Hands down this has been the best season I've ever had. I've had a couple shot attempts at good bucks and have seen at least 5 shooters so far. Most seasons past I was lucky to see a single buck worth taking.
Fast forward to last night. Deer have been running good this past week, the chase is on. Exhausted from the hunt the day before, I decided to sleep in and get out for the afternoon. I made the 2 hour drive to the public land I have been focusing on this season. I was astonished to not see any trucks parked around this piece of land. Tire tracks in the muddy parking lot told me there were hunters there this morning, but no one was back yet from lunch. Thanks to my learning from The Beast I made my mile+ long journey up the road and around the back side of a ridge to drop into the head of a draw due to the wind. In years past I would have parked at the bottom and walked straight up the draw blowing my scent to every deer in the valley only to wonder why I didn't see anything.
I entered the top of the draw from the back and quietly set up my lone wolf about half way down, right as the thick cover above breaks off to an open shelf before dropping off into the steep creek bottom. As soon as I got settled in, movement to my right caught my eye. A mature doe approached from above looking dead at me. I think my movement caught her attention and she came to investigate. After she identified me in the tree from 20 yards out she swung up the ridge to catch the thermal and she was out of there.
An hour later a small 6 point cruised towards the top of the ridge from left to right in the thick cover. He paused briefly when he crossed my ground scent but it didn't seem to phase him. He worked his way out the top of the draw.
As the sun was setting all the flocking birds finally went quiet and I could here a pin drop in the woods. There was no wind but milkweed told me the thermals were dropping and heading down the draw and out the bottom, perfect! With 30 minutes left I heard a deer running over the ridge to my right making its way around towards me. It was about 100 yards away and just too dark to see it with it being so thick up there. I could here another deer come trotting in behind and finally was able to make out movement from its white tines! It was a good buck trailing a doe and they were headed my way. They worked their way around to me staying up in the thick just like the two other deer (lesson learned). The doe was able to give the buck the slip in the thick stuff and I could make out the buck roaming trying to pick up her scent. He let out a grunt...I responded right back followed up with a wheeze. He immediately did a 180 and headed back the direction he came. I figured I blew it as his steps were deliberate and pronounced. He began to circle and was headed down to the shelf below me. As he was circling wide to my right he hung up as he reached my level. I tried another grunt... no movement. He was about 80 yards out and I just couldn't see him. Desperate, I let out two soft doe bleats, and here he came running right at me!
He slowed up 20 yards out along the crest (same spot as the doe earlier) and broke down hill towards the shelf below. I could make out 2 nice main beams and didnt need to count points. With light fading, now was my chance. I drew when his head slipped behind a large tree (lesson learned from last week) and had to slow him down in a small shot window with a soft grunt. I settled the pin best I could and let the arrow fly. I heard a nice sounding thump and the buck jolted down hill making all kinds of ruckus. I lost sight of him after 40 yards but continued to hear him busting through the thick brush to my right then nothing, complete silence.
My nerves were shot so I took a second to compose myself. No completely dark, I gathered my things and got down to check the shot. To my surprise the arrow was covered in good blood, a complete pass through with gray tufts of hair on the ground.
I followed the kicked up leaves for a few yards before finding blood with my flash light. At first a few specs, then some nice lung blood.
I tracked him for about 40 yards before running up to a private property fence line. I shined my light across the fence the best I could but it was so thick I couldn't see anything. My heart sank. I didn't know who owned the land or if they would give me permission to go after the deer. I still wasn't too confident with the shot because I couldn't see impact and only had a fading blood trail to go off of. With as late as it was, I marked last blood and backed out. Now home with a cell signal, a call to the game warden gave me the name of the land owner and some googling yielded a phone number. Luckily at 9pm on a Saturday night, the land owner answered his phone. He lives over 3 hours away but gave me permission to go onto his land after the buck.
I couldn't sleep last night. I was back down there well before first light to beat the other hunters in. This time I made the quick hike up the draw, bumping two deer that I know of in the morning light. I followed the blood trail again to my last marked blood on the fence and looked over. 20 yards away I could make out a white belly.
He was down! He collapsed shortly after clearing the fence and never moved. The shot was high and back but it took out both lungs and severed the liver into multiple pieces.
This is my first bow kill and my largest buck to date all done on heavy pressure public land. I'm hooked and the bar has been set for me now. Big thanks goes out to this site, Dan, and the guys who grind it out that motivate me to keep going.
