I started seeing this buck in early July about a mile from where I shot him with different buck bedding in a pothole just off the road. I got a lot of footage of him.
I went after him right away early season but the tall grass that made up his bedding area was all blown down so he relocated. He started popping up on camera on a piece of land I can hunt so I paid attention to where he was being seen and narrowed him down to one bedding area because I had photos of him heading into it. Muzzle loader season came and I was frustrated. My first morning out, I spotted this buck with a doe.
I snuck close to him and shot and missed. Later that night I set up again and he came back looking for his doe. I made a quick shot and missed again! I was frustrated and looking for payback! A few nights after the muzzle loader season ended I went shinning and lit him up. I got great film and was excited to see him still alive. I hunted a few bedding areas morning and night with no luck seeing the big boy. Then the other morning we got snow. I waited a day so the deer could make some tracks and went for a walk. I walked the edge of the swamp and field looking for any big set of tracks where I lit this buck up. I put in about three hours of walking and I found a good set of tracks cutting into the swamp. I sat and thought for a while in the snow about why this deer would be cutting in this way if it was him. It made perfect sense; this buck was cutting across wide open fields and walking past almost no trees. He was cutting in the swamp about 150 yards downwind of where I had trail cam pictures of him cutting in the swamp in October. I never would have thought a buck would cut across fields like this head into the swamp where he did. That’s why he did it; because no one thinks of it. SO I decided to set up! The wind was perfect this morning. I got in early and set up my lone wolf. The wind was perfect; if he were to come in it would be in both of our favors. At very first light I looked up and saw two deer coming. It was him followed by a doe/fawn!!!! I could not believe he was doing what I expected. He walked all the way across the field straight at me and I decided not to touch the camera. I didn’t want to chance him seeing me messing with it. He got to 20 yards and I whistled to stop him. My whistler was froze and made a funny sound.
He hopped away and was now at 30 yards. I quickly set the pin on him and squeezed off and saw my nock disappear. The shot looked “ok”. He ran on top of a hill and stood for 20 seconds and trotted over the other side. I decided to give it some time and ran home to get my dad. An hour later we came back and walked over the hill. He was nowhere to be seen. There was almost no blood but the arrow was drenched! I wanted to puke! I was worried I hit him in the leg with the lack of blood. We decided to at least follow his tracks to the other end of the field. At one point my dad looked up towards a small brushy point that stuck out into the field. There he was!! Dead! I was pumped! How could there be almost no blood and have him die that quick. Turns out I hit him high and back but passed through both lungs. He should have bled way more. It was super weird. He was a great buck, my biggest ever! This is the first target buck I have ever been after that I took and it’s a great feeling. Once again, I can honestly say that if it was not for Dan and all you guys on the forum I would have never gotten this buck. Thanks Hunting Beast!!
http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz10 ... to/mf2.jpg
[bbvideo=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMQIXaNyKBk[/bbvideo]
