Had some luck over the weekend!

[BLACKJACK]

After a slow day of pheasant hunting I went bow hunting on Sat evening. Saw a nice 8 point at about 150 yards; he was intently feeding in a low, wet area. Tried grunting, tried rattling my rattling bag, no responses. After about 15 minutes of feeding he started walking across this small field out of sight, I grunted a few times and also did another sequence on the rattling bag, even though he was out of sight. About 10 minutes later here came a deer walking up from the south, it looked like the same buck, I grabbed my bow off the hook and he turned to walk right under my tree stand. When he was at 25 yards he stopped and looked around. When he started up again I started to pull my bow back but then he stopped, as I let my bow back down it squeaked a bit, he looked right at me - I held still and he started looking around again. That happened twice, when I tried to let down, my bow squeaked and he looked at me. Finally he started walking again, I pulled back, he stopped and I drilled him at 15 yards. As he crashed by me, I could see the arrow still sticking in his right shoulder, he crashed off a tree and then over a steep bank and was gone. After sitting there about 10 minutes to calm down, I climbed down started looking for blood, I found some right away and after about 10 feet I found two 10 inch pieces of the arrow, one 10 inches piece was covered in red blood, the other piece had the fletching on it. Was really tempted to follow the trail over to the top of the bank but I backed off, went back to my folks house to have supper and gather up my brother and brother-in-law. After eating, we gatherered up flashlights, batteries, and headed out with two pickups, mine was full of dog kennels and gear, the other one was hopefully going to be the meat wagon.

We started trailing where I had found the broken off arrow pieces, dropping pieces of that red tape at every blood mark, the blood trail was fairly thin, just a splattering here and there, my bro-in-law and I following the trail while my non-sighted, colorblind brother marked the last blood spot and provided additional light. We had went about 25 yards and were noticing broken branches and skid marks where the buck charged down the ridge when my brother said "boys, there’s our quarry". The buck was piled up at the bottom of the steep bank!!!

We went down and admired the rack, it turned out to be a 9 point, not a huge deer but the biggest I had ever shot with my bow. The entry wound was high on the deer's right shoulder, probably four inches forward and three inches higher than I would have liked, with NO exit wound, so the broad head was still in the deer. Lots of blood around the deer’s mouth and nose though.

Gutting that deer with the broadhead inside it was no fun!!! I didn't want to slice my fingers and end up going to the ER so after cutting and tying off the bung and making the gut slice I slowly pulled out the stomach, lungs, and heart, examining and looking for the broad head as I want. Found on one lung where the broad head had sliced thru, the heart was intact, still no broadhead! Shined a light in the cavity and saw a five inch piece of arrow, it was broken off, still no broadhead. We looked thru the pooled up blood I thought maybe it shattered and was in it, couldn't find it. Finished up the gutting, drug out the deer, loaded it, tagged it, and took it home to rinse it out. After rinsing and cutting out the inner tenderloins, I started looking up the cavity and finally found an arrow mark in the opposite shoulder!! The broadhead was buried in the opposite shoulder, and I'm speculating that the action of him running and the leg bones moving is what caused the arrow to break into four pieces and it was the lung hit that killed him. He went about 45 yards total but in a way I was lucky because without the exit wound I'm sure the blood trail would have been sparse.

Nice end to a good day of hunting!!!

[harvey lee]

Congrats on the deer.

[maros91]

Great story!! Congrats also.

[96trigger]

Great story, was it a classic circle downwind? Sounds like it. I've lost sight of bucks before only to have them reappear behind me just like you said, still awesome.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Dude, you know the rules... you cant tell us an awesome story llike that and not attach a pict!... YOUR KILLIN ME MAN!!!

[LABS4ME]

Good Job BlackJack! Great stroy too... I love when it whaen it all comes together!

I know what you mean about gutting a deer without a pass through... You are always expecting to feel that warm rush of a razor blade slicing through your finger.

Good Luck!

Ken

[BLACKJACK]

Sorry Deitz, forgot my digital camera at home!!! I had thought about that even after our pheasant hunt, wanted to take a picture of the crew and hounds - five guys and five dogs.

The one addition to the story is that I feel the rattling and grunting did draw him in, he wasn't hard charging but he was definately looking around, looking for the souce of the sound. The rattling bag sounded ok too and it was lots easier to carry!! I have two sets of rattling antlers and they're hard to carry in and out without making a racket.

The one downside to the story is that now I'm done bowhunting for bucks but I have the all-season and can still shoot a doe. I love being out in the tree stand in early Nov. I know, don't shoot an early buck if thats a concern but this guy was definately a shooter and theres also that old thought that 'don't pass on one in Sept that you'd take in Nov'. I'll just have to pheasant hunt more

[Mark Christianson]

Way to go my friend!

You had to have at least taken a pic on the meat pole didnt ya??

[delmuts]

i was pleased as i shot a button buck tonight! reason i'm so pleased!! you have to understand i have shot a number of deer with a bow over the years, but have had a VERY bad problem with target panic/buck fever the last few.i had missed a doe last sat. ( jerked and peeked on the release!)i have been working very hard to over come this problem. tonight i let the little buck come in, had a quartering away shot, at 12 yds. settled my pin behind the last rib. the arrow came out in front of the off shoulder. i'm very proud of making a good shot and a clean kill.i actually have a little confidence now! i still have two tags to fill! del