birddog
Member
Well....I've had pretty good luck on bigger bucks the last few years, and set my goals a little higher each year...But I was happy as heck to arrow a scrubby racked 5 pointer on Sunday night. Here's the story.
Back in March, my wife and I scouted a plot of land that has provided us several packages of venison over the years. It's also the area I killed my biggest archery buck, an 8 pointer with a high, wide rack. While scouting an open goldenrod field, we found a distinctly beat down trail in the spring mud, and marked the area with a pair of criss-crossed saplings. I don't generally waste much time hunting the edge of open fields but this one is far from the road, very secluded, and we very often jumped deer there in the early season while bird hunting. So, with this in mind, several weeks before the bow opener, I hung a stand overlooking the precise spot where the field-trail turned and went into a row of poplars. My friend Mike marked the trail where it passed exactly 20 yards from my stand with a forked stick.
Sunday night, with the rain coming down in buckets, and little time to hunt, I climbed into the stand at 5pm. At 5:20 a 5 point buck with a large body appeared on the far end of the trail emerging from a small willow thicket. Like clockwork, he came right in and -- believe it or not -- paused to sniff at the 20 yard marker. He wasn't what I was hoping for rack-wise, but everything just came together perfectly. He was ever so slightly quartering toward me, so I aimed forward more than usual and let the arrow go. To my surprise, he went down in a heap. The arrow angled down into the shoulder, yet managed to somehow disconnect his CNS and down he went. I've killed about 20 deer with the bow, and this was the first that ever "dropped". Unusual, but I'll take it.
So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Racing for my truck, I made the 5 minute drive for home, coerced my wife into helping me load up the ATV and bring her umbrella and our digital camera out in the pouring rain, and we got a few shots just as darkness closed in.
(Note the forked-stick by the deer's tail....that's the 20 yard marker and that's right where he fell.)
After skinning, I aged the deer at 3.5 years which seemed right for his size. Old for this small of a buck. Either bad genetics, or his health was in decline. His venison? Delicious.
Back in March, my wife and I scouted a plot of land that has provided us several packages of venison over the years. It's also the area I killed my biggest archery buck, an 8 pointer with a high, wide rack. While scouting an open goldenrod field, we found a distinctly beat down trail in the spring mud, and marked the area with a pair of criss-crossed saplings. I don't generally waste much time hunting the edge of open fields but this one is far from the road, very secluded, and we very often jumped deer there in the early season while bird hunting. So, with this in mind, several weeks before the bow opener, I hung a stand overlooking the precise spot where the field-trail turned and went into a row of poplars. My friend Mike marked the trail where it passed exactly 20 yards from my stand with a forked stick.
Sunday night, with the rain coming down in buckets, and little time to hunt, I climbed into the stand at 5pm. At 5:20 a 5 point buck with a large body appeared on the far end of the trail emerging from a small willow thicket. Like clockwork, he came right in and -- believe it or not -- paused to sniff at the 20 yard marker. He wasn't what I was hoping for rack-wise, but everything just came together perfectly. He was ever so slightly quartering toward me, so I aimed forward more than usual and let the arrow go. To my surprise, he went down in a heap. The arrow angled down into the shoulder, yet managed to somehow disconnect his CNS and down he went. I've killed about 20 deer with the bow, and this was the first that ever "dropped". Unusual, but I'll take it.
So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Racing for my truck, I made the 5 minute drive for home, coerced my wife into helping me load up the ATV and bring her umbrella and our digital camera out in the pouring rain, and we got a few shots just as darkness closed in.
(Note the forked-stick by the deer's tail....that's the 20 yard marker and that's right where he fell.)
After skinning, I aged the deer at 3.5 years which seemed right for his size. Old for this small of a buck. Either bad genetics, or his health was in decline. His venison? Delicious.
