Specs of the hunt:
Where: Homestead
Stand/Location: Far Northern stand at the base of the northern hillside.
Time in: 7:00am
Time out: 11:30am
Wind: S/SE
(as always click on any image you want to see larger)
Man this day had more in store in it than I ever thought possible. First I got on stand early enough to spread a little S&P (frozen upon harvest) estrous urine out in front of me along the trail 20-25 yards away. I made sure to spray it out over the scrape in hopes that if a buck came moving quickly it may stop him just long enough to get a shot.
Slid back up the stand in the dark, still 30-45 minutes from legal light, and began to get settled. Once I was 100% set and ready I noticed something moving off to my right...small, looked like a fox or coyote. It hung around for 5 minutes or so but worked off about 5 minutes before legal light and never gave me a clear sight line to confirm whether fox or coyote.
Legal light came and went with no sign of deer...hour passed and nothing...then finally deer movement in from the west (to my right). I was finally filling the freezer so I had bow ready upon first sighting and stood waiting to see if I'd get a shot presented to me. It was a group of 5 does, two of which were mature enough to take. The leader of the group wasn't the largest of the two but was easily 3 maybe 4 years old and I decided I'd try to take her if I could. Needless to say they played around and meandered for quite awhile...even had two of the smaller ones bed down...one well check it out:
 |
| One of the two does bedded down...right beneath me. |
 |
| Same one zoomed in closer. This deer would lick my tree steps at one point. |
 |
| The other yearling doe bedded 15 or so yards to my right at the same time. |
Well the two biggest ones finally decided they wanted to start heading East and did so right in front of me. They were in no big hurry and were nibbling here and there...the whole time I was attempting to get to full draw on one of them, but either one would be looking my direction. Twice I had clear shots at each of the does but couldn't pull back due to all the other eyes. Finally I had a shot on the bigger of the two (not the leader) so I raised my arm to draw and bam one of the yearlings picked me up. I froze and she eventually stopped looking but the doe I was gonna shoot was now moving off to my left and I had no shot. So the lead doe now down and to my left gave me a slight quartering away angled shot down through some tiny branches...picked an opening I was confident it'd be good and drew and let it fly. Till this day I am not sure what happened but I remember thinking immediately it wasn't a good hit and that it had nicked a branch. I regret taking the shot now after in hindsight...but at the time there wasn't a person in the world that could have convinced me the arrow wasn't gonna find it's mark. I would later learn the deflection had caused a gut shot and from where I saw it impact it had hit low...
Not knowing this I decided to set on stand for an hour before getting down and checking the arrow...dreading what it would show. At the 58 minute mark and while standing up to get ready to climb down I catch movement in front of me. 4 does were coming from the food plots on our property and working North right in front of me. I quick grab my bow and get set....lead doe is very big and presented me a 21 yard shot, I settled the 25 yard pin (thinking she was back slightly farther than I found out she was) and squeezed it off. I could tell this deer was hit good, but did notice the arrow hit touch right however she was double lunged and I didn't know it but was pounding blood out as she ran around and down the hill on a death run.
I sat back down texted my father, who now decided with my color blindness and having two hit he'd come home to help. It was 10:30am only and he said shoot another so I sat down and decided I may if given a chance....wouldn't you know it almost happened to. I had more does work in from the West into the thicket to my right. Wish they'd have come by me because it was the big group with the doe that is like a mini beef cattle...I hope to harvest her at some point.
THE RECOVERY...and what followed.
Well let's make this abbreviated as much as possible. We started searching for the first doe, and knew instantly it wasn't a good shot. I knew immediately I wasn't gonna give up but knew in the back of my mind this one could end bad. We honestly would find just specs of blood...at times only my father seemingly could find them. It would take us a half hour just to move 10-20 yards...after a while he decided to stay on the blood and I would start grid searching the 40 acres worth of woods she'd ran into. I seriously grid searched this woods twice in the coming hours...at one point my father now possible 40 yards from where I'd left him at last blood was at a stand still for blood...I just happened to look down where I stood in one of my circles and along the main trail that rain from where my father now stood and saw blood. This progressed us another 50 yards or so...and again the search was ridiculously slow. We did eventually figure out she had ran down into a thick spot where some creeks dumped together along a county road. After searching that thick spot completely we knew she had to have made it across the road (we heard some take off when entering the thicket...now 4 hours into the search and well over 6 hours after the shot). We walked the road and decided to go recover the other doe, which didn't take long at all before dark would hit us and if we had time we'd go walk the property across the road (my dad knew the landowner and actually hunts it). *Quick note we did hear some shots...remember that as I feel it is crucial to where my doe now is.
I won't go deep into the other tracking job...let's just say the Slick Trick Magnum 125gr heads had blown through with ease and she was spraying blood both directions at times 3 feet out each side. We found her piled up heading for our properties bedding area (which is an awesome feeling she was trying to make it there!!!). Here she is:
 | |
| No that stand in behind me isn't the one I was in. |
I'd estimate her to be 3-5 year old range and plenty big...well after that recovery we went and tried to find blood from the first doe now on the neighboring property as one last ditch effort...nothing. However we did notice on a neighbor's property two dead does laying in this guy's yard. We decided to pull into the guys driveway....now this guy is crazy...not nice...and well all around jerk to nearly everyone...but I had to try. The guy claims he was sighting in a gun early (explanation of the shots) and that the deer we saw were roadkill ones. He didn't wanna talk any longer and gave us an ear full about our hunting does and well whatever...guy was crazy. I'll just leave it at this...the shot wasn't good...and this is only the second deer I've never recovered and it has me torn up. Could that deer still be alive...yeah...is it? Sadly probably not...however I really think it may be one of those two "roadkill" deer that didn't looked banged up or road rashed at all from the distance we were standing.
Moral of the story is hindsight is always better...would I take that shot if presented again...maybe...after I clear it out some more, because obviously it wasn't open enough. Some guys would say don't sweat it, it was just a doe...but honestly I can't do that. I'll own up to my mistake and learn from it. That doe deserved me making the shot and I failed...you can count on me planning on making that the last deer I never recover for as long as possible...not a good feeling at all!
To close out this long story....I'll share the fact that it was a fox I saw in the morning. I know this because the little booger came back as I was in stand waiting on my father to arrive. Here's some pics of it:
No comments:
Post a Comment