What a day. I got to my stand early yesterday and expected to have company because the morning before a guy came in and set up next to my stand not 30 yards away. I didn't yell out to the guy because I didn't want to spook any deer in the area.
Anyway, yesterday morning I decided to try some serious grunting. I gave a few doe grunts at first light and got no response. At 8 am something caught my eye moving out into the field about 75 yards to my right. It was a good size deer so I grunted and he froze and looked my way. He was blocked by some brush, but I could see he was a good 8 or 10 pointer, with some mass. He started for the opposite end of the field again and I grunted agian. He only stopped for a second to have a look then carried on. He went out of sight at the other end of the field.
Since the rut is starting I decided to try a series of tending grunts to simulate a buck chasing a doe. After the third set (8:30 am) I saw a buck heading right for me along the same field edge the 8 pt came out of. He was looking and sniffing the air. I had a scent bomb with doe in heat out and he was coming right to my grunts. I could see he was a nice 6 pt so I decided to take him. When he stepped into my shooting lane at 15 yards I bahhhed and he froze. The 20 yard cross hair found his front shoulder and.......SMACK. Gotta love the sound of a bolt making a good hit.
He ran out into the field and slowed to a walk and laid down at 100 yards from my stand. I could see his head was up so I watched him through my binoculars. I was going to give him 1/2 hr after he laid his head down. After 20 minutes I saw him get up, wag his tail, and proceed to walk out of the field the same way the 8 pt exited. What the *#$&$(*?????? I couldn't beleive it. I could see blood on his side from the entry so I knew I had a decent hit.
I got down and couldn't find my bolt or any blood. I went to where he had laid down and found about 2 tps of blood.
I was starting to get a sick feeling. I went to get Chris4570 and we began tracking. There was blood where he had laid down and two tiny drops where he hopped the fence at the other end of the feild. Chris found my bolt at the hit site. It had blood and gut on it. Oh crap. I couldn't beleive I hit him that far back at 15 yards.We looked for 3 or 4 hrs with no sign of blood and way too many tracks to follow his. Then it started to rain
. The only thing we had to go on was the deers direction of travel, but that was looking like he would have to cross two huge bean fields to get to cover. We walked all the brush line between the fields and nothting. We crossed over the bean fields and nothing. I told Chris I was going to get the packs we left at the stand and I was going to sweep the thick stuff on the other side of the bean feilds until dark before giving up. I had just headed back when I heard Chris yell, "I got him!". I was stunned. The deer had crossed the field I was hunting, two bean fields, and went 60 yards up into the woods before dying. We measured the distance with the GPS, he went 1.2km and no blood trail. We got lucky, plain and simple. Someone answered my praryer that day.What is most unbelieveable is that he was quartering towards me and I hit one lung, touched the liver, and the intestine before the pass though and he went over a km. The only thing I can see is that I grazed a rib on entry and the bolt got deflected towards the back leg. He was only slightly quartering when I hit him.
I thanked my good friend and hunting partner, Chris, as well as GOD yesterday for allowing me to recover my first Excalibur Buck. Good hunting fellas and never give up on a hit deer
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