As I drove to the farm I decided that my only option would be to improvise a position on the ground and that brought to mind One Shot Scott’s recent thread: (http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2 ... =1&t=45208), the one in which he sat on the ground against a tree, turkey hunting style, and got his big buck. There was a tree opposite my stand that just might work.
The spot on the ground turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. Too comfortable perhaps because I fought to stay awake for the first hour. The clouds were heavy in the sky and it was starting to get very foggy now. Darkness would come early tonight. Perhaps it was the realization that “magical last half-hour” was already upon me that made my drowsiness disappear. I remember telling myself, “Stay alert and pretend you’re an acorn, an acorn with a crossbow!”
CRACK! The sound came from my right and no squirrel could snap a branch like that. I wasn’t too surprised that a deer might be coming at dusk, as I’d been seeing fawns in this spot almost every time I’d been out. Straining to see what might be coming from the right, I didn’t see the buck coming up on my left. All I knew is that suddenly there were antlers entering my shooting lane. I tried to get my crossbow up before his head cleared the bushes, but I was too late. He spotted my movement and froze! There was no time to count points. All I knew was that his rack was big, or at least big in my books. He was slightly quartering to me, but not enough to prevent me from getting both lungs, or so I thought.
TWANG-THOONK! For a split-second the buck looked like he would go down right on the spot, but two quick bounds and he vanished into the thicket. Confident in my shot, I checked my watch. 6:30 pm. I’d take my gear back to the truck and be back here at 7:00 and likely find him right behind my tree stand. As I stood up to leave, two fawns bounded off in the same direction as my buck. They must have been the deer I’d heard.
It was fully dark now and the fog had really come in. WTF? I can’t see a thing!!! My LED headlamp was blinding me like high-beam headlights on a foggy highway. But I was encouraged when I found a couple of drops of blood where the buck had been standing. Next I found my arrow. The complete pass-through and the bright red, bubbly blood on the arrow were good signs, but the arrow had a familiar sour odour and that was not a good sign at all. What seemed like a sure thing was suddenly getting complicated. Should I keep tracking or come back later? That’s when the rain started and my decision was easy; track now or risk the blood trail being washed away forever.
Searching for more blood, I soon became completely disoriented in the fog and lost the trail. Now the panic of possibly losing the deer was starting to set in and as a result I caught myself rushing around in the hope of randomly spotting some blood. “Calm down, regroup” I told myself. I knew the deer had to be down. I was sure I’d seen Big John’s Blazing Tiger arrow go in behind the shoulder. So back I went to the start and I got down on my hands and knees. Its amazing what you can spot from 20 inches off the ground that you miss at 6 feet. The blood droplets were still tiny, but the trail was starting to reveal itself. I marked the blood spots with strips of white Kleenex. I always carry Kleenex for this purpose (and others) because it decomposes. My line of white Kleenex markers soon showed that the buck had hooked to the north. My confidence was coming back now and the blood trail, although still sparse, was good enough that I could walk upright again. The buck was leading me toward the farm fence and I was convinced that was where I would surely find him piled up.
HUGH???!!! My heart sank when I saw that he had the stength to jump over the fence and still keep going. So I climbed the fence and followed, worrying again that the blood trail was still thin. I began wonder; How far did he go? Did I push him too soon? Is he still going? I felt instant releif when I saw the first decent patch of blood; about the size of a hockey puck. I was hoping for a few more of these but it wasn’t necessary. In the light of my headlamp I caught a glimpse of something extra-white in the whiteness of the fog. Another step and the white fur that fringed his tail became clear and there he lay. Leaping over the fence must have ran the gas out of his tank.
For some reason, the first thing I looked at on the deer was my arrow’s entry hole. It was a bit farther back than I had anticipated, causing my arrow to pass through only one lung before exiting through the gut. I was very, very lucky that the buck hadn’t gone farther.
Then I saw the rack! I could immediately tell that it was wider than anything I had ever shot and I could hardly believe it when I counted 11 points! My string of 9-pointers was finally beaten!
But if y’all don’t mind, I’m going to keep my username just the same
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