Finally, My First Mature Buck With A Bow!
Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:39 pm
For the past two weeks I had been hunting a big 8 point buck in the area I was hunting behind my house and I had seen him 6 times. Three of which were too dark and he just wasn’t close enough the rest. Before the season I had a few trail cam pics of bucks using a trail behind the house so I elected to hang a stand there where two deadfalls funnel the deer to the trail. Things started heating up in the rut and I was dead set on getting this big 8 pt that started running behind the house. So I started hunting my stand and switching on and off to a climber to move around trying not to overhunt it. I was able to see the 8 point a couple times leading up to that Saturday, but no shot opportunities. Come Saturday morning (Nov. 6th) I didn’t see a thing, nothing was moving. After the morning hunt I talked to my Dad and told him it was absolutely dead back there, nothing is moving. So he decided he would do a little solo man deer drive for me that afternoon. Sometimes we’ll do that just to get the deer moving a little bit. So I got in the stand and he started doing his drive so I was watching in the direction he was coming from. Then I get a text message saying to call him if I can. So I’m still standing there watching his direction and I’m thinking nothing is happening so I open my phone up, go in to my contacts and am about to call my Dad when I hear something behind me. I turn and there’s a buck right at 25 yards! And he is moving quickly through my lane so I’m trying to swiftly put my phone away and get ready. At this point I’m facing my tree with my bow on the wrong side so I have to point the bow up to get the arrow to clear the tree to get to the other side. By the time I did all that and drew back it was the last possible chance to shoot him. So I let out a murhhh type sound and he stopped looking right at me. His front shoulder was behind a tree but I had enough that I was confident I could kill him so I let the arrow fly. I watched the arrow hit perfectly and off the buck ran. Moments later I called my dad and told him I had just shot one and he was crazy looking. It all happened so fast I barely knew what I shot, but I knew it was nice and crazy looking. So I gave the deer almost an hour and headed out with my dad to follow the blood trail for about a hundred yards and there he was! My first mature buck with a bow, and my first ten point! I couldn’t help but wish that his right side wasn’t deformed but nevertheless, I couldn’t be more appreciative of a deer like this. The excitement and successfulness of the hunt was such a great feeling and even though the buck came the opposite way from my where my dad was pushing, it was still great to have him out there and in on the hunt. I think the buck was 31/2, but can't be sure. Regardless he's a great buck for PA and my standards as I'll continue to try to work my way up!