- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,333
My wife has a rifle cow elk tag and I had an archery deer tag for the same unit. Her tag is good until mid January 2019 mine until the 30th of December 2018. We spent multiple days looking for a cow for Kim and had no Luck. I was able to show her multiple bulls but we could not find a cow. And of course, I was keeping my eye out for a suitable mule deer buck as well.
When returning to camp two nights ago I spotted a group of mule deer. After having a quick once over with the binos I decided to give it a try on the biggest buck in the group. The wind was right and we had the sun to our back, the perfect combination.
I’d love to tell you a heroic story about our long and difficult stalk but the truth of the matter is we did a short, almost half hearted stalk with a bit of crouching using some brush and a juniper tree for cover. The deer remained unaware. At what felt like a good place Kim ranged the biggest buck and whispered “52 yards”. I was slightly further from the deer due to our positioning and we weren’t going to get any closer.
I came to full draw, stepped out from around cover and found the buck with my 50 yard pin. The buck saw me and turned from broad side to quartering away. I settled the pin on his last rib, aiming for an exit just behind his off shoulder. I checked my stance, anchor point and grip one last time, the green 50 yard pin was rock steady and resting just slightly above my intended point of impact, allowing for a bit of drop with the extra few yards. I released the arrow and watched it zip across the open space between me and the deer. The arrow hit exactly where I intended and the last I saw of it was the orange and white fetching dissapear into the grey hide of the buck.
The 125 gr fixed blade RamCat broadhead made a distinctive “SHWICK” sound as it sliced through the last rib. With the sting of the arrow the buck kicked a hind leg into the air and trotted off a short distance before disappearing over a small rise. I thought I saw him starting to get the “wobbles” just as he went out of sight.
I fought off the urge to immediately follow him and gave him a 10 minutes or so to settle before we went to where he was standing. At first we found no blood. I went back to where I had shot from and had Kim range me. We had gone to the wrong set of bushes the ones he had been standing in were 10 yards further on. (Yet another great use for a range finder!)
I decided to go back to the truck and get my pack as I was now thinking that we might have a bit of a tracking job and might need headlamps and jackets and I wanted to give him more time to settle. When I returned Kim was standing pointing to the ground with a smile on her face. She had found my blood soaked arrow partially buried in the dirt. We had an exit and a very good looking arrow.
A sight every bow hunter wants to see!
When returning to camp two nights ago I spotted a group of mule deer. After having a quick once over with the binos I decided to give it a try on the biggest buck in the group. The wind was right and we had the sun to our back, the perfect combination.
I’d love to tell you a heroic story about our long and difficult stalk but the truth of the matter is we did a short, almost half hearted stalk with a bit of crouching using some brush and a juniper tree for cover. The deer remained unaware. At what felt like a good place Kim ranged the biggest buck and whispered “52 yards”. I was slightly further from the deer due to our positioning and we weren’t going to get any closer.
I came to full draw, stepped out from around cover and found the buck with my 50 yard pin. The buck saw me and turned from broad side to quartering away. I settled the pin on his last rib, aiming for an exit just behind his off shoulder. I checked my stance, anchor point and grip one last time, the green 50 yard pin was rock steady and resting just slightly above my intended point of impact, allowing for a bit of drop with the extra few yards. I released the arrow and watched it zip across the open space between me and the deer. The arrow hit exactly where I intended and the last I saw of it was the orange and white fetching dissapear into the grey hide of the buck.
The 125 gr fixed blade RamCat broadhead made a distinctive “SHWICK” sound as it sliced through the last rib. With the sting of the arrow the buck kicked a hind leg into the air and trotted off a short distance before disappearing over a small rise. I thought I saw him starting to get the “wobbles” just as he went out of sight.
I fought off the urge to immediately follow him and gave him a 10 minutes or so to settle before we went to where he was standing. At first we found no blood. I went back to where I had shot from and had Kim range me. We had gone to the wrong set of bushes the ones he had been standing in were 10 yards further on. (Yet another great use for a range finder!)
I decided to go back to the truck and get my pack as I was now thinking that we might have a bit of a tracking job and might need headlamps and jackets and I wanted to give him more time to settle. When I returned Kim was standing pointing to the ground with a smile on her face. She had found my blood soaked arrow partially buried in the dirt. We had an exit and a very good looking arrow.
A sight every bow hunter wants to see!
