Sgt Fury’s 2022 Ohio/NJ seasons
- Thread starter Sgt Fury
- Start date
triple_duece
Ragin Cajun.
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Today is the day George! Good luck buddy. Don’t feel alone, we struggling also.
Well I got in the stand real early today…6:10 I was set up and ready. When it got light enough to see, I could tell there was one on the pile but still too dark to tell what it was. When it got light enough to see it was a buck, I got the crossbow into position, turned on the red dots and clicked off the safety. Due to the fog, it was still too hairy to shoot at legal time, so I kept the scope on him and waited for better light. After eating tag soup last year, I didn’t want to blow this opportunity. He turned perfectly broadside and I found hims vitals in the scope. I touched her off and he exploded downhill right into the devils asscrack! Why do they always run down into the ravines? There was lots of crashing in one place so I knew then that she shot was a good one.
I gave the customary half hour wait then went to go check. I couldn’t find the bolt or blood. I could see his tracks in the leaves and after following those for about 20 yards, the blood started to show….a few more steps and I could see it was sprayed out in his trail 4 feet wide. As soon as I got to the bottom, I followed for another 20 yards then noticed an area that was tore up….it was the spot where I had heard all of the crashing. After walking up on him, looking at the rack and giving thanks, I took some pics then checked him in and put a tag on him.
Then I walked to the quad, retrieved the sled and went back down to the bottom. After loading him up, I started the trek out. The first(and worse) ravine was quite a obstacle. After getting the quad down then headed up the other side, the sled was coming down the other side. I had the weight of the quad, me and the deer fighting to go up the steep side. Once I broke over the top, the ground became uneven and the quad started to tip. I knew if I stopped that it definitely would, so I gunned in and eventually got it to turn left and level out. My ass was so tight that you couldn’t get a railroad spike in there with a 10 pound sledge!
Thank god for the quad as I would’ve never got him out of there. The trail cam pic is the last one taken of him shortly before I took the shot.I took the deer to be processed to the taxidermist in Logan that has a thread on here about the wardens trying to conduct an illegal search. I was at his place last year checking it out and tried his deer bologna…it was good so I ordered 3 of them. NJ wont let me bring a deer head back with the brains and spinal column intact so I left the head to have a European dipped skull mount with a plaque. I’ll post pics of it when he sends it to me this summer. Now back to Jersey on Saturday and hopefully start hunting there on Monday.
On a side note, my cell cam showed that hims was there and left at 5:45am. I was in my stand and ready to go at 6:10. He came back at 7:09 but due to the darkness and fog, I had no idea he was 30 yards away until it had gotten light enough to see. It just worked out to be perfect timing for me, not so much for him. With these warm temps, everything is happening at night. The area I found him had a scrape there that is there every year. It wasn’t terribly worked over and I doctored it up a little bit. While tracking him, I passed at least ten huge scrapes and several rubs that weren’t there on Saturday. The one I doctored up was at least three times the size since Saturday. Also, I did see deer every morning and evening, nothing at all during midday.
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Big_Holla
Senior Member
Oh boy George you don't know how big the smile is on my face when I opened your thread!!! A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!!!! How freaking awesome and such a well deserved buck!! This just made my day!!
Bigcountry40
Member
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triple_duece
Ragin Cajun.
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Ahem!!!! Told you so I had that feeling. Congrats on a well deserved buck and great buck to boot. Is it my time yet? 75 degrees and blowing 25 mph. Next two days are worse. Anyway congrats again!
I smiled when I saw this because I already had him on the ground. I had to look overhead to make sure you didn’t have a drone keeping tabs on me.