Ishi
PMA Member
A long read
November 11 Veterans Day I left the truck for a all day hunt to a tree that requires a west wind of some sort. It had rained a little in the night and not far from the truck I seen a couple sets of eyes. One set of eyes looked like it had good width and both just stood there by a fresh scrape.
The bigger one trotted several yards away so I got my tracking light out and it was him my best deer on camera and he just walked away. So kept on course to the tree and see what happens.
The tree only required the stand at 10 feet and only took two sticks. As it started getting light things didn’t look right cause I only had one shot at 6 yards. I looked at the tree 3 yards behind me and found I picked the wrong tree. I just about talked myself into tearing down and moving when I looked to my left and here he came. I was dumbfounded and shocked he was going to give me at shot at 6 yards after we meet a hour ago in the dark.
I didn’t have time to stand up so I drew and waited for him to clear the over hanging brush. Just as he was about to clear the brush he started to speed up so I had to stop him with a grunt and when I did he quartered to me. Our eyes meet and I felt like I had the pin on the vitals. I let her go and he ran under the stand into the thick stuff and I couldn’t see him. Now is he dead or not! Couple minutes later I seen him and knew I was in for it.
I seen through my binoculars I had brown hair going in and white hair going out and some blood on my arrow sticking in the ground. The shot was at 6:50 am so I waited till 12:30 to start the tracking. At 9:00 a much larger buck came by at 25 yards as luck would have it but it was fun to see this stranger ( I have pics of him after season so he’s now #1 for the 22 season)
Found blood where I last seen him and tracked him 400 yards and he did about everything he could do , doubled back a couple times and made several 90 degree turns. At 3:00 I lost blood and probably bumped him. I gridded the area and no luck.
Called a buddy after dark and he was willing to help track the next morning. Right before we got to the last blood from the day before we found fresh blood. Wow now I was confused he came back to the spot where I lost blood the previous day. We followed good blood and found large amount then nothing after that. We gridded again and nothing.
I said to my buddy that I wanted to back track him to see what he did from the day before and as we did I convinced myself and him that we were going the right way. Several hundred yards away the blood stopped. Spent the rest of that day and two days the next week scouring that area.
After thinking about what happened for a few months I figured I was back tracking him but at the time I wouldn’t believe it. This buck threw everything at me and won. For the amount of blood he lost I knew he was dead but life got in the way to look again.
March 4 I made it a point to go and pull my cams and spend the day searching what logic would have do.
Found him 30 minutes into the search tucked in briars and downed trees.
In all he went close to a mile but died 150 yards from where I shot him. Called the DNR to get a salvage tag and we meet up in a local town. I’ve had some crazy tracking jobs over the 35 years of hunting these creatures but this one tops them all.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
November 11 Veterans Day I left the truck for a all day hunt to a tree that requires a west wind of some sort. It had rained a little in the night and not far from the truck I seen a couple sets of eyes. One set of eyes looked like it had good width and both just stood there by a fresh scrape.
The bigger one trotted several yards away so I got my tracking light out and it was him my best deer on camera and he just walked away. So kept on course to the tree and see what happens.
The tree only required the stand at 10 feet and only took two sticks. As it started getting light things didn’t look right cause I only had one shot at 6 yards. I looked at the tree 3 yards behind me and found I picked the wrong tree. I just about talked myself into tearing down and moving when I looked to my left and here he came. I was dumbfounded and shocked he was going to give me at shot at 6 yards after we meet a hour ago in the dark.
I didn’t have time to stand up so I drew and waited for him to clear the over hanging brush. Just as he was about to clear the brush he started to speed up so I had to stop him with a grunt and when I did he quartered to me. Our eyes meet and I felt like I had the pin on the vitals. I let her go and he ran under the stand into the thick stuff and I couldn’t see him. Now is he dead or not! Couple minutes later I seen him and knew I was in for it.
I seen through my binoculars I had brown hair going in and white hair going out and some blood on my arrow sticking in the ground. The shot was at 6:50 am so I waited till 12:30 to start the tracking. At 9:00 a much larger buck came by at 25 yards as luck would have it but it was fun to see this stranger ( I have pics of him after season so he’s now #1 for the 22 season)
Found blood where I last seen him and tracked him 400 yards and he did about everything he could do , doubled back a couple times and made several 90 degree turns. At 3:00 I lost blood and probably bumped him. I gridded the area and no luck.
Called a buddy after dark and he was willing to help track the next morning. Right before we got to the last blood from the day before we found fresh blood. Wow now I was confused he came back to the spot where I lost blood the previous day. We followed good blood and found large amount then nothing after that. We gridded again and nothing.
I said to my buddy that I wanted to back track him to see what he did from the day before and as we did I convinced myself and him that we were going the right way. Several hundred yards away the blood stopped. Spent the rest of that day and two days the next week scouring that area.
After thinking about what happened for a few months I figured I was back tracking him but at the time I wouldn’t believe it. This buck threw everything at me and won. For the amount of blood he lost I knew he was dead but life got in the way to look again.
March 4 I made it a point to go and pull my cams and spend the day searching what logic would have do.
Found him 30 minutes into the search tucked in briars and downed trees.
In all he went close to a mile but died 150 yards from where I shot him. Called the DNR to get a salvage tag and we meet up in a local town. I’ve had some crazy tracking jobs over the 35 years of hunting these creatures but this one tops them all.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
