Wednesday morning I hunted until 11am….when I pulled my trail camera this monster had shown up an hour after I left. It was the only daytime shot we ever got of this guy, but gave me hope every time I was in that stand.
The very last morning I was sitting in that stand and a very big doe came in just after shooting hours. I thought…..do I or don’t I. Well you can’t eat antlers so I put my scope on her and let the Micro 335 do its job. I use NuFletch Ignitor nocks and right away I could tell that the arrow wasn’t flying right. I don’t see the arrow in the ground so I assumed that it was still in the doe. Since I figured it was a bad hit I waited a couple hours before getting out of my stand.
I still couldn’t find the arrow so I look for blood and get on a pretty good trail. Several spots I found where she had blown out blood in large circles so I thought I must have got part of a lung. I continue to follow the trail and all of a sudden she jumps up fifty yards ahead and lopes off. Not running hard, but not limping either. I mark the spot on my GPS and back out. I went back to the cabin and had lunch with my hunting partners and prepared to go back out.
I get back into the woods and load another arrow into my Micro 335 and get back on the blood trail. I had no problem following the blood and it led me to the edge of a very large Northern Michigan swamp. I had a buck do the same thing several years ago and I tracked it to a high ground area about ¼ mile into the swamp. I get the compass reading and start my trek.
About 100 yards into the swamp I walked by her without ever seeing her. She jumps up and off she goes. I go after her as hard as I can……knee deep swamp muck in areas. I was going too fast and jumped her again. I watch the direction and stop and put a waypoint in my GPS. Now I am creeping through the swamp one slow step at a time, scanning the ground ahead as I go. All of a sudden I see her laying on the ground 20 yards away. I take a couple more steps to get a good angle, lift my crossbow, put the crosshairs on her and let it fly. She never got up…It was a very humbling experience to stand next to your prey and watch it die.
Now for the fun part. I get out my GPS (which is an app on my phone) and figured out where the hell I was. After I gut her, I knew I was in for a long drag……took my crossbow out 20 yards, dragged her to it…over and over. Several times I was in up to my knees, lifting her as high as I could to keep her clean. An hour and a half later I was at my truck with 15% left on my smart phone battery.
Looking back, I sure wish I would have put a better shot on her to start (first shot hit her neck)……but, the tracking experience was one I won’t ever forget. She is one big doe who will provide some great meals this winter!!
