Some of you may remember a thread I posted last season ... " If you build it , they will come "
http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2 ... hilit=ramp
Here is a file photo ( view from "deer trail" to "ramp stand ")
Well Wylie , put some long hours again this season and took a beauty "smoothhead" this morning !
8:05 am , I get a phone call , and in an excited wisper , I hear " Rick , I just arrowed a doe "
8:20am .. Wylie's truck rolls up to my back door . He tells me the story > Seemed like a text book 20 yard shot , behind the shoulder , Excalibur Vortex , Boo custom string , Big John arrow with a 150 Gr boltcutter broadhead on board . Doe went down hard when her legs got knocked out from under her , but she got back up and ran into the bush > slowing down after 20 yards , then walking out of sight .
8:30am .. Decide best to go for breakfast and let her lay .
9:30am .. Back to shot site . Only cut white hairs to show impact area .... no blood spray ?
9:35am .. I find the arrow , only light trace of blood with fatty residue along arrow and over fletchings ... this is not looking good .
9:45am .. From the "standview" vantage point , Wylie guides me to the direction the deer ran after the shot ... I find minor blood in a hoof print approx 80 yards into the track , and I bump bedded deer !
( couldn't believe they stayed bedded after all the talking we were doing back and forth from the stand ?
10:00am .. We back out to let things settle down ... Wylie wants to wheelchair dredge through the bush to keep searching , but I tell him , from my past experience it looks like it may be low thru brisket which would explain the the impact hit ( loud smack and knocking the legs out from under ) , the fatty residue and absence of blood on the arrow ... we would only chance bumping it again . Best to back out .
I head home for a nap before an afternoon search and Wylie reluctantly heads home to meet visting relatives ... I told him , don't sweat it > I will search again after lunch and if that doesn't pan out , I'll call Pyd , his son " Hunter " and Pyd's " blood hound in training " for round three of the search .
12:00pm .. I pick up the trail again , but only tiny drops here and there .
1:00pm .. I've lost the trail so I keep zig zagging thru the bush on a kinda grid search ( best grid I could do with the tangled terrian ) ( or maybe I'm a little lost ! )
2:00pm .. I'm just about to give up ... I'm digging my BlackBerry out to call in reinforcements , when I look ahead and there she is ... stone dead just past two fresh rub tree's !
2:05pm .. I call Wylie and give him the good news ! He says he's on his way , but I tell him don't sweat it , I've got trails cut to the back and I can drag her close to a pick-up point with my Kabota .
An easy roll into the bucket and I'm on my way ..
Dragged / tagged / transported / field dressed and hung , with pleanty of time time to take my wife shopping ... It's approx 3:45pm now .
For those that are interested in why so long a recovery distance > The shot looked almost perfect on the entry side ( just behind the shoulder )( maybe a tad low ), but because of the steep angle , the exit was low ( about 1 inch above the opposite side brisket ) ... the arrow came in behind/under the lungs but one blade did cut the tip of the heart > when I field dressed her she was full bled out ... she managed to run approx 500 yards in a circle but couldn't survive the 150 gr bolt cutter blade cut at the bottom of the heart !
Still ... a good end to an exciting hunt ! ... Congrat's Wylie !
Good luck to all that venture out during the holidays > Safe hunting > Merry Chrsitmas and Happy New Years as well ...
