....no deer, no deer, no deer. I had crossed the 300 yard area of mature timber and came to where the hill dropped back down towards a creek. I decided that I would drop halfway down the hill side and work back towards the tracking group. About halfway back, I realized I was right on another boarder with the public land and I saw a good land bridge that kind of connects two hill sides but is raised up higher than the rest of the valley floor. I had scouted the opposite of this bridge in the spring and it looked very “bucky.” I’m desperate at this point, so I decide to walk the land bridge a little and see if I can pick up any blood. I’m about 40-50 yards down the bridge when I look to the right and about crap my pants. Holy cow, there’s a deer! At this point, I had been so discouraged, I actually thought, “Wow, someone else shot a deer out here too, and I found it...that’s weird.” But then it sinks in, this deer looks fresh, it has to be my buck. At this point, I’m not even sure if it’s dead, but it’s not moving. I had been tracking with my bow, so I knocked an arrow and drew back my bow, and started circle the buck because its head was facing away from me. “He’s not moving...that’s good. I can see his eyes, he’s still not moving, even better. I’m walking up to him, nothing. I nudged him with my boot, nothing. I let down the bow, and I just yelled out for the rest of the party “I found it!” It was such a huge relief. At this point, I got my first good look at the rack. It had 8pts and looked to be about the width I had guessed when I saw him wheel and run after the shot. I shot the buck around 8:10 a.m. and ended up finding him just before 2 p.m. According to my GPS waypoints, it was approximately 800 yards from where I shot him to where I found him, almost a half-mile.
When I saw the shot, I couldn’t believe he made it so far. The arrow entered about 3 ribs in from the back of the rib cage (approximately mid body both vertically and horizontally) and exited the armpit of the off shoulder. I think I just barely missed the near side lung, but hit the liver, and the off side lung. I really couldn’t believe that with the low exit wound, which was pretty good sized, that the deer didn’t bleed much more. Based on the blood, I was fully expecting a complete paunch shot, but I got two vitals. I don’t know...deer are extremely resilient creatures, and this guy was definitely no exception.
We were about a mile deep in the timber, in some pretty good hills. The landowner said he would wait with the deer if we wanted to go get an ATV, so that’s exactly what we did after we field dressed him. Finally got him out of the woods and into a walk-in cooler around 4 p.m. I am so happy that we were able to stick with the track and find this deer. I can’t thank my girlfriend, father in law, and the land owners enough on this one. I honestly don’t know if I would have found this buck without their help. To me, that’s one of the best things about hunting. We all made and shared some great memories and I know it’s a day any of us are likely to forget. The buckwon’t be making any record books, but is an absolute trophy to me, and it will be great to look at him in the future and relive the day I took him and the trails and tribulations we went through to recover him. First public land buck, a really difficult track job, and a happy ending. We will be talking about this one for quite a while.
Final numbers:
Track length=800yards
Points=8
Weight=150 lbs. field dressed
Inside spread=13”
Finally recovered
The tracking crew! Again, another huge thanks to all of them, not sure if I would have found this buck without their help.
Father in law, deer transportation specialist
Hoisted up for a weigh-in
