Great deer and great move waiting till next day. Even better idea to hang your boxers to ward off yotes, never thought of going that far. Lol
Congratulations on a beautiful buckWell last night was a long night but it was the right decision to let him lay. About 4 yesterday a spike was pushing does through a bedding area. They started taking off everywhere and as I was watching the spike I heard a deep grunt. Looked to my right and see a good buck coming up the saddle. He turns right and I draw my bow. He’s going to cross at 25 to check a doe. All of a sudden he spins around to my left to check another doe but starts running. I ended up having to yell to get him to stop before he went into thick bedding. He was quartered away and front leg was back. I aimed back a bit and saw my arrow hit back but deflect straight down through the guts. He ran 20 yards into the thicket and bedded. He stood up after 30 minutes and staggered off. I had last saw him at about 70 yards and I could see I hit gut. At dark I snuck out. Shot a text to Rick and he confirmed my thought that the arrow deflected off a rib but likely still caught a little lung and liver. He said to wait until the morning and let him know but he had a good feeling about it. Went to where I first saw him bed this morning and found two more beds along the trail. Blood trail was very easy to follow. Never lost blood and found him stiff as a board in his bed 98 yards from the shot. I was worried about coyotes last night so I ripped off my boxers and hung them in a tree. Lol needless to say the coyotes didn’t touch him. I found this guys sheds last year with my dad and had several encounters with him last year. Thought he disappeared because I didn’t have a picture of him all year. Unfortunately, he broke off his g2 on the right but he’s still a heck of a deer. On the way out I found a deer that had been missing since August. It was a bummer because it’s a deer I’d been watching for two years that had a ton of potential. Not sure what happened as he was still in velvet so I’m guessing car or coyotes. Well that ends my buck deer hunting in Ohio for 2023. All in all I had a great hunt with just as good of an outcome. View attachment 187302
Sounds like you stole a page out of my bookSounded like I was walking on bags of potato chips walking in. Got in sweaty and loud.