The place I hunt can be very trying at times because they open sections or areas on a daily basis. Some places stay open almost all season and others are barely ever open. I can't tell you how many times I have found a big old buck that I wanted to hunt but never got to because the area would be closed for the rest of the season or it would only be open on weekdays while I was stuck at work. Plus they only give out like 15% of the passes for the areas to civilians like myself so there is always a good chance that the area will be open but the 20 or so military passes will be taken by military personel and the 2 or 3 civilian passes will be snatched up by civilians who do volunteer work and get to go ahead of all the other regular civilians like myself. It is not uncommon to spend nearly as much time waiting in a line as actualy hunting during certain times of the year. It is also not uncommon to find and pattern a good buck and then not be able to go after him for a few weeks giving countless other hunters chances to get him first or giving the buck a chance to change his pattern and be long gone by the time you get to try.
Well last Saturday started on a down note because my father and I wanted to go out to a place that we have been hunting most of the season. I had seen atleast one buck that was 8 points or better every day, the last 5 days I had been out there. Unfortunately it was closed, so we had to go somewhere else. We picked a spot that we know but have not been to yet this year and headed out there. Because we didn't have any scouting done in this area we both decided to wait for sun up to go out and to more or less scout for a good spot for next time.
Durring my wait for sunrise and the last week before that, I had been beating myself up for not getting any of the bucks I had seen previously. Most of them didn't give me a clear shot. A couple of them were briefly shootable but I wasted too much time looking through my binoculars trying to count points or trying to range them in my range finder. I thought about the countless hours I had spent sitting in my stand, hunting a deer that may have allready been dead and how long and boring those days can be. I thought about the desperation and sadness that I have felt many times as a season was coming to a close without a single tag being filled and I also thought of all of the nice bucks I allways pass on because I want a bigger one. That is probably my biggest problem with trying to hunt for trophies. I know the importance of letting the little ones and even the big ones who arn't monsters walk because there may be a real monster right behind them, or they may be bigger next year. Way too often, I blow up my perception of a good shooter buck to the point where I am looking for a buck the caliber of the ones I see on hunting shows even though there are probably only a handfull of bucks that size in the whole state and none in the place I am hunting, plus I have a tendency to always go out looking for one bigger than the one I got last year while ignoring the fact that it simply can't be done every year.
So I thought about all those things and how this is my second year hunting with the xbow and I asked myself how many years I will be using the xbow before I actualy get a monster buck in my sights. I decided that I bought my xbow for a reason other than wondering around the woods looking at deer and I needed to use it for that. There were only two more weeks left in the season (2 huntable days for me) but I was planning on possibly going to the mountains for opening day of muzzle loader season the next Saturday meaning that this day would be my last chance. My last chance to break in the xbow before gun season starts and I was in an area I had done no scouting in, wishing I could be in the place I knew well but probably won't be open again till christmas.
We napped in our trucks untill sun rise and then we headed out. I was a bit behind my dad because I didn't feel the urge to be out there ASAP. I walked up the little dirt road behind the gate we parked at and within a few minutes I jumped the first deer of the day. It ran off without ever showing me a glimpse of what it was or it's size. I continued down the road fighting my urge to slow down and keep my eyes open for deer because it would take too long to get to my desired location. Instead I kept a good pace but tried to make as little noise as possible. I walked for about 25 minutes when I looked up and saw a deer in the middle of the road. I stopped and looked through my binoculars. It was a doe, about eighty yards out, feeding on grass. Then all of the sudden another deer walked out and looked right at me. I froze and watched it untill I had a chance to look through my binoculars again. I thought it was a doe too but it turned out to be a spike. They made their way into the woods so I waited a minute and kept walking. Soon I made it up to where they were and I jumped the spike. A little farther and I was where I wanted to be.
My plan was to still hunt down a ridge towards my truck while scouting for future hunts. It had a large strip of logged area with a few oaks and poplars left standing among the tall grass and piles of tree limbs and sticker bushes. It was on the right side of the ridge. Above that, on the top right side of the ridge was a strip of assorted, mature, deciduous trees. Next to them was a thicket of small pines that ran along the top of the ridge and over the other side. I started out by slowly walking through the middle section. I made it about a hundred yards when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked and saw it was a good sized deer, with antlers, moving from my right to left. The antlers looked ok, probably an eight but I didn't let myself become fixated on them. I moved my eyes to the left, looking for a shooting lane. I found one, and only one, about 20 yards ahead of the deer. I looked back at the deer to see him dissapearing behind a cluster of trees when I raised my xbow and pointed it towards the shooting lane. I looked up over my scope and guessed the yardage to the point I thought he would cross the lane. I dropped my head and looked through the scope just in time for him to walk into view. I hesitated as I thought that he was too small to shoot but I quickly put it out of my mind realizing that I was about to do the same thing I was just cussing myself for. I let the crosshairs pass his shoulders and squeezed off the shot. I heard the bow shoot and then a sound from my bolt hitting. It sounded like it missed and went into the dirt but it kind of crunched like it hit a rock in the dirt. The deer instantly turned and ran with his tail up high. I almost never see my bolt when I shoot so I can only use the sound and deers reaction to judge the results. I watched him run out of view along the ridge, reloaded, and went to where he was when I shot. Instantly I saw blood, so I sat down and waited 30 minutes. While waiting, I started looking around at the blood where he was standing and along his route when I saw my bolt about ten yards from where he was standing. I retreved it and saw it had some good blood on it but it was kind of watery which worried me. The blood on his trail was bright red though, which is good, plus there was some blood high on the trees like he was squirting which is also good. After the 30 minutes, I got up and started tracking. The tracking was good. I had a steady trail of blood. Not a lot, but steady, and I started seeing bubbles in the blood too. Feeling good I kept on the trail for about 100 to 150 yards. Then I started to worry. This deer is going way to far I thought. The blood started to thin. It had gone from a steady trail to large spots every 5 to 10 feet, plus there was no sign of the deer stopping and laying down only stopping to look around for a second, then pushing on. I got scared of pushing him too far and losing him, so I stopped and called my dad on the radio and had him come out to help me. After about another 30 minutes he was there and we started again. I have tracked deer before who seemed to run out of blood and dissapear so I was nervous , but we tracked him for a little more and luckily found him. He never laid down. He just walked until he dropped. I am no expert at anatomy but I think I hit him a little high and far back. The bolt passed through closer to his shoulder on the other side taking out atleast one lung. He made it in all about 150 to 200 yards.
I estimate that from the time I saw him untill the time I shot was only about 10 seconds. If I had more time to look at him I would have passed him up and been in the same boat I was in when my hunt started. I am glad it all worked out the way it did. I wish he could be bigger but he is not bad, especialy for my first xbow deer. Now I can focus on nothing but finding the big ones. I hope I can get lucky again. Congrats to all who have gotten lucky so far and good luck to those that have not.
Thanks to excal for producing some awesome xbows. It was a thrill!!!
8 point
108 lbs. Dressed
2.5 years old
25 yard shot
Taken with a Exocet 200, GT2's, Wasp boss's
