For the past 2 years I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited down to my friend’s grandpa’s place in Lawrence county to hunt during gun season. It’s a classic “deer camp” with several of us hunting and hanging out for a few days. My buddy moved out of state for work this past spring and wasn’t gonna be able to make it back for gun season so we decided to do a “rutcation” this year and bowhunt instead. None of us had ever bowhunted the farm so it was gonna be a learning experience. Well, we learned a lot. Like, screw gun season, we’re gonna do this every year instead 
.
I made it down Friday afternoon and hung a stand in a spot that always caught my eye during gun season. It’s a spot where 3 benches converge into a cut coming off of a field. In my mind it was a classic pinch point. It didn’t take long on Saturday morning to confirm my hunch. I watched deer travel the benches and go up and around the top of the cut. That morning I watched a nice big 8 follow a doe up and around above me with no shot presented. Fast forward to Sunday morning and he made another appearance above me but from the opposite direction. No amount of grunting would alter his course either day. (More on the big 8 to come...)
At this point I had to come up with a plan for Monday morning. I chose to hunt from the ground above my stand. At 7:25 I heard a deer approaching from the bedding to my right. I turned to see an 8 point that I hadn’t see the past 2 days. If he followed the route he was taking, he would walk right to an opening I had ranged at 40 yds. He walked down into the cut and popped right into the opening. This is where it gets interesting. And not in a good way. He appeared to be slightly quartering away so I aimed slightly back and let it rip. Well, I hit him back. WAY back. Probably the worst shot I’ve ever made on a deer, placement wise. I could see the fletchings sticking out as he bounded down the hill into the thick stuff and out of sight. I made up my mind to just back out and give him time. As I sat there collecting my thoughts and gear I caught movement below me and to my left. Remember the big 8? Yeah, he was walking straight to me on the flat below. As a matter of fact, he stopped at the base of the tree with my stand in it. He milled around for a few minutes before flipping me the bird and calmly walking out of my life.
I hopped on the 4 wheeler and headed to the house to let my buddy’s dad know what had happened. We decided to give it a couple hours since the shot was back. We picked up blood almost immediately. It was sporadic but became steadier as we got closer to the field at the bottom of the hill. We ended up finding my broken arrow just before we hit the field. It was covered in blood, nothing indicated a gut or liver hit. As we popped out onto the field and began to look around, my buddy’s dad hollers “there he is!”. He was bedded against a bank, still alive but in bad shape. He jumped up and “ran” back into the woods. He was hurting bad. He bedded back down and just watched us stand there and talk. At this point we decided it would be best for my buddy and his dad to head back and get the 4 wheeler and side by side.
I stayed behind and prayed that he would expire soon. For his sake more than mine, honestly. I had made a bad shot and he was suffering because of it. A few minutes after they left he stood up and made one more effort to walk away. As he stepped into and opening and I was able to put another one in him. He collapsed right there and that was all she wrote. So, nearly 4 hours after the initial shot, it was finally over.
As it turns out, the initial shot was so far back due to me misjudging the angle and just plain making a bad shot that it entered just in front of his back leg. It then peeled open his gut and broke his off leg clean in half. The incredible will to survive that this deer displayed is truly amazing. I feel like I did not fulfill my duty to make a clean, ethical kill but it was certainly not intentional. I am forever grateful that we were able to make the recovery.
I’m planning to do a Euro mount, he’s chilling in the freezer now. We had a great weekend of hunting and hanging out and we all agree that a “rutcation” will be our new annual deer camp moving forward.
. I made it down Friday afternoon and hung a stand in a spot that always caught my eye during gun season. It’s a spot where 3 benches converge into a cut coming off of a field. In my mind it was a classic pinch point. It didn’t take long on Saturday morning to confirm my hunch. I watched deer travel the benches and go up and around the top of the cut. That morning I watched a nice big 8 follow a doe up and around above me with no shot presented. Fast forward to Sunday morning and he made another appearance above me but from the opposite direction. No amount of grunting would alter his course either day. (More on the big 8 to come...)
At this point I had to come up with a plan for Monday morning. I chose to hunt from the ground above my stand. At 7:25 I heard a deer approaching from the bedding to my right. I turned to see an 8 point that I hadn’t see the past 2 days. If he followed the route he was taking, he would walk right to an opening I had ranged at 40 yds. He walked down into the cut and popped right into the opening. This is where it gets interesting. And not in a good way. He appeared to be slightly quartering away so I aimed slightly back and let it rip. Well, I hit him back. WAY back. Probably the worst shot I’ve ever made on a deer, placement wise. I could see the fletchings sticking out as he bounded down the hill into the thick stuff and out of sight. I made up my mind to just back out and give him time. As I sat there collecting my thoughts and gear I caught movement below me and to my left. Remember the big 8? Yeah, he was walking straight to me on the flat below. As a matter of fact, he stopped at the base of the tree with my stand in it. He milled around for a few minutes before flipping me the bird and calmly walking out of my life.
I hopped on the 4 wheeler and headed to the house to let my buddy’s dad know what had happened. We decided to give it a couple hours since the shot was back. We picked up blood almost immediately. It was sporadic but became steadier as we got closer to the field at the bottom of the hill. We ended up finding my broken arrow just before we hit the field. It was covered in blood, nothing indicated a gut or liver hit. As we popped out onto the field and began to look around, my buddy’s dad hollers “there he is!”. He was bedded against a bank, still alive but in bad shape. He jumped up and “ran” back into the woods. He was hurting bad. He bedded back down and just watched us stand there and talk. At this point we decided it would be best for my buddy and his dad to head back and get the 4 wheeler and side by side.
I stayed behind and prayed that he would expire soon. For his sake more than mine, honestly. I had made a bad shot and he was suffering because of it. A few minutes after they left he stood up and made one more effort to walk away. As he stepped into and opening and I was able to put another one in him. He collapsed right there and that was all she wrote. So, nearly 4 hours after the initial shot, it was finally over.
As it turns out, the initial shot was so far back due to me misjudging the angle and just plain making a bad shot that it entered just in front of his back leg. It then peeled open his gut and broke his off leg clean in half. The incredible will to survive that this deer displayed is truly amazing. I feel like I did not fulfill my duty to make a clean, ethical kill but it was certainly not intentional. I am forever grateful that we were able to make the recovery.
I’m planning to do a Euro mount, he’s chilling in the freezer now. We had a great weekend of hunting and hanging out and we all agree that a “rutcation” will be our new annual deer camp moving forward.
