Daver
PMA Member
For the most part the deer movement has been slow in our neighborhood of late. There are deer around, but they are not flying around the timbers by any stretch. My son Mark had some action Friday, but no shots at reasonable bucks were presented. Saturday morning he took the decoy and went to a stand that gave him good visibility with the hopes of catching a cruising singleton. While setting up he thought he heard something in the timbered draw behind him a couple of different times. Accordingly, he kept very quiet while setting the decoy and then getting into the nearby stand.
He waited for legal shooting time and was going to softly grunt on the hope that the nearby noises was a prowling buck. Well, he never got the chance...the buck below just slowly walked in and was staring at the decoy, not acting real aggressively though. It probably worked to Mark's advantage that it all happened so fast, because he shoots pretty accurately when practicing, but ol' dad wonders if he doesn't get a little nervy when there are antlers below. :grin:
Via text, Mark informed me that he thought he had one in the boiler room and the buck did the classic mule kick after impact, so we were fairly confident about the recovery. But I had him wait for another 45 minutes or so before I made my way over to him. I was at first concerned that there was a very sparse blood trail, but after about 30 yards it started getting pretty easy to follow, whew! I think it was a case where the deer tore out of there and he covered the first 30 yards so quickly there wasn't much for blood at first.
We had gone about 50 yards from impact when I looked ahead with the binocs and saw antlers! In the first pic below you can see that his final moment was a lunge into a multiflora rose bush and he was stuck hard with his head up. He went about 60-70 yards total and was probably dead within a few seconds of the shot.
This is Mark's first archery buck and he was pretty happy with him and I was proud of him too, he did it all himself, including the field dressing! :way:
FWIW, we are pretty confident that this buck is related to a buck I shot last year, the antler characteristics are nearly identical, high and tight.
Good luck to everyone still hunting...I have to think it will get better when the moon fades, at least I hope so!
He waited for legal shooting time and was going to softly grunt on the hope that the nearby noises was a prowling buck. Well, he never got the chance...the buck below just slowly walked in and was staring at the decoy, not acting real aggressively though. It probably worked to Mark's advantage that it all happened so fast, because he shoots pretty accurately when practicing, but ol' dad wonders if he doesn't get a little nervy when there are antlers below. :grin:
Via text, Mark informed me that he thought he had one in the boiler room and the buck did the classic mule kick after impact, so we were fairly confident about the recovery. But I had him wait for another 45 minutes or so before I made my way over to him. I was at first concerned that there was a very sparse blood trail, but after about 30 yards it started getting pretty easy to follow, whew! I think it was a case where the deer tore out of there and he covered the first 30 yards so quickly there wasn't much for blood at first.
We had gone about 50 yards from impact when I looked ahead with the binocs and saw antlers! In the first pic below you can see that his final moment was a lunge into a multiflora rose bush and he was stuck hard with his head up. He went about 60-70 yards total and was probably dead within a few seconds of the shot.
This is Mark's first archery buck and he was pretty happy with him and I was proud of him too, he did it all himself, including the field dressing! :way:
FWIW, we are pretty confident that this buck is related to a buck I shot last year, the antler characteristics are nearly identical, high and tight.
Good luck to everyone still hunting...I have to think it will get better when the moon fades, at least I hope so!
