I am going to start this long lucky story from the beginning....
The morning of November 1st I drive out to our lease in Jackson county with my hunting partner discussing our strategy for this chilly blustery morning. We both decided to sit in a grass swamp that is surrounded by corn on three sides and we are about 150 yds apart on opposite edges of the corn field, but the bucks had been chasing the does in and out of the corn through the grass swamp the last weekend and we seen two shooter 10 pts and a shooter 8.
As the darkness subsides and the sun starts to blanket the frozen grass I decide that I am going to do a little rattling to get these bucks moving if they are in the corn. I hit the bag for a good sequence and keep my eyes peeled. Not 20 seconds later I see a BIG 10 pt emerge from the tall brush into a neighboring hay field a few hundred yards away and he is looking my way. I wait and then hit the bag again, he takes a few more steps in my direction looking like he wanted to bolt towards me badly. Then I notice a second deer. It is his girlfriend he picked up last night and he isn't going to leave her for nothing. They soon wander off into the corn heading away from me and my hunting partner. No such luck with this bruiser. We go the rest of the morning without another sighting.
We break for lunch and meet some friends that have a lease about 10 miles from us and then head back for the afternoon sit. We discuss where we are going to sit for the afternoon on the way back to the property. I decide that I am going to head east into the woods of our property to a stand that is on some trails that are coming out of a swamp leading to two bean fields and a pond on the neighboring property to the south and he decides to head back to where he sat in the morning. I am hopeful because I haven't stepped foot into this part of the property since opening weekend and it looks like a promising spot.
I walk into the stand, climb up, and start getting settled in. I then notice a truck parked several hundred yards away along the corn on the south neighboring property and all of the sudden a 4 wheeler comes racing from the truck north to the fence line towards me. Mind you my stand is about 40 yards or so from the fence line that he is now cruising along. He goes past me and to a stand that I never even noticed before that is in a wide hedge row that runs between the two bean fields. Huh? I didn't know that anyone was hunting there. I think to myself oh well his stand is well over a hundred yards from mine. He comes back after dropping off the 3 big piles of bait he had strapped to his stand and he spots me in the tree, stops, shut off his 4 wheeler, and points at me. He then says (yells), "hey, don't you think that you are hunting a little close to my stand?" I tell him that I had not noticed his stand when we hung ours, but I think we are far enough apart for bow hunting. He tells me, "well this is my only spot to hunt and if you sit there you will be killing any deer that is going to be coming my way out of your swamp before they get to me. I think you need to sit somewhere else, like maybe back on the other side of your swamp." Being a non confrontational person I decide to tell him that I will move to one of our other stands and call it good, even though I really didn't want to.
After getting my stuff gathered I climb down out of my stand and think to myself, where the heck to go now that it is getting time for the deer to start moving. I really don't want to go trudging the 1/4 mile back into the woods to the other side of the swamp at this point and besides the wind is terrible for the majority of those stands for the evening hunt. I quickly decide that I will sit in a stand that we have up front by where we park that is in the corner of a tall grass field that overlooks a group of small oaks that have some good scrape activity on them and the wind is perfect for them coming out of the woods from the north into the scrapes.
I climb into the stand and get settled in AGAIN. Now I'm sweating at this point after walking again and being worked up. I cool off and put all my gear on and let the wait begin. I am sitting in this spot for no longer then 45 minutes when I hear some leaves crunching and something coming through the woods from the north. Out pops a good looking 10 pt and he heads right for the scrapes around the oaks. As soon as he stops and starts making a scrape I draw on him as he is 32 yards broadside to me. As soon as I finished my draw he takes a step forward to the licking branch and his vitals are now blocked by two small trees. I hold draw for a minute (seemed like an hour) as I wait for him to not have his head up in the air for fear he will see my movement. He finally puts his head down behind a small tree and I slowly let down. He walks out about 10 ft to another scrape on another tree and I draw on him again. This time after I draw and get settled into my pins I notice there are small twigs blocking my shot. I need him to take one more step. He finally takes one more step into the scrape and at this point he is ever so slightly quartering towards me (I'm talking ever less then 10 degrees) and I take a deep breath, settle my pins right behind his shoulder, flex my back, and the arrow releases. As the arrow releases I hear my string hit my cuff on my coat and the buck turns. I hear the arrow loudly impact the deer and he takes off bounding. He makes it 15 or so yards to the edge of the woods and slows down and at this point I can see blood pouring from him as he struggles to stay on his feet. He bounds another 30 yds into the woods and crashes right there and he is down for the count.
After I try to stop shaking and gain my composure back I text my hunting partner that I just shot a good one and I saw him go down within 60 yards of my stand. We decide that since we have and hour left of hunting light that I would sit tight so he could finish out his hunt and I could as well cause you never know lightning can strike twice.
It gets dark and I tell him to walk up to my stand to scare off some does that are milling all around my stand so that I don't give up the stand location. I can see the lighted nock about 20 yards in front of me and it is 10 yards in front of where is shot him so I am thinking that the arrow must have came out of him there. We walk up to it and it is just the nock alone. Huh? Walk over to where I had shot him and see blood right where he stood and my buddy notices my arrow 10 yards beyond where I hit him. The arrow is covered in thick red blood for the first 12-14" and nothing after that. I am puzzled at this point, but I knew he went down and right where he was at so I bee lined right over to him. I pick his head up and the excitement and high fives commence. After I settled down I do a once over on him to find out what actually happened with the arrow and where I hit him. I then notice a huge gaping 2.5" hole where his neck meets his chest and no other entry or exit would. It appears that when he turned the arrow hit him straight on and took out arteries and possibly cut into the top of the heart. I'm not really sure though. The fact that the nock popped out and the arrow was back behind him makes me think that it hit his ribs or chest bone and popped the nock and the arrow flew out when he turned. I really don't know, I'll I know is that I got REALLY lucky on the shot not to wound him and for him to go down that fast.
Luck was definitely on my side that night between killing a buck in a stand that I wasn't even supposed to sit in (thank you 4 wheeling, over baiting, crazy neighbor) and I got SUPER lucky on the shot. But sometimes we need a little luck on our side to get it done.
Attachment 69901
Here he is.... My biggest buck with a bow. I have passed on so many smaller bucks and haven't shot a buck since my last bow buck and that was 4 years ago. I am so excited and he is going onto my wall next to my biggest one that I took with a slug gun on opening day back in 08.
The morning of November 1st I drive out to our lease in Jackson county with my hunting partner discussing our strategy for this chilly blustery morning. We both decided to sit in a grass swamp that is surrounded by corn on three sides and we are about 150 yds apart on opposite edges of the corn field, but the bucks had been chasing the does in and out of the corn through the grass swamp the last weekend and we seen two shooter 10 pts and a shooter 8.
As the darkness subsides and the sun starts to blanket the frozen grass I decide that I am going to do a little rattling to get these bucks moving if they are in the corn. I hit the bag for a good sequence and keep my eyes peeled. Not 20 seconds later I see a BIG 10 pt emerge from the tall brush into a neighboring hay field a few hundred yards away and he is looking my way. I wait and then hit the bag again, he takes a few more steps in my direction looking like he wanted to bolt towards me badly. Then I notice a second deer. It is his girlfriend he picked up last night and he isn't going to leave her for nothing. They soon wander off into the corn heading away from me and my hunting partner. No such luck with this bruiser. We go the rest of the morning without another sighting.
We break for lunch and meet some friends that have a lease about 10 miles from us and then head back for the afternoon sit. We discuss where we are going to sit for the afternoon on the way back to the property. I decide that I am going to head east into the woods of our property to a stand that is on some trails that are coming out of a swamp leading to two bean fields and a pond on the neighboring property to the south and he decides to head back to where he sat in the morning. I am hopeful because I haven't stepped foot into this part of the property since opening weekend and it looks like a promising spot.
I walk into the stand, climb up, and start getting settled in. I then notice a truck parked several hundred yards away along the corn on the south neighboring property and all of the sudden a 4 wheeler comes racing from the truck north to the fence line towards me. Mind you my stand is about 40 yards or so from the fence line that he is now cruising along. He goes past me and to a stand that I never even noticed before that is in a wide hedge row that runs between the two bean fields. Huh? I didn't know that anyone was hunting there. I think to myself oh well his stand is well over a hundred yards from mine. He comes back after dropping off the 3 big piles of bait he had strapped to his stand and he spots me in the tree, stops, shut off his 4 wheeler, and points at me. He then says (yells), "hey, don't you think that you are hunting a little close to my stand?" I tell him that I had not noticed his stand when we hung ours, but I think we are far enough apart for bow hunting. He tells me, "well this is my only spot to hunt and if you sit there you will be killing any deer that is going to be coming my way out of your swamp before they get to me. I think you need to sit somewhere else, like maybe back on the other side of your swamp." Being a non confrontational person I decide to tell him that I will move to one of our other stands and call it good, even though I really didn't want to.
After getting my stuff gathered I climb down out of my stand and think to myself, where the heck to go now that it is getting time for the deer to start moving. I really don't want to go trudging the 1/4 mile back into the woods to the other side of the swamp at this point and besides the wind is terrible for the majority of those stands for the evening hunt. I quickly decide that I will sit in a stand that we have up front by where we park that is in the corner of a tall grass field that overlooks a group of small oaks that have some good scrape activity on them and the wind is perfect for them coming out of the woods from the north into the scrapes.
I climb into the stand and get settled in AGAIN. Now I'm sweating at this point after walking again and being worked up. I cool off and put all my gear on and let the wait begin. I am sitting in this spot for no longer then 45 minutes when I hear some leaves crunching and something coming through the woods from the north. Out pops a good looking 10 pt and he heads right for the scrapes around the oaks. As soon as he stops and starts making a scrape I draw on him as he is 32 yards broadside to me. As soon as I finished my draw he takes a step forward to the licking branch and his vitals are now blocked by two small trees. I hold draw for a minute (seemed like an hour) as I wait for him to not have his head up in the air for fear he will see my movement. He finally puts his head down behind a small tree and I slowly let down. He walks out about 10 ft to another scrape on another tree and I draw on him again. This time after I draw and get settled into my pins I notice there are small twigs blocking my shot. I need him to take one more step. He finally takes one more step into the scrape and at this point he is ever so slightly quartering towards me (I'm talking ever less then 10 degrees) and I take a deep breath, settle my pins right behind his shoulder, flex my back, and the arrow releases. As the arrow releases I hear my string hit my cuff on my coat and the buck turns. I hear the arrow loudly impact the deer and he takes off bounding. He makes it 15 or so yards to the edge of the woods and slows down and at this point I can see blood pouring from him as he struggles to stay on his feet. He bounds another 30 yds into the woods and crashes right there and he is down for the count.
After I try to stop shaking and gain my composure back I text my hunting partner that I just shot a good one and I saw him go down within 60 yards of my stand. We decide that since we have and hour left of hunting light that I would sit tight so he could finish out his hunt and I could as well cause you never know lightning can strike twice.
It gets dark and I tell him to walk up to my stand to scare off some does that are milling all around my stand so that I don't give up the stand location. I can see the lighted nock about 20 yards in front of me and it is 10 yards in front of where is shot him so I am thinking that the arrow must have came out of him there. We walk up to it and it is just the nock alone. Huh? Walk over to where I had shot him and see blood right where he stood and my buddy notices my arrow 10 yards beyond where I hit him. The arrow is covered in thick red blood for the first 12-14" and nothing after that. I am puzzled at this point, but I knew he went down and right where he was at so I bee lined right over to him. I pick his head up and the excitement and high fives commence. After I settled down I do a once over on him to find out what actually happened with the arrow and where I hit him. I then notice a huge gaping 2.5" hole where his neck meets his chest and no other entry or exit would. It appears that when he turned the arrow hit him straight on and took out arteries and possibly cut into the top of the heart. I'm not really sure though. The fact that the nock popped out and the arrow was back behind him makes me think that it hit his ribs or chest bone and popped the nock and the arrow flew out when he turned. I really don't know, I'll I know is that I got REALLY lucky on the shot not to wound him and for him to go down that fast.
Luck was definitely on my side that night between killing a buck in a stand that I wasn't even supposed to sit in (thank you 4 wheeling, over baiting, crazy neighbor) and I got SUPER lucky on the shot. But sometimes we need a little luck on our side to get it done.
Attachment 69901
Here he is.... My biggest buck with a bow. I have passed on so many smaller bucks and haven't shot a buck since my last bow buck and that was 4 years ago. I am so excited and he is going onto my wall next to my biggest one that I took with a slug gun on opening day back in 08.
Nov 1st, Biggest Bow Buck to date, long lucky story
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