We have not had a lot of activity on this property, but there is a great pinch to hunt where there is a 30 foot deep ravine that runs all the way up the bluff to within 60 yards of a CRP field. Stand is on the South side of the ravine. We were running a bit late, and by the time we got to the property it was pink light out. I knew I had a 20 minute walk, and would have to be moving, so I packed up my gear in my backpack and started the hike up the bluff. I got to the top, and was not too warm, but warm enough I wanted to give myself 10 minutes to cool down before getting dressed. When I got to the base of the tree, I heard 3-4 grunts that were close. I thought, oh crap, I pushed a buck up the hill. I hurried up and got dressed, and got in the tree, hoisted my bow up, and got settled for a minute. I decided to hit the grunt a few times to see what would happen. I did not get a response, so I sat down to collect my bearings for a moment. Rest of the morning was pretty uneventful, at about 8:30 I had a nubby walk by the stand 2-3 times, and I thought well, maybe mom is close and with a buck. Around 9:30 a.m. I see movement in the tree 80 yards up the hill from me. Our fence line is 40 yards up the hill, and the neighbor's land comes to a point on the other side of the fence. The tree I see movement in is about 40 yards up from their fence, and I finally figure out it is another hunter climbing out of the tree, and hunting the same pinch that I am, but another stand that has never been there in the 7 years of hunting this property. It irritates me a little bit and I text my buddy that we have new neighbors in this stand. He said, hang tight, if he is walking out he may kick something up to you. I though, yes good idea, great morning, sun is shining, why not. Best part of this is I am sure he thought I was a buck coming up the hill, and he was the one grunting. I did not know he was there so I was rattling about every hour that morning, the other hunter must have had me picked off. About 10:15 a.m. I look to the north on the other side of the ravine and I can see this guy about 70 yards from me just cruising, no doe in front of him. I hit the grunt call and he come in on a string. The deer have to go around the top of the ravine, and about 10 yards before the crest there are 2 down trees, so when he gets to that point I draw. He hangs up and I can only see his antlers, the rest of his body is behind the tree. I hold for a minute, and have to let down because arms are starting to shake. He puts his head down and turns and walks away. I hit the grunt again and he come right back, this time I wait until his front 1/2 has cleared the down trees. I hold for about 20 seconds and he starts coming my way exposing the part I need. 25 yards, hit the release and smack. He bolts tail down, shot felt good, I smoked him in my mind.
I text my buddy, buck down. I climb out of my tree and he texts back. Be there in 1/2 hour. I go find the arrow, and looks great.
Buddy gets to me at about 11:30, we sit down and talk about it, and give him some more time to expire. We start tracking about 12:30. The blood in the 1st 50 yards is awesome. Never had to look, just kept walking. He gets about 100 yards out and takes a left and jumps a fence. I thought, oh no, that is not a good sign. We cross the fence and continue to track great blood, thinking this buck has to be dead on his feet with no more blood in him. We go about another 100 yards and find a bloody bed. In hind sight we should have backed out after the 1st 100 yards. But the blood is too good, we think about what to do for a minute, and both say, he has to be dead in the next 100 yards. We track lesser blood due to plugging up while bedded to another fence, but had gone about 100 more yards or 300 into it. He did not jump this fence although the deer trail went across, but instead started cutting down parallel to the fence. We decide its time to back out. It is 2:00 p.m. by now, and we both agree we should leave him overnight. We both had work to do on Monday, so we both go home to get our work done, and I head back down at 5:00 a.m., I am tracking by 9:00 a.m., buddy shows up around 10:30 a.m. I tracked him down the fence and it comes to some creek bottom. We lose blood, find blood, lose blood. We both agree that he has to be laying dead in the creek or in the CRP grass by the creek. We look for 2 hours, no buck. We start looking at all the deer crossings where they cross the creek going to a cut bean field, and we finally find a speck of blood on the other side that opens up into the field. My buddy goes to the other end of the bean field where it meets the county highway. The highway is about 30 yards above the bean field. I look along the creek to see if he is paralleling the windrows or if he crossed the bean field as we have no blood to work from. I get a call from my buddy and he says he crossed the highway. I asked him how he knew that and he said there is a blood trail going right across the highway. The buck must have opened back up from having to climb the hill to cross the road. I get there and plain as day you can see the blood trail crossing the road. I start thinking, is this the deer I shot or one that got hit by a car. We push on.
We get up to a snowmobile trail that parallels the county highway, he goes east, I go west. We both go about 1/4 mile each direction with no blood. I am trying to find trails that come down the hill where they would be crossing the highway to get to the bean field and there are none. My buddy calls me again and says there is a Y in the trail down where he is at and the Y goes up the bluff. I said, lets give it a shot. We find 2 spots on this trail where he must have stood for 1-2 seconds as there were 2-3 drops of blood in each spot. I am thinking, how can this buck being going up a 300 foot bluff after losing this much blood. We get 2/3 the way up the bluff and can smell him.
He bedded down 2-3 feet off the snowmobile trail against a big oak tree and expired.
This is the toughest tracking job and toughest deer I have ever harvested. We mapped it out on google earth and this buck went 1.1 miles from where I shot him. After gutting him he was quartering towards me more than I thought. Arrow placement was good, but maybe 2 inches low. I ended up smoking 1 lung and out the other side though the liver. Steep shot, so the arrow put a hole though his bottom or white hair and I think this is why the blood was so good. As we were tracking I was thinking maybe it was a muscle hit with all the blood, but I kept replaying the shot in my mind, and thought, no way. I put it right where it was supposed to be.
Anyhow great buck, and another great learning lesson for us both. If they are not dead in the 1st 100-200 yards, back out. Had we backed out when he jumped the fence or in the 1st 100 yards, he would have died in his bed, and we would have found him later that day I think if we would not have bumped him.
I couldn't be happier and was ecstatic to get it done before the guns came out in Minnesota.
Trail camera photo
ATL where we found him
More harvest photo's.
