tracker
Life Member
Okay, this story actually starts a couple of months ago when I was checking video footage on some of my camera's. I use three video camera's, one 35 mm camera, and one digital camera. Upon watching the video's I come to a part in the film where it appears to be minutes before daybreak, still dark on the timber edges. The camera turns on and all that you see is alot of brush outlines in the background. I'm thinking it was a missed pass through and there is going to be another minute of nothing being recorded, then a part of the brushy background starts moving and I'm saying to myself, wow, this is big. I rewind the video for quite a while trying to count points, find mass, anything to try and mark this deer. After many rewinds I come to the conclusion of at least 12 points, possibly more. I was thinking framewise in the 170-180 range, due to all the points, and the fact that it was in velvet makes the mass anybody's guess. Weeks go buy and nothing new, alot of black video film with deer moving through at night.
September rolls in. We are drawn for a bear hunt in Minnesota. The topic of this deer and others I had recorded were discussed. I had taken the video camera with me but chose to leave the video with the deer on it at home. We get into the conversation of the early muzzleloader season while on our trip and feel that the opportunity for someone to have a good year was back. Our bear hunting trip turns out to be very successful. All three of us end up taking bears with our bows and set the mood for the upcoming muzzleloader hunt. Meanwhile the video cameras are still turning back home. I get no video footage of this deer during the month of September. I would change the film once a week, getting a few bucks that we regular, but not this one.
October first rolls around, bow season opener. We are very busy with work and have a deadline to meet on a project. I have been able to place a stand near the area where the video camera picked up this buck. Itrained all afternoon and a front was coming through. As I return home from work I come across a truck parked in an entrance to a field several hundred yards south of my house. I knew the owner of the truck and was unaware they were going to be hunting in this area. The property he was on adjoins ours, but belongs to someone else. The rain is steady and has been all afternoon. I really want to get out on opening day, but was unwilling to get soaked to the bone. As I hang around the house for a while I check a radar. Convinced it was going to let up, I put on my gear and head out. This stand is the other direction from where the person with the pickup is. I sit that evening, see some deer and notice what needs to be trimmed for shooting lanes. Sunday rolls around before I am able to return to the stand. I do my trimming. Look at my lanes and start getting that "feeling". Everything felt good. I was pumped. On the way out I stop and change the video film.
I proceeded to the road where I met up with one of the neighbors. He wondered what I was up to. Told him about thge trimming and changing of film. Then he looked at me and said, "Did you here about the big buck the guy shot opening night out here?" My chest tightened. I said no. The neighbor replies he had heard it was around 14 points and in the 190 inch range. My heart sank. Wow I said, that's a good one. I guess I should back and tear down my stand huh? I think that was the one I was after. We had a little small talk and then we each went our ways. I got home and checked the video's, nothing. Discouraged I returned a few days before early muzzle and removed the stand. I also changed film from the camera. I put all my stands into the camper for the muzzleloading hunt and head to the house to watch video. I rewind and start watching. Alot of night movement again, lots of black film. Then it happens. The camera comes to a restart under low light conditions, a basket buck is walking out of the viewing are, then walks in this mass of rack. I start to think, when I last change out this film?? Then I remember! It was two days after the fourteen point was taken. Hey! He's still around. Was first video of the fourteen, or was it this deer. I can't tell. I do know this deer is good also. Now the problem. Do I leave and go with my freinds muzzleloader hunting or do I stick around here. I gave this alot of thought. I chose to leave him alone for bow season. There was way too much corn in the fields for him to go to timber. Also nocturnal,there is no reason I should see him during daylight hours.
I go with my freinds and have the best muzzleloading hunt of my life and take a beautiful ten point. Shoot a turkey with my bow, and enjoy good freindship. But the thought of this deer still went through my head. I packed my bow and sat a mornings with it. I had already made up my mind I was holding back for the deer back home. Well unless a 190 inch stepped out in front of me before I got home. I still had this deer guessed at 170-180. Muzzleloader ended and we came home. I hoped I wouldn't return to the news of someone taking this deer also.
A couple of days after returning home I went out and put up my stand behind my house. I was hoping this deer would travel my direction when the rut started. I chose to hunt the stand only once before the rut started to keep the scent down. There was minimal movement due to all the crop in the field. I spent alot of time glassing areas where I knew deer used as routes and also noted in my mind where my shootin lanes were going to be. I was happy for any shot except something directly behind me. A split crouch in the tree was going to be a major problem. I was optimistic, bring on the rut.
I sat on the Sunday of opening weekend of pheasnt season. Due to all the crop in the field hunters were no where to be found. Nothing was being pushed in so I decided to grab the antlers and rattle. I barely had time to set them down when a basket buck came sprinting in. I let him pass and continued the activity during the coarse of the morning. Five bucks had come to the rattle, but not what I was looking for. I left. That afternoon I remembered a 35mm trail camera I had removed from a trail and put on a rub line. It had been a couple of weeks since I had checked it. When I opened the camera I noticed the film was full. I replaced the film and decided to place thr camera near a major scrape I had stumbled across. Everything was set up and I was anticipating the snap of this nocturnal buck, this time the flash would show everything.
Monday rolls around and I drop the roll of film off for developing. Upon returning to pick up the film the lady behind the counter hands me the picture packet and asks me if I would like to purchase the cover sheet. I look down at this sheet. Right in front of my eye's, there he is. Holy **** comes out of my mouth. I look at the lady and apologize for the comment. I tell her no, pay for the pictures, and drool all the way out the store. I look at this picture consistently all the way home. Wow, this is what I'm going after. I get home and admire this photograph some more. I look at the stamping on the bottom right hand side of the photo. It reads 22 9 04. The bottom drops out of my heart again. This photo is before the opening day of bow season. Which deer is it? MY mind starts to wander. I show this picture to the neighbor, is this the deer the other guy shot? He doesn't remember. I look at the picture of this deer. It has a small crab claw at the end of the right main beam. I make another call. I talk to another freind that had viewed pictures of the fourteen point. Did that fourteen point have a crab claw on the right main beam, I asked. No, he replies, it has one on the left main beam. We talk a little more. What he remembers for details has me 80% convinced this is not the same deer. But I have to be sure, I make a trip to see the picture of that lucky man and that deer in a store where it had been posted. I knew immediately we were dealing with two different deer.
The next few days had business items and sick kids which kept me from going out to my stand. After ratteling five different bucks a few days previous, I was hoping that the rut was on.
THE DAY OF THE HUNT:
I had set my alarm for 5 o'clock Friday morning. I needed to get up, take a shower, and get de-sense-a-tized. This is a term my freinds and I use when we prepare to go out for stand. I turned off the alarm, closed my eyes, and reopened them to a time of 5:30. I am now late. If I didn't need to shower I would be okay, something about that downy fresh smell stuck in your hair that deer don't dig. And I don't sport much for hair. The shower is taken. I hustle to my hunting room. I put on the scent loc. Take an extra squirt of scent killer, grab my bow, backpack and out the door I go. I stop outside the door and spray the bottoms of my rubber boots with raccoon urine, and off I go. My walk to my stand is only a couple hundred yards behind my house, but due to my being late the sun had already lightened the east horizen. I have a direct path through the timber to my stand but have been busted a few times to deer returning early to the timber. It was good walking until the last 50 yards. I jumped at least 2 deer by my stand. This can be bad. Once they get me patterned they will actually circle around my stand to avoid passing by me to go to their bedding areas. I would only know the outcome as the day progressed.
I had purchased some urine and decided to play around with it and see what happens. It had been a long time since I tried it with no results. Shortly after setting two wick pads and creating a mock scrape with urine in it I headed up to my stand. As the sun broke I was greeted by a small buck that wasted no time in identifying the location of the mock scrape. He freshend it up a little, put some rubbings on some sapplings, and continued on his way. When I felt he had comfortably left the area I grabbed the rack and proceeded into a breif rattle session. It didn't take long and buck number 2 was checking things out. He too was allowed to pass through. Several minutes later I hear heavy walking through the leaves some 80 yards below me. I see a nice white rack. I grab my binoculars and see a 130 class eight point with a split G2 on the right side. I have several minutes of this guy on film and hope it is the one my son will take if he decides to go out this fall. This buck heads to my left onto a hillside where the does usually choose to bed. I watch as several deer start running around trying to avoid the confrontation with this deer. They are all does. They must have slipped in between me and the house. The bucks walks through and business continues as normal. Once he has cleared I grab the rack and have another short go of it. Amazingly like the last time out another buck appears. He makes the trip through the bedding ground, shakes things up, no takers, so he leaves.
This continues through 9 o'clock in the morning. I continue to see the same bucks, does constantly being chased. I start to think. Do I need to put a stand up by the video camera? They had put cows in that field and the corn was out on both sides. It seems more like an evening stand. I would have to walk through a quarter mile of corn field before reaching the stand, and that would run everything out of there when they were feeding in the moring. I don't know.
I continue to sit . A small buck has pushed a large doe to within 20 yards ahead of me. She stands there quartering away. I have a doe tag, should I use it? Then I think, no, it's still too early to ruin everything around this stand. I decline on the doe. I start thinking. A cup of coffee sounds good right now. Maybe I should get down, go to the house and get some coffee. Then I can get my last stand and put it up over by the video camera during the rest of the morning. If I take my time and don't make too much noise I should be able to hunt it tonight. So I had convinced nyself. I would hunt this stand during the mornings, and rehang that stand and hunt it evenings. That is the only place I have him on video. I don't have him on any video around my house. So as soon as these deer cool down and leave I will go back and do that.
I'm looking forward at the small buck still working a couple of does. I hear a noise to my left. I look to see two does being giddy and acting strange. They stop and look directly behind me. I slowly try to turn and see behind me. I can't get turned far enough the way I am sitting. I look at the deer 20 yards in front of me and reposition my hips. I'm still okay, they haven't picked me off. I turn back half way, i see the two does. They are still looking behind me. I finish turning my head. There is another deer with a large body. The body is facing away from me with the head down. I see a rack. I see a big rack!!
Is this the one? I ask myself. I slowly grab my binoculars. The buck is 30 yards away. I put the binocualrs on him. It's all blur. They are still focused out at 120 yards. I bring them to focus. He is smelling an area where a doe had urinated earlier in the morning. I try to find the crab claw on the right beam. I can't see it, his head is buried to close to the ground and he keeps thrashing the small brush that is around the area. Then he finally stops. I look at the beam. IT'S HIM!! He's 30 yards away, I'm completely truned the wrong way and I have binoculars in my hand instead of my bow. Now I have to get rid of these binoculars, get stood up and grab my bow while being surrounded in a deer triangle with each corner being no more than 30 yards. I slowly stand. I get my seat flipped up. Binoculars are going to have to go around my neck, I will just have to adjust the shot with them there. I grab my bow from my bow holder above me. Everything went well except for the split crouch I hoped would never be a problem, it now was. I slowly stuck my bow through the croch, this is going to work. I snapped my release onto my string loop. He was still at thirty yards and I was ready. If he moves to my left, which is the direction he head was pointing it is going to be a 25 yard broadside, perfect.He will move approximately 15 feet and will be in the lane. He starts to move. I pull back on my bow. I tuck my knuckle behind my ear, the peep is right and the 20 yard pin is there and ready. His third step turns him directly at me and he is slowly closing the distance. 20 yards. 15 yards. 10 yards. He stops. Head on. No shot. 10 yards head on no shot. I hold. He's got to turn. He's looking directly at my tree. Time passes. The adreneline is popping my veins. A minute passes. Starting to shake. I'm cold. I'm excitied. I'm getting tired of holding this bow back on full draw. Another 30 seconds pass. My shoulders are telling me to let my bow back in, my brain is telling my shoulders to suck it up, you've been waiting 11 years for this opportunity. As this thought passes he takes 2 short steps towards his left. He stops. I look for the area. I've got his top left shoulder blade marked with my pin and the arrow will have good passage thru vitals upon impact. I release. I know instantly uponj release, it is going high. The arrow strikes. I see the hair circle puff on his side. I don't like it. He hunches back, and takes a quick runn to 30 yards. I know what I have done. It may not be good, I need another chance. He stops at 30 yards. He's completely in the clear, broadside. As he stood there I had this feeling of confidence, there was nothing going to stop this shot. I nock the arrow. I snap on my release to the string loop. The shaking has stopped and determination was not going to be outdone. As I start my draw motion he slipps backward as if he is going to lie down. The next two steps were his last as he fell sideways and hit the ground. Is it over. Or is he just regaing some strength to make a run? I watch. He has fallen into a small dip in the landscape and all I can see is a really big rack laying sideways on the ground. I'm still nocked. Deer are going nuts. Two does start to walk up to him on the ground, then they run off to the next hill. They stand there and watch. Okay, I'm not going to push him. I have the whole day. I will watch for movement with my binocualrs and proceed from there. I sit for twenty minutes. Nothing is happening. I can't see good enough for cavity movement. I can't take it anymore. I've gotta go down. Heres the plan. One step a minute, get broadside, be ready.
I hit the ground. All I can see is half of a big rack laying sideways on the ground. At least I have him marked. I take a couple a minutes travel 20 feet. It's killing me to walk slow, I have quickened the pace a little. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. I think my feet are made of lead. I'm broadside 20 yards, should be able to see movement if he's going to run. I hear a crack. It is by the deer, is he going to bolt? My body locks up. Suddenly a small rotten tree 5 yards behind the deer snaps off and hits the ground. My bow comes up. The buck doesn't move. I did it! I did it! I did it! Wait, better make sure before I pat my self on the back too hard. I finish the small walk to this magnificant buck and realize everything is okay. I have done it. A walk to the house to share this with my family and 32 pictures later I realize why this drives so many of us. These are magnificant animals, and a guy just can't help from smiling when he talks about it to freinds. Best of luck to all of you this year!! Thanks for alll the wonderful replies.
As for the body size we are thinking of a 3 1/2 year old deer? We are going to look into that
Rudd- Onecamidis is a great feeling. Anybody want to loan me money for my taxidermy bill this year? 1 bear, 2 whitetail
One word of advice to everyone:
GET DE-SCENT-DA-TIZED
September rolls in. We are drawn for a bear hunt in Minnesota. The topic of this deer and others I had recorded were discussed. I had taken the video camera with me but chose to leave the video with the deer on it at home. We get into the conversation of the early muzzleloader season while on our trip and feel that the opportunity for someone to have a good year was back. Our bear hunting trip turns out to be very successful. All three of us end up taking bears with our bows and set the mood for the upcoming muzzleloader hunt. Meanwhile the video cameras are still turning back home. I get no video footage of this deer during the month of September. I would change the film once a week, getting a few bucks that we regular, but not this one.
October first rolls around, bow season opener. We are very busy with work and have a deadline to meet on a project. I have been able to place a stand near the area where the video camera picked up this buck. Itrained all afternoon and a front was coming through. As I return home from work I come across a truck parked in an entrance to a field several hundred yards south of my house. I knew the owner of the truck and was unaware they were going to be hunting in this area. The property he was on adjoins ours, but belongs to someone else. The rain is steady and has been all afternoon. I really want to get out on opening day, but was unwilling to get soaked to the bone. As I hang around the house for a while I check a radar. Convinced it was going to let up, I put on my gear and head out. This stand is the other direction from where the person with the pickup is. I sit that evening, see some deer and notice what needs to be trimmed for shooting lanes. Sunday rolls around before I am able to return to the stand. I do my trimming. Look at my lanes and start getting that "feeling". Everything felt good. I was pumped. On the way out I stop and change the video film.
I proceeded to the road where I met up with one of the neighbors. He wondered what I was up to. Told him about thge trimming and changing of film. Then he looked at me and said, "Did you here about the big buck the guy shot opening night out here?" My chest tightened. I said no. The neighbor replies he had heard it was around 14 points and in the 190 inch range. My heart sank. Wow I said, that's a good one. I guess I should back and tear down my stand huh? I think that was the one I was after. We had a little small talk and then we each went our ways. I got home and checked the video's, nothing. Discouraged I returned a few days before early muzzle and removed the stand. I also changed film from the camera. I put all my stands into the camper for the muzzleloading hunt and head to the house to watch video. I rewind and start watching. Alot of night movement again, lots of black film. Then it happens. The camera comes to a restart under low light conditions, a basket buck is walking out of the viewing are, then walks in this mass of rack. I start to think, when I last change out this film?? Then I remember! It was two days after the fourteen point was taken. Hey! He's still around. Was first video of the fourteen, or was it this deer. I can't tell. I do know this deer is good also. Now the problem. Do I leave and go with my freinds muzzleloader hunting or do I stick around here. I gave this alot of thought. I chose to leave him alone for bow season. There was way too much corn in the fields for him to go to timber. Also nocturnal,there is no reason I should see him during daylight hours.
I go with my freinds and have the best muzzleloading hunt of my life and take a beautiful ten point. Shoot a turkey with my bow, and enjoy good freindship. But the thought of this deer still went through my head. I packed my bow and sat a mornings with it. I had already made up my mind I was holding back for the deer back home. Well unless a 190 inch stepped out in front of me before I got home. I still had this deer guessed at 170-180. Muzzleloader ended and we came home. I hoped I wouldn't return to the news of someone taking this deer also.
A couple of days after returning home I went out and put up my stand behind my house. I was hoping this deer would travel my direction when the rut started. I chose to hunt the stand only once before the rut started to keep the scent down. There was minimal movement due to all the crop in the field. I spent alot of time glassing areas where I knew deer used as routes and also noted in my mind where my shootin lanes were going to be. I was happy for any shot except something directly behind me. A split crouch in the tree was going to be a major problem. I was optimistic, bring on the rut.
I sat on the Sunday of opening weekend of pheasnt season. Due to all the crop in the field hunters were no where to be found. Nothing was being pushed in so I decided to grab the antlers and rattle. I barely had time to set them down when a basket buck came sprinting in. I let him pass and continued the activity during the coarse of the morning. Five bucks had come to the rattle, but not what I was looking for. I left. That afternoon I remembered a 35mm trail camera I had removed from a trail and put on a rub line. It had been a couple of weeks since I had checked it. When I opened the camera I noticed the film was full. I replaced the film and decided to place thr camera near a major scrape I had stumbled across. Everything was set up and I was anticipating the snap of this nocturnal buck, this time the flash would show everything.
Monday rolls around and I drop the roll of film off for developing. Upon returning to pick up the film the lady behind the counter hands me the picture packet and asks me if I would like to purchase the cover sheet. I look down at this sheet. Right in front of my eye's, there he is. Holy **** comes out of my mouth. I look at the lady and apologize for the comment. I tell her no, pay for the pictures, and drool all the way out the store. I look at this picture consistently all the way home. Wow, this is what I'm going after. I get home and admire this photograph some more. I look at the stamping on the bottom right hand side of the photo. It reads 22 9 04. The bottom drops out of my heart again. This photo is before the opening day of bow season. Which deer is it? MY mind starts to wander. I show this picture to the neighbor, is this the deer the other guy shot? He doesn't remember. I look at the picture of this deer. It has a small crab claw at the end of the right main beam. I make another call. I talk to another freind that had viewed pictures of the fourteen point. Did that fourteen point have a crab claw on the right main beam, I asked. No, he replies, it has one on the left main beam. We talk a little more. What he remembers for details has me 80% convinced this is not the same deer. But I have to be sure, I make a trip to see the picture of that lucky man and that deer in a store where it had been posted. I knew immediately we were dealing with two different deer.
The next few days had business items and sick kids which kept me from going out to my stand. After ratteling five different bucks a few days previous, I was hoping that the rut was on.
THE DAY OF THE HUNT:
I had set my alarm for 5 o'clock Friday morning. I needed to get up, take a shower, and get de-sense-a-tized. This is a term my freinds and I use when we prepare to go out for stand. I turned off the alarm, closed my eyes, and reopened them to a time of 5:30. I am now late. If I didn't need to shower I would be okay, something about that downy fresh smell stuck in your hair that deer don't dig. And I don't sport much for hair. The shower is taken. I hustle to my hunting room. I put on the scent loc. Take an extra squirt of scent killer, grab my bow, backpack and out the door I go. I stop outside the door and spray the bottoms of my rubber boots with raccoon urine, and off I go. My walk to my stand is only a couple hundred yards behind my house, but due to my being late the sun had already lightened the east horizen. I have a direct path through the timber to my stand but have been busted a few times to deer returning early to the timber. It was good walking until the last 50 yards. I jumped at least 2 deer by my stand. This can be bad. Once they get me patterned they will actually circle around my stand to avoid passing by me to go to their bedding areas. I would only know the outcome as the day progressed.
I had purchased some urine and decided to play around with it and see what happens. It had been a long time since I tried it with no results. Shortly after setting two wick pads and creating a mock scrape with urine in it I headed up to my stand. As the sun broke I was greeted by a small buck that wasted no time in identifying the location of the mock scrape. He freshend it up a little, put some rubbings on some sapplings, and continued on his way. When I felt he had comfortably left the area I grabbed the rack and proceeded into a breif rattle session. It didn't take long and buck number 2 was checking things out. He too was allowed to pass through. Several minutes later I hear heavy walking through the leaves some 80 yards below me. I see a nice white rack. I grab my binoculars and see a 130 class eight point with a split G2 on the right side. I have several minutes of this guy on film and hope it is the one my son will take if he decides to go out this fall. This buck heads to my left onto a hillside where the does usually choose to bed. I watch as several deer start running around trying to avoid the confrontation with this deer. They are all does. They must have slipped in between me and the house. The bucks walks through and business continues as normal. Once he has cleared I grab the rack and have another short go of it. Amazingly like the last time out another buck appears. He makes the trip through the bedding ground, shakes things up, no takers, so he leaves.
This continues through 9 o'clock in the morning. I continue to see the same bucks, does constantly being chased. I start to think. Do I need to put a stand up by the video camera? They had put cows in that field and the corn was out on both sides. It seems more like an evening stand. I would have to walk through a quarter mile of corn field before reaching the stand, and that would run everything out of there when they were feeding in the moring. I don't know.
I continue to sit . A small buck has pushed a large doe to within 20 yards ahead of me. She stands there quartering away. I have a doe tag, should I use it? Then I think, no, it's still too early to ruin everything around this stand. I decline on the doe. I start thinking. A cup of coffee sounds good right now. Maybe I should get down, go to the house and get some coffee. Then I can get my last stand and put it up over by the video camera during the rest of the morning. If I take my time and don't make too much noise I should be able to hunt it tonight. So I had convinced nyself. I would hunt this stand during the mornings, and rehang that stand and hunt it evenings. That is the only place I have him on video. I don't have him on any video around my house. So as soon as these deer cool down and leave I will go back and do that.
I'm looking forward at the small buck still working a couple of does. I hear a noise to my left. I look to see two does being giddy and acting strange. They stop and look directly behind me. I slowly try to turn and see behind me. I can't get turned far enough the way I am sitting. I look at the deer 20 yards in front of me and reposition my hips. I'm still okay, they haven't picked me off. I turn back half way, i see the two does. They are still looking behind me. I finish turning my head. There is another deer with a large body. The body is facing away from me with the head down. I see a rack. I see a big rack!!
Is this the one? I ask myself. I slowly grab my binoculars. The buck is 30 yards away. I put the binocualrs on him. It's all blur. They are still focused out at 120 yards. I bring them to focus. He is smelling an area where a doe had urinated earlier in the morning. I try to find the crab claw on the right beam. I can't see it, his head is buried to close to the ground and he keeps thrashing the small brush that is around the area. Then he finally stops. I look at the beam. IT'S HIM!! He's 30 yards away, I'm completely truned the wrong way and I have binoculars in my hand instead of my bow. Now I have to get rid of these binoculars, get stood up and grab my bow while being surrounded in a deer triangle with each corner being no more than 30 yards. I slowly stand. I get my seat flipped up. Binoculars are going to have to go around my neck, I will just have to adjust the shot with them there. I grab my bow from my bow holder above me. Everything went well except for the split crouch I hoped would never be a problem, it now was. I slowly stuck my bow through the croch, this is going to work. I snapped my release onto my string loop. He was still at thirty yards and I was ready. If he moves to my left, which is the direction he head was pointing it is going to be a 25 yard broadside, perfect.He will move approximately 15 feet and will be in the lane. He starts to move. I pull back on my bow. I tuck my knuckle behind my ear, the peep is right and the 20 yard pin is there and ready. His third step turns him directly at me and he is slowly closing the distance. 20 yards. 15 yards. 10 yards. He stops. Head on. No shot. 10 yards head on no shot. I hold. He's got to turn. He's looking directly at my tree. Time passes. The adreneline is popping my veins. A minute passes. Starting to shake. I'm cold. I'm excitied. I'm getting tired of holding this bow back on full draw. Another 30 seconds pass. My shoulders are telling me to let my bow back in, my brain is telling my shoulders to suck it up, you've been waiting 11 years for this opportunity. As this thought passes he takes 2 short steps towards his left. He stops. I look for the area. I've got his top left shoulder blade marked with my pin and the arrow will have good passage thru vitals upon impact. I release. I know instantly uponj release, it is going high. The arrow strikes. I see the hair circle puff on his side. I don't like it. He hunches back, and takes a quick runn to 30 yards. I know what I have done. It may not be good, I need another chance. He stops at 30 yards. He's completely in the clear, broadside. As he stood there I had this feeling of confidence, there was nothing going to stop this shot. I nock the arrow. I snap on my release to the string loop. The shaking has stopped and determination was not going to be outdone. As I start my draw motion he slipps backward as if he is going to lie down. The next two steps were his last as he fell sideways and hit the ground. Is it over. Or is he just regaing some strength to make a run? I watch. He has fallen into a small dip in the landscape and all I can see is a really big rack laying sideways on the ground. I'm still nocked. Deer are going nuts. Two does start to walk up to him on the ground, then they run off to the next hill. They stand there and watch. Okay, I'm not going to push him. I have the whole day. I will watch for movement with my binocualrs and proceed from there. I sit for twenty minutes. Nothing is happening. I can't see good enough for cavity movement. I can't take it anymore. I've gotta go down. Heres the plan. One step a minute, get broadside, be ready.
I hit the ground. All I can see is half of a big rack laying sideways on the ground. At least I have him marked. I take a couple a minutes travel 20 feet. It's killing me to walk slow, I have quickened the pace a little. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. I think my feet are made of lead. I'm broadside 20 yards, should be able to see movement if he's going to run. I hear a crack. It is by the deer, is he going to bolt? My body locks up. Suddenly a small rotten tree 5 yards behind the deer snaps off and hits the ground. My bow comes up. The buck doesn't move. I did it! I did it! I did it! Wait, better make sure before I pat my self on the back too hard. I finish the small walk to this magnificant buck and realize everything is okay. I have done it. A walk to the house to share this with my family and 32 pictures later I realize why this drives so many of us. These are magnificant animals, and a guy just can't help from smiling when he talks about it to freinds. Best of luck to all of you this year!! Thanks for alll the wonderful replies.
As for the body size we are thinking of a 3 1/2 year old deer? We are going to look into that
Rudd- Onecamidis is a great feeling. Anybody want to loan me money for my taxidermy bill this year? 1 bear, 2 whitetail
One word of advice to everyone:
GET DE-SCENT-DA-TIZED
