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Hugonians Sleepless Night & Joyous Morning

hugonian1

By hugonian1
in Archery - Bowhunting

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hugonian1 Veteran

hugonian1

Posted
Posted

This has been a tough year for me getting much stand time in. Life keeps getting in the way.

Sunday was no different. I really wanted to get out but chores around the yard were consuming the day. My son was over to help so I needed to take advantage of that.

I live on 40 acres, dead end of a dirt road with a 800 acre corn field north of our property. There is a pretty good sized bedding area situated between the corn field which extends onto our property.

Around 4:00 I noticed they were harvesting the corn.

Time to put yard work aside.

I quick cleaned up, got into my hunting clothes and headed back to the north stand site. I got settled in around 4:30.

This stand has about an acre of winter rye and clover plot planted around it and it abuts the bedding area.

Here is a picture from the stand overlooking the plot.

full-13193-38365-20130928_161543_resized

I have a couple of trail cam out here and the activity has been quite a bit less than previous years. Small bucks and does. Mostly at night.

With the corn coming out I was hoping bedded deer would come my way rather than head straight to the corn.

About 4:45 a small buck pops out of the bedding area and works its way right to the stand. As I was watching this buck I noticed movement in the tall grass. It was antler tines coming out in the same place the small buck came from. He stepped out. I immediately knew this was a shooter. He was at 50 yards and taking the same route as the small buck. He stopped and rubbed his antlers on a tree branch and scraped the ground. I was at full draw waiting for him to move into position. He got to 20 yards, broadside. I gave him a "meep" and he stopped. It was like my Glen-del buck was set up in front of me.

I let the arrow go and hit him just behind the front leg. The arrow did not pass thru. He spun around and headed back into the thick bedding area with the arrow sticking out. After about 5 seconds I heard a crash back in the swamp brush and felt good he was down.

I waited 30 minutes before getting down and eased out and headed back to the house.

We waited a couple of hours and then headed back with my son.

We found minimal blood the first 20 yards and then nothing. We did find the broken off arrow. We spent a couple of hours grid searching the bedding area with no success. The grass is thick & tall in here with lots of gnarly swamp brush.

I started second guessing my shot. Was it too far forward? Did I hit the shoulder? Why no pass thru?

The temps were cool so we decided to let it go for the night. Not an easy decision with all the yotes around.

We came back to the house and the son headed home. He had to work in the morning so I was on my own.

I got on line and researched shot and organ placement and still felt like I had to have hit lung and/ or heart. Still no blood to speak of and no pass thru.

Well it was a sleepless night.

Was up early waiting for the sun to rise.

I was hoping with daylight I would find a blood trail. No go, Just a few small drops. I then decided I would grid search the 10 or so acre bedding area on my side of the property.

I started on the far side figuring I would work in.

As I was making my first pass I looked into some thick swamp brush and I could not believe it. There he was. What a relief.

The buck is a mature 9 point.

My best buck to date and by far my best archery buck.

The shot was good. The broad head hit rib on entry and veered back hitting rib on the exit side damaging both lungs.

All said he went around 100 yards.

Without a low exit hole the blood stayed in the cavity.

I do feel a little naked not having Minnesota a buck tag with 2 months left in the season.

I really like to hunt but I could not pass this guy up.

Here are a few pics.

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Big Country Community Regular

Big Country

Posted
Posted

The thought of passing on a buck of that quality makes me chuckle. You farm boy's need to hunt the deep northern forest swamp bucks. Not very often you come across one like that. That is one beautiful mature buck. Way to go Hugonians! You have a dream set up right there. BC

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nbadger23 Rising Star

nbadger23

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What a great deer! There's no way he would have walked by me w/o an arrow coming his way. Restless nights are both fun and strenuous but it's always such a great relief when you find the deer. Congrats on tagging out and still having plenty of time to get those chores done :-)

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archerystud Mentor

archerystud

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Great Buck!

I hear you when you don't get a pass through, it can make for tough trailing. I shot a doe once, quartering away and hit the far shoulder. I saw the white fletching against her body so I knew it was a double lung. The blood trail was VERY TOUGH. My dad really questioned my shot but I knew it was good. When I cleaned her out she was full of blood. Way to NOT give up!!!

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hugonian1 Veteran

hugonian1

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Thanks for the kind words guys.

I never considered passing on him.

I knew he was a definite shooter when I saw him.

It is kind of weird but I like having my buck tag.

That gets me lots of tag soup. laugh

Last year I hunted right to the end of the year with no luck.

Never had a good shooter in range but based on the cams knew they were around.

This year I have a net total of 3.5 hours of stand time in.

You just never know.

That is what makes it so fun.

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