Well guys I have'nt been on the site in a while but I"v been building bows and hunting.
Saturday morning , October 29th,I decided to check out one of my evening hunting spots for scrapes and deer activity.The morning was cold and overcast with about an inch of freshly fallen snow on the ground. Mind you I wasn't planning on seeing any deer as it is NORMALLY an evening spot when the deer come to the soybean field to feed. I planned to hunt here in the morning then driving to Jon Houks( Straightarrow) house for the REAL hunt in the evening. I got up in my ladder stand at about 7:30.
I had juiced up a couple of well used scrapes with doe in estrous urine on the way in. The nearest scrape was roughly 15 yards away.
I got all settled into my stand and was prepared to wait a couple hours and then head home.I texted Jon and wished him good luck.At about 7:45,only about 10 minutes after full daylight. I heard the sound of a deer walking in the crunchy leaves very close. I slowly stood with bow in hand and faced the direction the noise was coming from. Before me was a beautiful 7 point buck! As the buck got downwind of the nearest scrape he stopped 12 yards from my tree and lifted his head to test the air. I slowly drew anchored and released. I hit the deer right above the kill zone with a spine shot that penetrated through the lungs and lodged in the off shoulder! The deer dropped, back legs and left front leg crippled and tried to drag itself away on the one remaining good leg. At about 20 yards I released another arrow that pierced the bucks heart and passed completely through.
I very shakily sat down in my stand and tried to pull myself together( Yeah Right!) I texted Jon,and about a million other people, at about 8:00 and told them I had a buck down. After many cell phone pats on the back I got down To admire my trophy.The buck had 4 points on his right beam, which is very thick and palmated.His left side has 3 points including a 5.5 inch brow tine. He is not real wide but decently tall.
The bow I used was a 74# hickory flatbow, ash arrows, and trade points made from spoons...... Ironically the wood used to make the bow was harvested from the same property I was hunting. The deer died 10 feet from the hickory stump where the bow came from!
This hunt will go down as my best hunt yet! But then, at the time, all hunts are the best when they happen!