Saturday morning was a wash out. In the afternoon she had deer within 50 yards within 10 minutes of getting in the stand. A small one even bedded down 36 yards away and she contemplated a shot. After 45 minutes it got up. She decided it was time to get the monkey off of her back and got the ExoMax ready. She ranged the spot where the button buck stepped into the trail at 30 yards. It was quartering slightly to, but she didn't think she would have another opportunity if it crossed the trail into the thicker woods. She called herself trying to shoot it in the lower neck. Fortunately for her the Firebolts were topped with 2" Hammerheads. The shot hit right where she aimed. The arrow entered in front of the near shoulder and exited through the far shoulder. The button buck ran about 30 yards and piled up. She finally had good clean kill so that monkey was off her back.
Fast forward to Tuesday when she had a day off of work. She decided to go out on her own since she is proficient with the crankaroo. About 8am two bucks stroll up on her. One was a four point and she thought the other was a six point. The four point got really close so she was having problems getting drawn on the bigger one. Eventually she got the bow mounted and the shot presented was much the same as Saturday. The buck was at 35 yards, but quartering toward. Having had success before, she took the shot. The arrow nailed the near shoulder and the buck bolted. She could see part of the arrow sticking out. The four point was clueless to reason for the commotion so it spent another 10 minutes around her before finally wandering off.
She waited about a half hour and got down to look for blood. She found a little blood and eventually found half of the arrow broken off about 40 yards from the point of impact. She texted me at work all excited after the initial shot. Her excitement quickly faded to worry once she took up the blood trail and was only finding specks. I had her back out and meet me at home. I took off work and came home to meet her and enlist the help of our chocolate lab.
An hour and a half later we were back in the woods with my lab leading the way. There wasn't much blood at all the first 30 yards, and only spots here and there from that point on. Once we knew we were on the trail and my dog noticed the scent and blood, he led us right to it. The buck went about 100 yards total. I'm sure we would have found it without the dog, but I didn't want to waste time or take any chances.
To her surprise the small buck turned out to be an eight point, which is her biggest buck to date. She nailed it in the near shoulder right at the knuckle. The hammerhead actually cut through and across the end of the ball joint dislocating the shoulder and proceeded another 6-8" inside but didn't reach the far shoulder. The entrance hole was much larger than I expected showing that the blades certainly folded back before entering the skin. Inside was what seemed like a gallon of blood. The muscle and moving leg likely kept most of the blood contained on the inside.
Her lessoned learned is although she found success, shooting the near shoulder on a quartering to deer is not a good idea. Although its hard, its best to wait on a better shot. I think she is totally hooked on archery hunting now. She has her sights on something even bigger now. My old ExoMax has plenty of new life in her hands.
DuckHunt
