CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
Many of you know I love hunting October cold fronts. Unfortunately for me I missed the first one due to some health issues and needing a colonoscopy so I was pretty bummed about it.
Fast forward to Sunday 10/16 I was finally able to get out so I went to thiesens bought my tag and drove out to the property. I had new safe lines to put in the stands since I hadn’t been in there since late September. Well to my surprise a bunch of branches had fallen on my trail to my stand so I took the extra time in the wind to cut them with the handsaw and move them. Climb the tree put the safe line up, climb back down and fasten it to the bottom of the tree, and back up I went. Wind was supposed to be NNW it was more out of the west than anything but it didn’t take me long to realize that when a few does entered the picked beans. Ended up seeing 3 does, 3 fawns, and 2 young bucks. When I got home a new treestand harness was waiting for me at the door so there was a positive.
Yesterday(10/17) I went to work and put a 9 hour shift in and headed to the stand. Let me tell you the new harnesses are way better than the old big dog treestand harness you get when you buy a stand. Got it on in a quarter of the time it usually takes me and got in the stand around 3:30.. My phone starts ringing at 4:28pm and it’s my best friend who I knew was also hunting. I answer “Already?”. He confirmed my suspicions and had arrowed a buck already. I asked him if he needed me to get down and come over and he said no to keep hunting and he’d check his arrow and blood in 30 min.
So I keep hunting and around 5pm he tells me he doesn’t have good blood and he’s going to back out about this time I look up and see a does entering the bean field and making her way towards me before disappearing behind a derecho tree. Next thing I know she’s walking into my poor man’s plot and eating the few radishes that are left. Well after watching her for a bit I see a flash of white on the neighbors fence line. I thought it was antlers when I saw it so I get my binos out of my bag (neck strap wore through) and looked and it was a 9pt I had on camera lip curling.
He hopped the fence from the neighbors and started milling around in the beans before disappearing out of sight behind the trees to the north of me. I take this time to stand up and grab my bow thinking he will take the same path as the doe before him. A few minutes go by and he hops the old cattle fence into my food plot at 32 yards. I draw and he makes his way to make a scrape and stops so I settle my pin and release the arrow. It hit exactly where I was aiming and I was stoked. Took my time, held through, watch my arrow sink behind the should and the deer take off. I do the normal wait 30 minutes before getting down and checking my arrow only to be heart broken. My arrow was full of fat.
There was quite a bit of blood on impact so I walked about 10 yards further just to see if I could get on good blood and make sense of things but I could find any blood at all. So I decided to back out.
This morning my trail cams checked in and it was my worst fear. They were full of coyotes after only getting a coyote pic all year. I knew this meant the deer had to be dead. I walk in this morning and begin at impact and I found two drops of blood after 40 yards. I could hear crows going nuts and I figured might as well go check in the CRP where they were. As I’m walking I step up on a small rise and can see a coyote and deer carcass. Of course I have my bow and decided might as well try some predator control. As I knock an arrow two more coyotes join the other and I draw back and guess the yardage as I didn’t have my rangefinder. Guessed wrong. The deer had only traveled 120 yards. I even tried to back track and find blood and couldn’t find another drop. Looking at the rib cage and laying the cape back to where it belonged I had hit him right where I thought but he must have quartered to at the shot and exited low out the guts.
This is how we found him.
We also recovered my buddies deer here is his entrance
Deer barely bled after the first 10 yards and made it a half mile.
Fast forward to Sunday 10/16 I was finally able to get out so I went to thiesens bought my tag and drove out to the property. I had new safe lines to put in the stands since I hadn’t been in there since late September. Well to my surprise a bunch of branches had fallen on my trail to my stand so I took the extra time in the wind to cut them with the handsaw and move them. Climb the tree put the safe line up, climb back down and fasten it to the bottom of the tree, and back up I went. Wind was supposed to be NNW it was more out of the west than anything but it didn’t take me long to realize that when a few does entered the picked beans. Ended up seeing 3 does, 3 fawns, and 2 young bucks. When I got home a new treestand harness was waiting for me at the door so there was a positive.
Yesterday(10/17) I went to work and put a 9 hour shift in and headed to the stand. Let me tell you the new harnesses are way better than the old big dog treestand harness you get when you buy a stand. Got it on in a quarter of the time it usually takes me and got in the stand around 3:30.. My phone starts ringing at 4:28pm and it’s my best friend who I knew was also hunting. I answer “Already?”. He confirmed my suspicions and had arrowed a buck already. I asked him if he needed me to get down and come over and he said no to keep hunting and he’d check his arrow and blood in 30 min.
So I keep hunting and around 5pm he tells me he doesn’t have good blood and he’s going to back out about this time I look up and see a does entering the bean field and making her way towards me before disappearing behind a derecho tree. Next thing I know she’s walking into my poor man’s plot and eating the few radishes that are left. Well after watching her for a bit I see a flash of white on the neighbors fence line. I thought it was antlers when I saw it so I get my binos out of my bag (neck strap wore through) and looked and it was a 9pt I had on camera lip curling.
He hopped the fence from the neighbors and started milling around in the beans before disappearing out of sight behind the trees to the north of me. I take this time to stand up and grab my bow thinking he will take the same path as the doe before him. A few minutes go by and he hops the old cattle fence into my food plot at 32 yards. I draw and he makes his way to make a scrape and stops so I settle my pin and release the arrow. It hit exactly where I was aiming and I was stoked. Took my time, held through, watch my arrow sink behind the should and the deer take off. I do the normal wait 30 minutes before getting down and checking my arrow only to be heart broken. My arrow was full of fat.
There was quite a bit of blood on impact so I walked about 10 yards further just to see if I could get on good blood and make sense of things but I could find any blood at all. So I decided to back out.
This morning my trail cams checked in and it was my worst fear. They were full of coyotes after only getting a coyote pic all year. I knew this meant the deer had to be dead. I walk in this morning and begin at impact and I found two drops of blood after 40 yards. I could hear crows going nuts and I figured might as well go check in the CRP where they were. As I’m walking I step up on a small rise and can see a coyote and deer carcass. Of course I have my bow and decided might as well try some predator control. As I knock an arrow two more coyotes join the other and I draw back and guess the yardage as I didn’t have my rangefinder. Guessed wrong. The deer had only traveled 120 yards. I even tried to back track and find blood and couldn’t find another drop. Looking at the rib cage and laying the cape back to where it belonged I had hit him right where I thought but he must have quartered to at the shot and exited low out the guts.
This is how we found him.
We also recovered my buddies deer here is his entrance
Deer barely bled after the first 10 yards and made it a half mile.
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