Anyways, to get to a story of his buck he killed back in October. Sorry it's long. Thursdays are my quasi-day off work. I usually end up working most of the day, but sometimes I will try and bail out early enough to pick up the kids from school. Little man asked me if I could get out of work in time to pick him up after school and go hunting, so I obliged.
We had a perfect wind and it had been raining off and on for most of the day. There was a break in the rain around 3:45 (we lose shooting light a light around 7:20) so I thought this will be perfect and give us a chance to get setup in a ground blind overlooking one of our plots. With how the weather had been, I assumed deer would be on their feet once the front broke. It started pouring on us about 4:30 and rained hard for around an hour. By the time 6:00 rolled around, there were deer on their feet everywhere and the rain had stopped. We ended up seeing 17 or 18 different does and 8 different bucks. He has been holding out for a nicer buck (he had passed many 1 and 2 year olds) and we had a couple nice "shooters" on their feet but were a long ways from bow range but working our direction.
The food plot is carved out of a large section of CRP. So, it's not uncommon to see deer go in and out. About 25 minutes before we lost shooting light the buck he ended up slipping an arrow in stepped back out to feed at 88 yards. It had began drizzling rain again but he was slowly working our direction. There were a lot of deer in range in front of the blind and I was afraid he maybe wouldn't make it to us since mature bucks are sometimes "loners" this time of year as the rut hadn't started yet. He kept slowly creeping our direction and it was a race against losing shooting light. He finally got to under 50 yards and I thought "this is actually going to happen."
Lil man had now been watching the buck for 15-18 minutes. He was very calm and we had the TenPoint locked in a Bog Deathgrip. What I would have hoped would have been an easy shot suddenly had me second guessing because of the drizzling rain/distance/low light due to the weather. He assured me he was rock steady on it and I was watching with my binos to see where the arrow flew. At the shot, the deer showed no reaction to being shot (no mule kick). He also flagged when running off and looked unscathed. Lil man was excited "that we got him" and I had to calm him down and explain to him that I was afraid he shot just under him. He assured me that he knew that he hit it (said he saw it in the scope) and we waited a bit in the blind to not rush out there--the buck headed straight into CRP upon the shot and it's too tall to see deer in from ground level.
So, after waiting a bit in the blind it started raining pretty hard and I was anxious to go find the arrow. I knew exactly where the deer was standing and found the arrow immediately. At first glance, no blood on the arrow. "I'm sorry, buddy, I think you shot under him." Then, I noticed the arrow felt a little tacky so I get to looking closer and there is a tiny speck of blood on one of the vanes. The "tackiness" is a very thin layer of tallow--but not white. I smell the arrow--smells fine and I would have seen if hit in the guts. I know he didn't hit high. I go back to where the deer was standing and find just a few very small droplets of blood and a tiny bit of light/white hair. I look for blood and I look for blood and I look for blood and don't find a single additional drop. Obviously, the rain was not helping and by now it is pitch black. I spend a significant amount of time looking before convincing myself that he hit it low and barely grazed it--or maybe in the brisket.
I have a devastated 8 year old.
Friday (next day) was more of the same for weather. Overcast and rainy. Our next chance to get back out there would be Saturday evening. I hoped that I would get a picture of the buck proving that he was ok. I wanted to fully convince myself it was a superficial wound. I kept replaying the shot and sequence of events thereafter in my head. When I didn't get any pics, I was starting to think maybe the deer is indeed dead. We hunted Saturday evening as more of an "observation" sit. Hoping to catch a glimpse of him. Nothing. I kept looking for buzzards. Nothing.
As I sat there replaying it in my mind, I remembered that on Thursday evening some deer over in another food plot spooked off shortly after the shot--this would have been the opposite direction I thought for sure the buck went. At the time, I didn't think this was of any relevance. I thought about it and thought about it and headed out Sunday to go look in that direction--thinking maybe the buck took a hard 180 that direction and took those other deer with him as he spooked through. The cover gets very tight back that way as there is just some thicket along the river and an ag field out front. I looked for a couple hours on Sunday and decided to head along the narrow strip along the river and peer down over the bank as I went along--it's been very dry and the river is unusually low. I walked along for a while that direction and thought I started to smell something. "Can't be" I thought. I went along a little further and see a white belly in a viny thicket. And, there he laid.
Coyotes had started on his backend already. I assume the deer had died on Thursday night. Meat/Cape both ruined.
Pic of the only blood that was found (where deer was standing at the shot). As you can see, the arrow sure didn't look like it had been through a deer.
I've never seen my son so happy.
. Enjoyed the whole story , Thanks
