My first archery hunt this season was over in less than 24 hours. Here's the story of how it went down. Keep in mind that this is only the 3rd time I've bowhunted. And hopefully you guys will forgive me for using a compound bow. I just wasn't confident enough yet to take my longbow into the bush, and it wouldn't be fair to the deer.
A couple years ago I started keeping record of my hunts in a journal, just to look back on in 30 years. Since this was a short story, time-wise, I added some details that may or may not bore you. If this is too long-winded, just skip to the pictures
For those who care to read, here goes...
Last Thursday I left the big city and headed out to my dad's farm about an hour away from here. I had to work that day, but I left a couple hours early, packed my stuff, and got out there by about 5:00. I was planning on hunting a bush line that was good to me a couple years ago, where I got my first deer with a bow. The plan was just going to go set up a quick ground blind and then get out of there so it was ready in the morning. I don't really hunt late in the day any more unless I have to. Over the years I've found that I don't enjoy trying to find an animal in the dark, let alone have to deal with skinning, gutting, and deboning late into the night.
Anyway, when I drove by the spot the wind wasn't good - it would have blown my scent all over that bush and I didn't want to ruin my chances. So I went home and had a chat with dad. He suggested I go sit in a permanent tree stand we have down in the pasture only about 1/2 mile south of home. I was a bit bummed because in my head, I had made up my mind that that other spot was where I was going to hunt, and that's where I would be successful. But I reluctantly went down to the pasture and made my way into the tree stand by 6:00.
As I climbed up the home-made ladder (pieces of 2x4 nailed between 2 trees) it occurred to me that we put this stand up 5 years ago and it has had no maintenance since. The rusty nail heads were giving me bad vibes. I didn't feel real good about sitting up there, nearly 20 feet up. After I got up, I hung out for about 30 minutes, thinking the whole time that I wouldn't get a shot off anyway, because I hadn't cleared any shooting lanes and everything was grown in. So I lowered my gear down, and breathed a sigh of relief as my feet touched solid ground. I figured I'd just stand there for awhile till dark and see if anything comes through.
At around 7:00 a bunch of coyotes started howling to the west of me, and they sounded fairly close. I was hoping maybe they'd chase something toward me. About 20 minutes later, I noticed 2 young bucks about 20 yards west of me ("Spot 1" on the map below). There was heavy bush between us, so I just watched them for a couple minutes before they turned around and headed back where they had come from. I gave them about 10 minutes and was thinking of heading for home, but I thought maybe I'd go up the trail a bit to see where they went. I made my way south and then followed the trail (dotted path on the map) to a game trail where I could see into the clearing to the south. When I looked up I just about had a heart attack. Standing there about 50 yards ahead ("Spot 2") was one of the largest whitetail bucks I had seen that close-up. I immediately hit the deck while I tried to stop my heart from beating out of my chest. I had another peak and I could see the 2 young guns farther south at the back of the "horseshoe" clearing. I tried to close the gap a bit, keeping my eye on all 3 of them, but all of a sudden another huge buck to the left of me popped his head up. I froze, but this old guy had been around the bush before, and put up his flag. Within a few moments he grunted and headed south and then ran west along the fence line, with the others all following (The arrows on the map show their escape route).
What a roller-coaster of emotions thosed few minutes were. I had so much adrenaline pumping, I wondered if I would have even been able to hold my bow steady if I had been given a shot. I decided to sneak out to the east and head home, hoping that they might return the following morning.
The next day I was up at 5:00. Normally when archery hunting I would have a shower with sent-free soap, dry off, and go get dressed outside where I store my clothes to keep the human stink off of them. This morning I was lazy and a bit behind schedule, so I didn't bother with the shower. I have often wondered how much of that "scent-free" school of thought was legit and how much is just marketing gimmicks to sell stuff. I figured I was going to find out. I got down to the pasture as the sky was just beginning to lighten up. I quickly made the 500 yard walk to the spot where I spooked them the night before. The wind was from the south-west that morning, and I figured if they came back, they would likely come in from the west along the fence line again. So I wanted to set up somewhere along the north side of the horseshoe. I usually like to find an area with 4 trees in a square fairly close together. I try to string a camo fleece blanket between the trees on either side of me so that if a deer comes across in front, I can draw the bow without him seeing me, and then release as he steps in front.
So I proceeded to tie the first blanket up between the trees just east of me. As I started tying the second, I glanced into the opening to the south and saw the same big velvet buck that I had seen the night before, grazing around the clump of trees in the middle of the clearing. I froze again, and as soon as he put his head down, I dropped. How he managed to not see me as I was messing around setting up is beyond me! I took a minute to calm down, and grab my bow to get ready. I got to my knees and watched the bugger, who was totally oblivious to my presence. As luck would have it, he started grazing towards me, heading directly at me. As he approached 10 yards, and I wondered if I would even get a chance to draw my bow before he busted me, because there were only a couple trees scattered between us. Finally he lowered his head and went behind a small tree along the edge of the clearing. My legs were aching because of the awkward position I was frozen in while he approached. I began to draw and got about half way before he sensed something was wrong, and he took off west about 20 yards and stopped to look back.
After a couple minutes, his curiosity got the best of him, and he started walking back toward me! He closed the gap to about 15 yards, and then turned north and started walking into the scattered bush. I immediatly came to full draw, knowing that if he continued a couple yards through the bush, I would have a perfect broadside shot as he crossed a game trail through the bush. As his head peaked out into the opening to the trail, he stopped for what seemed like an eternity. I had to wait at full draw for at least 3 minutes before he decided I wasn't a threat and took a few steps forward. That was a bad move for him, and as I pulled the release he took off like a flash. I wasn't sure if I had hit him, because he disappeared into the bush so fast. And the sound the arrow made was almost like it had hit wood. I made my way over to where he had been standing and had a quick look for blood. I didn't see any right away, so I walked a bit farther to see if I could find my arrow. About 20 yards away I found it laying in the grass. I had a look at the tip and didn't notice any blood. I was already feeling disappointed until I looked closer at the fletching. I could see what looked like stomach juice on the vanes. Great...
Well at least I knew I had hit him. I followed his path into the bush and quickly saw a good blood trail. Things were looking up. I backed off to give him some time, and figured I'd call Dad to talk a bit while I waited.
After about a half hour I got back on the trail headed west. I lost it a couple times where the paths split, but got back onto it fairly easily. It took me about 15 minutes just to get about 150 yards through the bush, and then I heard him take off just ahead of me. I decided I better back off because the blood was getting thinner and I didn't want to lose this guy. I went south to the fence line and started walking back to my spot. I came in through the west side of the horseshoe, where I had the pleasure of watching 5, yes 5! more bucks that had gathered in the same spot! I stood and watched for about ten minutes and took a few pictures (unfortunately no good ones of the other big guy) before something scared them and they took off out the same escape route they had used the night before.
(You can see the warning flag just going up on this last picture. That's the same guy that sounded the alarm the night before!)
I went to pack up my half set-up blind and headed to the farm for a coffee and some toast. I had a quick chat with Dad and then we both went back out to find him. Dad dropped me off where I had left off, and then went to the west end of the pasture to watch in case I pushed him over the fence line. I slowly made my way to the west end of the pasture and the blood led over the fence. I met up with dad and we made our way into the neighbor's pasture. The blood was getting real thin now, and I was afraid we weren't going to find him. There is a LOT of bush in this pasture. After losing the trail several times and taking an hour to wonder 400 yards, we finally found him laying in the bush. Dad was the one who saw him first. He signalled for me to knock an arrow just in case, but when I approached I realized he was down for good. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I noticed that the rear end of the buck had been ripped open. It had been a little over two hours since I made the shot, and already some damn coyotes had found him and took about 10 or 15 pounds of meat off of him. What a shame.
I got Dad to take a couple pictures (I should have explained that he has to let the camera focus before he pushes the button down all the way) and then we tied a rope around his neck and proceeded to drag him out. Man was he heavy!! We had to go about 100 yards through the bush and over fallen logs, but after that the remaining 300 yards to the fence was wide open. Still, we had to take about 5 breaks before we got him to the truck.
We took him home and skinned, gutted and deboned the meat. I have never seen a deer with so much fat on it's body before. We got it into the freezer and then fried up the tenderloin for lunch.
And that's about it. I think I was very fortunate to have even had a chance to see a deer like this, let alone harvest one. If I had hunted where I originally wanted to, if I had not followed the two little bucks the night before, if the biggest of the group hadn't been the first lone deer in the clearing that morning, if he would have circled east and smelled me... none of this would have happened. So many things seemed to happen just right. It's like it was meant to be. It's funny how the biggest deer I've harvested took the least amount of time or effort. I hadn't even been out scouting this year. It was just by fluke that I stumbled on this group of bachelors. I think experience can only take you so far, but obviously there's still a lot of luck that goes into a successful hunt!
