2009's Columbus Day weekend found me in a treestand, over looking a scrape. Saturday evening a movement caught my eye (to the right), with about 2 minutes of legal time left. It appeared to be a very large doe, but she was standing on her hind legs and raking the overhanging branches of a tree...by the scrape. As soon as I'd seen her, she turned and left the way she'd came. She was there and gone in 20 seconds. :smiley_confused_sch
Sunday evening, that same "doe" showed up about 20 minutes earlier, with plenty of daylight and a rack on her head. It was so dark the evening before, that I never spotted the antlers. The buck was behind my tree, which forced me to lean out backwards as far as I could to get a shot. My safety harness teather was too long to allow me to hang from it to get a shot, so I was borderline on falling to get the angle.
He was almost in position (at 12 yards) when I let the arrow fly and heard the loud crack of a shoulder bone. He bolted out of there and headed back the way he'd came. I gave him 20 minutes and started getting down. In another 20 minutes I had all my treestand, steps, etc. gathered up and was ready to start tracking.
I tracked 40 yards of scuff marks before I found the first splash of blood. :smiley_beard: Another 40 yards of blood splashes and I found my entire arrow with about 16" of blood up the shaft. The corner of the main blade (Razor Trick) was broken off, but that has to be expected with a shoulder hit. Another 170 yards of spotty blood that kept becoming less and less, until he exited the woods into a picked bean field.
The bean field blood trail was a few spots of blood (2 to 4 penny sized), 10 to 15 yards and a few more...for the next 700 yards. I kept kicking bare spots in the field to keep track of what line of travel the buck was taking. Meanwhile, I had to throw a few dirt clumps at a skunk to get him off of the blood trail. Towards the end of the bean field, there were 3 intersecting corn fields...a 4 way farmer's lane. I looked hard at that intersection to find scuff marks, overturned leaves, broken twigs and all I found was some smaller hoof prints.
At this point I had been on the trail about 2 hours, so I figured if he's hurting, he's hiding. So, I was shinning my flashlight into the standing corn, when I see a set of eyes with antlers looking back at me. :smiley_chinrub: I couldn't believe he was still standing after all this time and blood loss. He bolted further into the corn, after seeing my light, so I reluctantly left him and came back in the morning.
Monday was Columbus Day and I was off work, so I started at first light...picking up the blood trail in the corn field, where I'd seen him last night. He ran another 180+ yards and piled up in the middle of that corn field. I learned a lot on this blood trail...an education to be remembered. :smiley_blink:
230#, 15" inside spread, 10 pt. buck and since he was slightly bigger than my Recurve Buck, I had to put him on the wall too. :smiley_bril:
Good hunting, Bowhunter57
Sunday evening, that same "doe" showed up about 20 minutes earlier, with plenty of daylight and a rack on her head. It was so dark the evening before, that I never spotted the antlers. The buck was behind my tree, which forced me to lean out backwards as far as I could to get a shot. My safety harness teather was too long to allow me to hang from it to get a shot, so I was borderline on falling to get the angle.
He was almost in position (at 12 yards) when I let the arrow fly and heard the loud crack of a shoulder bone. He bolted out of there and headed back the way he'd came. I gave him 20 minutes and started getting down. In another 20 minutes I had all my treestand, steps, etc. gathered up and was ready to start tracking.
I tracked 40 yards of scuff marks before I found the first splash of blood. :smiley_beard: Another 40 yards of blood splashes and I found my entire arrow with about 16" of blood up the shaft. The corner of the main blade (Razor Trick) was broken off, but that has to be expected with a shoulder hit. Another 170 yards of spotty blood that kept becoming less and less, until he exited the woods into a picked bean field.
The bean field blood trail was a few spots of blood (2 to 4 penny sized), 10 to 15 yards and a few more...for the next 700 yards. I kept kicking bare spots in the field to keep track of what line of travel the buck was taking. Meanwhile, I had to throw a few dirt clumps at a skunk to get him off of the blood trail. Towards the end of the bean field, there were 3 intersecting corn fields...a 4 way farmer's lane. I looked hard at that intersection to find scuff marks, overturned leaves, broken twigs and all I found was some smaller hoof prints.
At this point I had been on the trail about 2 hours, so I figured if he's hurting, he's hiding. So, I was shinning my flashlight into the standing corn, when I see a set of eyes with antlers looking back at me. :smiley_chinrub: I couldn't believe he was still standing after all this time and blood loss. He bolted further into the corn, after seeing my light, so I reluctantly left him and came back in the morning.
Monday was Columbus Day and I was off work, so I started at first light...picking up the blood trail in the corn field, where I'd seen him last night. He ran another 180+ yards and piled up in the middle of that corn field. I learned a lot on this blood trail...an education to be remembered. :smiley_blink:
230#, 15" inside spread, 10 pt. buck and since he was slightly bigger than my Recurve Buck, I had to put him on the wall too. :smiley_bril:
Good hunting, Bowhunter57
