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Well That Was Easy!

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
Shit! I put off reading this for a whole day hoping it would be finished and I could enjoy it in one sit. I got Gordoed too! What an epic tale! [emoji23]
 

Gordo

Senior Member
5,515
121
Athens County
'SNAP'...

We've all heard that sound. Its a no brainer. Some strange phenomenon considering all the other sounds we hear that 'might be' a whitetail.

The feeding frenzy came to a halt. The party was over. A couple of small does that where on the high side of the field vacated the area and headed the other way quickly.

A couple remained, including the old breeder that had been running the show. She was locked onto whatever was coming.

I'm looking over my left shoulder as best as I can without moving.

There he is...

About 30 yards out to my west, standing broad side. Swinging his head gear around. Nose to the air.


At this point I'm all jacked up. Hearts pumping. Shakeing. Gotta love it.

"Get it together man. Calm your ass down".

I still don't have a shot. He needs to keep coming. My only shot is to my North and through my shooting lane.

He stands there for maybe a minute. It seemed like an eternity. All his attention was on the couple does that remained, and all my attention was on him.

"Keep coming, keep coming, keep coming" was the only thought on my mind. Like a broken record.

And kept coming he did!

He's slowly closing the distance. He's about half way home.

"Come on! I'm running out of light"

At that point, he puts his head down, goes into bird dog mode, and he's full steam ahead.

I hear the other deer takeing off.

i lose visual on him for a couple seconds as one of the trees I used to help brush in was directly between us.

His head pops into my shooting lane.

"30 yards, do it"

auto pilot. In the first movement I had made in a good hour, I take a half step with my right foot, lean out into my shooting lane...

Next thing I know...

Thwack!!!!!

He mule kicked like no other and took off like a bat outta hell.

I'm listening to him haul ass down into the holler...

"Crash, crash, come on, crash"

Crash!!!

What a beautiful sound.

"Holy shit, did that really just happen?"

I couldn't believe it.

Everything I shut down for that brief moment to make the shot came back in force.

Adrenaline pumping, heart throbbing, emotional overload.

A couple minutes go by. I get it together and grab my phone to call my dad. 5:57 p.m..

Talk about cutting it close...

Legal shooting light was 6pm, and I shot him about 5:55.

The worst part of this story: my POS phone shut down before I could call the old man. Seems like the cold air does it. Drove me nuts not being able to get him in on the action, but any how, it was time to take up the trail.

I light up a smoke, stash some gear to lighten my load, and head towards the Point Of Impact.




***these next pics are from the following day***

I'm looking around with my head lamp, not seeing shit for a couple minutes.

The first thing I found was this pile of hair.



About 10 yards behind it I find my arrow laying there. Laying there? Yes. It was Strange. It was covered in blood. Looked good.

It wasn't long and I was on the trail.

He was spraying like crazy almost immediately.







I don't know what it is about a blood trail that I enjoy so much, but I took my time takeing it all in.

I get to to the bottom of the holler and start to go up the oppositte side. At this point, he really opened up.



He didn't make it to far up the other side. I see the blood trail stop going upwards and loop back towards the bottom. There he is!


Giggity! [emoji1598]

I sat down for a minute and took it all in. More emotional overload.

Alright, time to figure out how to get him out of here. It was a horrible place for a deer to die. I knew I was going to need a hand.

I hike back to the truck. Knock on my friends door. I did need to grab up the cheese cake. My buddy pops out in his pajama pants for the hand off. Poor fuggar. Next thing he knows he's gearing up for the drag from hell. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23].

I escape the holler to grab some rope, some beer, and to warm my damn phone up so I could alert my pops and wife on the good news.

The drag was a real PITA, but we got him out. I'll save you guys the details of that. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]. It was steep and it was painful.

The monkey is off my back...

The last year I filled a buck tag? 2012-2013. That's not very efficient. [emoji23]

A couple more fun tid bits:

-This was likely my last hunt at this property. My friends are selling. Ive had so many great hunts at this place, it's going to be a real kick in the junk once it's sold. I couldn't have asked for a better last final hunt there. Someone want to buy it???

-the shot: the shot sucked. I got lucky. I'd like to think there was a deflection involved, but who knows. The damn scope on my xbow was turned up to maximum illumination. Not good. There was way to much green. I usually turn it down as the light fades, but never made the move to do it this time around due to all the traffic. Shot was high. He was more at 20 yards then 30. Barely caught the last rib, slightly quartering away. The spitfire sliced the main artery that runs below the spinal column. Lucky....

-My timing was perfect. This buck found the golden acorns Monday night/early Tuesday morning during the snow storm. He came in for a snack 5 minutes to soon that evening, and he paid the price.



Thankfully, I think that's all I got! For the moment anyway.



Boy, That was easy!

 

Fletch

Senior Member
Supporting Member
6,078
118
That's it????? JK... Hellava story and buck. Was well worth the wait. Sucks to hear you might lose the property, just keep in touch for the cheesecake. Congrats again. Oh.... How was the cheesecake???