Hammerin Hank
Member
This is my first bow buck after 6 seasons of bow hunting and first buck taken from the acreage my parents purchased 4 years ago. I've taken several does and have had several opportunities at bucks that I've messed up in one way or another. This year, I thought it was going to be the same. Two weeks ago I made a shot on a 3.5 year old management buck that had a club on one side. The shot was low/back. Did the right thing by backing out and coming back the next day. Ended up jumping the deer the next morning and he took off, jumped a fence, and was gone. No blood to track. Needless to say, I had not mentally recovered from that but climbed back in the stand Friday evening. My dad and I were hunting together that night and he was in a stand about 200 yards to my south. About 5:30, a buck comes into my food plot facing me. He comes in slow, feeding on the clover. He then starts moving across my face right to left and I am still trying to figure out what deer it was. I thought that is a buck we call G3 (because he had longer g3s), but I wasn't quite sure, something looked different. I was just kinda entranced and wasn't able to tell my brain to draw and stop him. He stops at about 25 yards, but there was a branch that was in my tree that draped down in front of me, about 10 o'clock. By the time he presents a shot he is 35+ yards and close to the edge of my plot. He was quartering away. I thought, "it's now or never" settled my 30 yard pin and let it fly. I saw the arrow hit about mid body, he kicked his back legs, and was gone in a flash. It appeared that he may be heading in the direction of my dad. I texted him that I shot a buck and it looked like he was heading his way. He said he didn't see him, but told me to sit tight because he was seeing a lot of deer so maybe we could double. I felt good about the shot, but as time went on, I could not stop my brain from self doubt. I said to myself, if this happens again (not recovering a deer) I'm done. I climb down about 10 minutes from legal time, this was 45 minutes after the shot. I walk to the spot and start frantically looking for blood. I don't see any, but see my lighted arrow about 15 yards down the atv trail. (later, we found blood, I just was distracted by the arrow lying there). I find that my arrow is broken off, the first 4-5". I can see blood on the arrow and hair about 12" up. I then decide to wait for my dad to get to me and we'd start looking. We pick up the blood trail and every thought that is going through my mind is negative. Based on the angle, I was worried about 1 lung. The blood trail made a b-line towards my dad's stand and 50 yards into the track. I asked him why the heck he wouldn't have seen that deer. His response was, because he probably didn't make it to me. 10 yards later, there he was! Shot from NAP slingblade went in 3rd rib from back and went through him into far shoulder. It was G3, though he had broken off his right g3, of course the longest tine. He was a big bodied 4.5 year old. Very happy with him.
Congrats on your first bow buck.
