Well, luck struck again for the 2nd year in a row. After spending around 40 sits in the tree stand this year, I managed to harvest another mature buck with the bow on the last day of the season.
I blew a chance on my target buck the 3rd week of October. Had him at 21 yards on an eerily calm late afternoon. The sound of the arrow sliding on the rest caused him to bolt immediately. I opted to not try threading an arrow thru the poplars at 40 yards when he stopped, as I couldn’t be sure there weren’t any little branches in the way as it was almost the end of legal light. After playing cat and mouse with him since 2020, I wanted to ensure a humane kill. So I let him walk, never to see him again on the hoof this season. I did get more trail cam pics of him, the last one on November 18th.
I passed up a good, but really young 5x5 on the 26th in hopes that he’ll be around in a year or two. Then the cold hit.
I opted not to sit on the 27th or 28th as the temps plummeted and the wind was gusting to 50-60km/hr. I sat for 3 hours the morning of the 29th and saw absolutely nothing, not even a doe. Then came the last day.
A good friend of mine jokingly texted me that morning and said “you really were waiting for the last day again, weren’t you?” Truth be told, I really wanted to end it early so I wouldn’t freeze my arse off in November. Alas, no luck.
As I pulled in to my parking spot 10 min before legal, I spotted a buck working its way to the SW, away from my stand. Still, more than I had seen the previous day. Checked the temp, -21 and light snow (did I mention I hate bowhunting in the frigid cold? Lol). After greeting the farmers German shepherd that was eagerly waiting for me to get out of my truck, I hustled to my stand roughly 350 yards away.
I got up the tree in the climbing stand as quickly and quietly as possible, considering I was wearing enough clothing to pass as a camouflaged Michelin man. After 20 min, I let loose with a rattling sequence. 10 min later, I saw movement in the trees about 70 yards away. At about 50 yards, I recognized him as the big 4x4 I got on camera on the 12th of November. He hopped the fence and started heading to the exact shooting lane I had shot last years deer in. 4 feet short of it, he stopped and pulled a 180. I grabbed the grunt tube and let fly. The sound that came out of the frozen call best resembled a kazoo or vuvuzela, D’oh!!! Fortunately he had something else on his mind and didn’t bolt. Spent the next 5-8 seconds breathing warm air into call to defrost it. Tried letting out another grunt and success! He turned back towards me and started coming into another shooting lane right in front of my trail cam.
When his head went behind some alders, I came to full draw. Of course, as soon as I did that he decided to turn and come straight towards me. I held at full draw for 20-30 seconds, although it seemed like hours. Finally he turned broadside and I let the arrow fly.
The shot was 32 yards, and as I followed the flight of the arrow, and watched it impact, I knew it was about 6-8 inches further back than I wanted. Personally I think it was a combination of the deer being in stride and wearing 5 layers of clothing that influenced the hit point.
Took a few minutes to climb down, went and grabbed the arrow and proceeded to look for blood. There was zero, I mean not even a drop anywhere. After finding his tracks and following the trail for about 30 yards, I stopped. I laid my bow down and walked out.
A little voice was telling me not to follow it, as I had a hunch it was a liver hit. I helped a friend track a liver hit buck a few years ago, there was no blood trail with that one either and we bumped him off his bed going after him too early. If I bumped this one, there was a good chance he could exit the property to the south and I’d never find him. So I drove home.
I called my friend (and taxidermist) and laid out the scenario. His advice…wait 6 hours. The problem was, the snow was getting heavier. Reluctantly I agreed. I spent the next 5 hours studying deer anatomy trying to convince myself that it was a lethal shot. Lol.
I returned to the scene 6 hours later to find 2.5 inches of snow on top of my bow that I had left on the trail. All his tracks had filled in and all I had to go with was the well worn ruts of the existing deer trails. So I started the “tracking”. I tried a couple trails leading into the swamp and nasty thickets to no avail so I circled back to where I started. There was another trail leading to the big timber so I said why not. 90 yards down that trail, there he was, stone dead at the base of a big poplar. He had travelled about 120 yards from where I initially shot him, and had been dead awhile as he was board stiff and the coyotes had got at his haunch. I’m not overly excitable by nature but I had to let out a victory roar when I got to him. The autopsy showed that it was indeed a liver hit while also nicking one lung. He was a BIG bodied mature deer, I’d guess around 300 lbs on the hoof.
Apologies for the novel, hopefully it didn’t put anyone to sleep.
I blew a chance on my target buck the 3rd week of October. Had him at 21 yards on an eerily calm late afternoon. The sound of the arrow sliding on the rest caused him to bolt immediately. I opted to not try threading an arrow thru the poplars at 40 yards when he stopped, as I couldn’t be sure there weren’t any little branches in the way as it was almost the end of legal light. After playing cat and mouse with him since 2020, I wanted to ensure a humane kill. So I let him walk, never to see him again on the hoof this season. I did get more trail cam pics of him, the last one on November 18th.
I passed up a good, but really young 5x5 on the 26th in hopes that he’ll be around in a year or two. Then the cold hit.
I opted not to sit on the 27th or 28th as the temps plummeted and the wind was gusting to 50-60km/hr. I sat for 3 hours the morning of the 29th and saw absolutely nothing, not even a doe. Then came the last day.
A good friend of mine jokingly texted me that morning and said “you really were waiting for the last day again, weren’t you?” Truth be told, I really wanted to end it early so I wouldn’t freeze my arse off in November. Alas, no luck.
As I pulled in to my parking spot 10 min before legal, I spotted a buck working its way to the SW, away from my stand. Still, more than I had seen the previous day. Checked the temp, -21 and light snow (did I mention I hate bowhunting in the frigid cold? Lol). After greeting the farmers German shepherd that was eagerly waiting for me to get out of my truck, I hustled to my stand roughly 350 yards away.
I got up the tree in the climbing stand as quickly and quietly as possible, considering I was wearing enough clothing to pass as a camouflaged Michelin man. After 20 min, I let loose with a rattling sequence. 10 min later, I saw movement in the trees about 70 yards away. At about 50 yards, I recognized him as the big 4x4 I got on camera on the 12th of November. He hopped the fence and started heading to the exact shooting lane I had shot last years deer in. 4 feet short of it, he stopped and pulled a 180. I grabbed the grunt tube and let fly. The sound that came out of the frozen call best resembled a kazoo or vuvuzela, D’oh!!! Fortunately he had something else on his mind and didn’t bolt. Spent the next 5-8 seconds breathing warm air into call to defrost it. Tried letting out another grunt and success! He turned back towards me and started coming into another shooting lane right in front of my trail cam.
When his head went behind some alders, I came to full draw. Of course, as soon as I did that he decided to turn and come straight towards me. I held at full draw for 20-30 seconds, although it seemed like hours. Finally he turned broadside and I let the arrow fly.
The shot was 32 yards, and as I followed the flight of the arrow, and watched it impact, I knew it was about 6-8 inches further back than I wanted. Personally I think it was a combination of the deer being in stride and wearing 5 layers of clothing that influenced the hit point.
Took a few minutes to climb down, went and grabbed the arrow and proceeded to look for blood. There was zero, I mean not even a drop anywhere. After finding his tracks and following the trail for about 30 yards, I stopped. I laid my bow down and walked out.
A little voice was telling me not to follow it, as I had a hunch it was a liver hit. I helped a friend track a liver hit buck a few years ago, there was no blood trail with that one either and we bumped him off his bed going after him too early. If I bumped this one, there was a good chance he could exit the property to the south and I’d never find him. So I drove home.
I called my friend (and taxidermist) and laid out the scenario. His advice…wait 6 hours. The problem was, the snow was getting heavier. Reluctantly I agreed. I spent the next 5 hours studying deer anatomy trying to convince myself that it was a lethal shot. Lol.
I returned to the scene 6 hours later to find 2.5 inches of snow on top of my bow that I had left on the trail. All his tracks had filled in and all I had to go with was the well worn ruts of the existing deer trails. So I started the “tracking”. I tried a couple trails leading into the swamp and nasty thickets to no avail so I circled back to where I started. There was another trail leading to the big timber so I said why not. 90 yards down that trail, there he was, stone dead at the base of a big poplar. He had travelled about 120 yards from where I initially shot him, and had been dead awhile as he was board stiff and the coyotes had got at his haunch. I’m not overly excitable by nature but I had to let out a victory roar when I got to him. The autopsy showed that it was indeed a liver hit while also nicking one lung. He was a BIG bodied mature deer, I’d guess around 300 lbs on the hoof.
Apologies for the novel, hopefully it didn’t put anyone to sleep.
