J
JimmyAZ
Guest
My buddy called me Friday and asked if I wanted to go bow hunting Saturday. Well, I've never hunted anything with my bow, have been wanting to for years, but out here, you need to know people because it's all private for the most part. Well, I convinced the wife to let me go out for a few hours.
The property didn't have any tree stands so my buddy and I planned on still hunting. With the tags out here, you get 1 either-sex deer tag and 1 antlerless only deer tag. My wife wanted nothing to do with a deer and I didn't have really any desire to shoot a doe or a small buck so it was a monster or nothing. We did a small push around a corn field going separate ways and meeting on the back end with nothing. He said he saw a doe running back where we split so we decided to head back there to see if he could fling an arrow at her. On the way, I told him I was going to follow a fence-line that ran through a depression in the heavy cover and have him ahead of me and on a small ridge above the depression in case I pushed something.
About 60 yards after splitting, I was sneaking through the cover, stopping to look and listen, and continue for another 10-20 yards, when I heard what sounded like bucks sparring. I radioed to my friend to hold off, that I think I may have heard something. I was in thick tree cluster and pretty well hidden overlooking a small open funnel running into a marshy thicket. I continued to look and listen when through the heavy cover, I could hear it again, a loud knocking sound. I tried peering through the branches and all of sudden could see nothing but rack raking against the trees in the marshy thicket about 50 yards from me. With it being as thick as it was, I couldn't make out the actual size, but could see it was the heaviest antlers I've seen since being in Illinois and could make out that it was at least a 10 point, possibly more. I radioed my friend and told him not to move, that it was, "a BIG buck". I continued to watch and it looked like he was going to move into the small open funnel about 30 yards in front of me. Than he started to move away from me and I couldn't see him any longer. I continued to watch, when suddenly I saw him jump the fence I was following about 60 yards in front of me through the thick stuff and than lost him again in the dense cover. I continued to stay put and shortly after, started seeing a monster rack moving around about 45 yards from me under an apple tree.
From my position, I didn't have any angle on him so moved to my left about 3 feet. At this point, I could see him perfectly, feeding broadside at about 45 yards out. Only problem was there was a large limb about 15 fee in front of me running sideways with dense foliage on the underside leaving me a clear look over the limb. I stayed still hoping he would continue to move my way when it looked like he may start to move back into the thick stuff. Was now or never, I pulled the arrow back and placed my pin right on his vitals. Now keep in mind, I have never drawn my bow or any bow on an animal and this was the first time ever out bow-hunting period. My 20 and 30 yard pins were set perfect but had only taken a few shot any further so didn't feel too comfortable with the pin. Anyway, I released the arrow. The buck looked up hearing something but at that point was too late. I could see the flight of the arrow and not sure if it was first time jitters, or the fact I was on my tippy toes to shoot over the limb, but it floated left of his vitals towards his midsection. I heard a "thwack" but couldn't tell if it was him or the ground below. He bolted to my right and than stopped above me about 25 yards looking around. I slowly started to pull another arrow when he caught my movement, looked at me square in the eyes and was gone!
After the adrenaline subsided, I headed over to where he had been when I shot and as I approached, I couldn't believe it, blood, and a lot of it! I was stoked! My buddy came down and was speechless, knowing it was my first time ever out with a bow. I looked around to see if I could find the arrow if it had exited with no luck. We stayed put for a little over an hour. I had a feeling it wasn't a heart or lung shot so wanted to give him time to expire. Well, after what seemed like hours, we started the tracking. It was fairly easy for the fact that when moving, the blood trail was still pretty strong. At times, you could see where he stopped and there were pools of blood so I felt very confident we would find him any moment. Well after an hour and a half of tracking, I was starting to become a bit concerned. There was still good blood, but no deer. How much blood do these deer have?? He had been doing zigs and zags through the thick cover, thorns, heavy brush, everything. At this point, my friend asks, "is that your arrow?" I head over and sure enough, it was about 7 inches of the shaft with the flights. This told me that there was most likely another 16+ inches of arrow including the broadhead in him. Now I felt even better. We continued on the track and he circled back to the front of the property where there was a large pond. The pond was open in the middle, than surrounded by 20-30 feet of swampy grass before the shore-line. I found the blood trail leading right into the pond and was thinking he crossed.
I started to move into the pond, anywhere from 2-3 feet mucky water with tall grass. My friend decided he was going up above to get a vantage point but before he could get around a thicket of trees on the shore, the buck busted out of the pond! He was about 20 feet out in the grassy swamp submerged. I swiveled to try and get an arrow off at him but he disappeared behind the thicket before I could draw my bow. On top of it, my buddy had not yet got above the thicket and never saw him! After talking to a few experienced whitetail/bow hunters afterwards, I was informed that they will do this a lot. The water cools their bodied down and the bacteria helps the wound clot up. Almost an instinctual process. Wish I would have known that then!
Now keep in mind, I was gone the last 2 weekends in New Mexico deer hunting and the wife was too thrilled that I was even out today. I told her I would be home around 10:00. At this point it was almost 11:00. We got back above the pond to find his trail and with him in the water, could find anything for a trail. I moved out about 150 yards and made a perimeter search and low and behold, blood! Only thing, it was watered down and hard to see unless it was on some leaves or what not. I tracked him about 200 yards from the pond and we stopped to regroup. At this point, I thought we may push him out of the country and never see him so we decided that we would call it a morning. I would come out Sunday morning and get back on the trail. That way giving him time to either heal up and make it, or bleed out and find him dead. With where I thought I hit him, he may not die, if at all, for a while. I marked the last spot and we headed back, as much as I didn't want to.
I made it back out Sunday morning, filled with anticipation and excitement. That soon ran out. Over night, any blood had dried, to the point where I was having a hard time finding where he was bleeding before we had jumped him knowing there was blood. I was able to find the last blood spot but with it watered down, if I hadn't known it was blood, I never would have looked twice. I headed the direction that I thought he had taken. I had gone a few hundred yards with no blood. At this point, I stopped to answer natures call when in the midst, behind me I heard the all to familiar, "thud, thud, bound". I was heavily wooded where it had come from about 50-60 yards from me, heading the way I just come. I moved into the cover to see if I could find any fresh blood. There was a fence-line and right along the line, I found dried blood on a log from the day before! Hope was restored! I than found where the deer had jumped and followed it, but no fresh blood. Now there were other deer in this area so I don't know if it was him and he had clotted or just another deer. I continued back to where I had seen the blood and no luck finding any more.
I made a few large zig-zags through the country where he had been heading to see if I could find him or any other blood, with no luck. I than made a large loop back to where I had originally shot him at to see if the deer I jumped had been him making his way back over there. At one point, I did find a fresh buck track along a corn row that hadn't been there the day before, and what looked like fresh blood. However, this was the same path he had come the day before and couldn't decipher whether it was fresh or not.
After a long morning of searching high and low, I never did find his trail again. On top of it, I had to be back home to get some things done that afternoon (already in trouble for going out Saturday and now again for today). I plan on going back in a few days to see if I can find any crows or turkey vultures, or even possibly smell him, that is if he is dead.
To say the least, I'm devastated. I've taken a lot of deer with rifle and muzzleloader, Muley's and Coues, and some monsters to boot. But this would have been my first whitetail buck, a MONSTER, and first time ever with a bow....
I just don't know what happened, what I did wrong... I need to stop thinking about it, killing me!
The property didn't have any tree stands so my buddy and I planned on still hunting. With the tags out here, you get 1 either-sex deer tag and 1 antlerless only deer tag. My wife wanted nothing to do with a deer and I didn't have really any desire to shoot a doe or a small buck so it was a monster or nothing. We did a small push around a corn field going separate ways and meeting on the back end with nothing. He said he saw a doe running back where we split so we decided to head back there to see if he could fling an arrow at her. On the way, I told him I was going to follow a fence-line that ran through a depression in the heavy cover and have him ahead of me and on a small ridge above the depression in case I pushed something.
About 60 yards after splitting, I was sneaking through the cover, stopping to look and listen, and continue for another 10-20 yards, when I heard what sounded like bucks sparring. I radioed to my friend to hold off, that I think I may have heard something. I was in thick tree cluster and pretty well hidden overlooking a small open funnel running into a marshy thicket. I continued to look and listen when through the heavy cover, I could hear it again, a loud knocking sound. I tried peering through the branches and all of sudden could see nothing but rack raking against the trees in the marshy thicket about 50 yards from me. With it being as thick as it was, I couldn't make out the actual size, but could see it was the heaviest antlers I've seen since being in Illinois and could make out that it was at least a 10 point, possibly more. I radioed my friend and told him not to move, that it was, "a BIG buck". I continued to watch and it looked like he was going to move into the small open funnel about 30 yards in front of me. Than he started to move away from me and I couldn't see him any longer. I continued to watch, when suddenly I saw him jump the fence I was following about 60 yards in front of me through the thick stuff and than lost him again in the dense cover. I continued to stay put and shortly after, started seeing a monster rack moving around about 45 yards from me under an apple tree.
From my position, I didn't have any angle on him so moved to my left about 3 feet. At this point, I could see him perfectly, feeding broadside at about 45 yards out. Only problem was there was a large limb about 15 fee in front of me running sideways with dense foliage on the underside leaving me a clear look over the limb. I stayed still hoping he would continue to move my way when it looked like he may start to move back into the thick stuff. Was now or never, I pulled the arrow back and placed my pin right on his vitals. Now keep in mind, I have never drawn my bow or any bow on an animal and this was the first time ever out bow-hunting period. My 20 and 30 yard pins were set perfect but had only taken a few shot any further so didn't feel too comfortable with the pin. Anyway, I released the arrow. The buck looked up hearing something but at that point was too late. I could see the flight of the arrow and not sure if it was first time jitters, or the fact I was on my tippy toes to shoot over the limb, but it floated left of his vitals towards his midsection. I heard a "thwack" but couldn't tell if it was him or the ground below. He bolted to my right and than stopped above me about 25 yards looking around. I slowly started to pull another arrow when he caught my movement, looked at me square in the eyes and was gone!
After the adrenaline subsided, I headed over to where he had been when I shot and as I approached, I couldn't believe it, blood, and a lot of it! I was stoked! My buddy came down and was speechless, knowing it was my first time ever out with a bow. I looked around to see if I could find the arrow if it had exited with no luck. We stayed put for a little over an hour. I had a feeling it wasn't a heart or lung shot so wanted to give him time to expire. Well, after what seemed like hours, we started the tracking. It was fairly easy for the fact that when moving, the blood trail was still pretty strong. At times, you could see where he stopped and there were pools of blood so I felt very confident we would find him any moment. Well after an hour and a half of tracking, I was starting to become a bit concerned. There was still good blood, but no deer. How much blood do these deer have?? He had been doing zigs and zags through the thick cover, thorns, heavy brush, everything. At this point, my friend asks, "is that your arrow?" I head over and sure enough, it was about 7 inches of the shaft with the flights. This told me that there was most likely another 16+ inches of arrow including the broadhead in him. Now I felt even better. We continued on the track and he circled back to the front of the property where there was a large pond. The pond was open in the middle, than surrounded by 20-30 feet of swampy grass before the shore-line. I found the blood trail leading right into the pond and was thinking he crossed.
I started to move into the pond, anywhere from 2-3 feet mucky water with tall grass. My friend decided he was going up above to get a vantage point but before he could get around a thicket of trees on the shore, the buck busted out of the pond! He was about 20 feet out in the grassy swamp submerged. I swiveled to try and get an arrow off at him but he disappeared behind the thicket before I could draw my bow. On top of it, my buddy had not yet got above the thicket and never saw him! After talking to a few experienced whitetail/bow hunters afterwards, I was informed that they will do this a lot. The water cools their bodied down and the bacteria helps the wound clot up. Almost an instinctual process. Wish I would have known that then!
Now keep in mind, I was gone the last 2 weekends in New Mexico deer hunting and the wife was too thrilled that I was even out today. I told her I would be home around 10:00. At this point it was almost 11:00. We got back above the pond to find his trail and with him in the water, could find anything for a trail. I moved out about 150 yards and made a perimeter search and low and behold, blood! Only thing, it was watered down and hard to see unless it was on some leaves or what not. I tracked him about 200 yards from the pond and we stopped to regroup. At this point, I thought we may push him out of the country and never see him so we decided that we would call it a morning. I would come out Sunday morning and get back on the trail. That way giving him time to either heal up and make it, or bleed out and find him dead. With where I thought I hit him, he may not die, if at all, for a while. I marked the last spot and we headed back, as much as I didn't want to.
I made it back out Sunday morning, filled with anticipation and excitement. That soon ran out. Over night, any blood had dried, to the point where I was having a hard time finding where he was bleeding before we had jumped him knowing there was blood. I was able to find the last blood spot but with it watered down, if I hadn't known it was blood, I never would have looked twice. I headed the direction that I thought he had taken. I had gone a few hundred yards with no blood. At this point, I stopped to answer natures call when in the midst, behind me I heard the all to familiar, "thud, thud, bound". I was heavily wooded where it had come from about 50-60 yards from me, heading the way I just come. I moved into the cover to see if I could find any fresh blood. There was a fence-line and right along the line, I found dried blood on a log from the day before! Hope was restored! I than found where the deer had jumped and followed it, but no fresh blood. Now there were other deer in this area so I don't know if it was him and he had clotted or just another deer. I continued back to where I had seen the blood and no luck finding any more.
I made a few large zig-zags through the country where he had been heading to see if I could find him or any other blood, with no luck. I than made a large loop back to where I had originally shot him at to see if the deer I jumped had been him making his way back over there. At one point, I did find a fresh buck track along a corn row that hadn't been there the day before, and what looked like fresh blood. However, this was the same path he had come the day before and couldn't decipher whether it was fresh or not.
After a long morning of searching high and low, I never did find his trail again. On top of it, I had to be back home to get some things done that afternoon (already in trouble for going out Saturday and now again for today). I plan on going back in a few days to see if I can find any crows or turkey vultures, or even possibly smell him, that is if he is dead.
To say the least, I'm devastated. I've taken a lot of deer with rifle and muzzleloader, Muley's and Coues, and some monsters to boot. But this would have been my first whitetail buck, a MONSTER, and first time ever with a bow....
I just don't know what happened, what I did wrong... I need to stop thinking about it, killing me!
