I managed to have a bout of good fortune yesterday afternoon.
This nice 4 pointer….the body was big and he was very heavy wandered in around 3:40pm.
I had seen several does from my perch and had missed one and wrecked an arrow during the wee morning hours when I attempted a longish shot that I should not have tried.
Fortunately the arrow hit the ground in front of the doe and she went loping off.
Mr. Buck came in from the south and made a dead stop 25 yards out. It was overcast and windy with a 15 mph breeze blowing steadily from the northwest. The woods were noisy with leaves falling everywhere. The ground was wet and so was everything else from the steady morning rain. I knew he couldn’t smell me or, hear me so if I was careful maybe he wouldn’t see me either.
I sat perfectly still for what seemed to be 4 hours…it was about 4 minutes. As the adrenalin kicked up my hands began to shake (worse than my normal vibrational pattern). When he took a step forward his head was behind a tree. I slowly stood and brought the Hoyt up to eye. I drew it back and waited.
Only a few seconds passed and he started moving towards me with his head down sniffing about. He was at 18 out and I put the glowing green pin on his shoulder. He was not perpendicular to my so the shot would traverse his body at a good angle. As he stepped forward there was a noise behind me and he jumped to attention. As I punched the release trigger he jumped forward. The arrow hit further back than I had anticipated and higher too. I was thinking…this is gonna suck tracking him for the next 2 days.
Much to my relief as he bolted by I could see the blood literally spraying out like a squirt gun. Apparently I hit a main artery because I’ve never seen that type of spray from a bow shot previously.
I wanted to get down so bad…but I yanked out my smart phone and set the timer for 20 minutes. I looked up deer anatomy diagram to see what major vessel would be in the area of the hit. I was relieved to see that on the diagram the primary vessel that supplies blood to the entire aft deer engine was exactly where I saw the bleeding.
20 minutes go buy…I double check my safety tie ins to be sure I don’t damage myself on the way down. Arriving at ground level; I spy the area where the arrow hit. Blood is everywhere. Almost looks like there was an axe used. I take a deep breath and very slowly start to follow the “way too easy blood trail”. It took me about 10 minutes to cover the 60 yards necessary to find the buck. He had leaked out and was lying in the middle of the trail all sprawled out. I breathed a sigh of relief and began the field dressing process. The field dressing was going great until I had the idea to wipe some deer fat off on my pants. Helpful hint…Don’t do this when you are still pumped with a sharp knife. I wasn’t bleeding too badly and it will heal. My wife will probably manage a patch on the wool pants and under armor too.
Dragging him out was a total b*tch. He was a heavy mother and when you see the picture you will notice 2 things. First my deluxe blue velvet Harbor Freight gutting gloves! Yes, I am a stylish hunter. And second my mouth is still open sucking wind from the drag.
The post mortem showed the arrow had gone in just behind the top of the right lung. It hit the main artery and then the spine. Upon hitting the spine I suspect it broke in half (I found the back half of the arrow about 20 yards from the hit). The front half of the arrow was deflected down and came to rest inside the left rear leg!
All and all it was an exciting day. I’ll be out again soon with 3 more tags to fill. My crossbow is tuned for the mid November start date for that implement. My rifles are good to go for late November and the muzzle loader is sighted and greased for late season. I’ll keep you all advised of my success.
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