wallhangr

Woke up Wed morning to a SSE Wind which I was not happy with, but made the best of it by heading to a stand on the north side of a green field. I got in stand at about 5:30 and had sat through about half an hour of daylight without any movement. I pulled out my can and gave it a couple turns followed by a couple grunts. I don't think 15 minutes passed before I saw movement through the tall grass on the opposite side of the field. The buck never hesitated at the edge and was taking a path that would bring him to within 40 yards to my right. About half way across, he stopped and looked to my left, his ears perked up and he fixated on something in that direction. He then started in that direction with a purpose. Well, he never got there. When he got to my lane I stopped him andtouched off the release and watched the arrow enter about half-way back as he was quartered slightly. He tucked tail and I watched him make a right turn at an oak and disappear into the timber. I made a mental note of where he entered and took a deep breath. Then I saw what he was fixated on - another 8 pointer came in from my left at a slow pace and followed his footsteps into the woods. Oh for another buck tag!

I sat back and replayed the events for about 15-20 minutes when two dogs came into the field. Crap! I tried to stop them, even climbed down out of my stand but they went into the timber in the same direction as my buck[:@]Went back to the trailer and sent Brett the text and talked with him a bit about what happened.

About 2 hours later I started the tracking. The trail was fairly easy to follow for about 100 yards where he turned up-hill and it stopped. I circled and circled, checked ravines and brushpiles and creekbottoms. Nothing. Grid searched the area, nothing. More texts to Brett and set up for the evening in the area I lost the trail to watch and listen for tell tale signs to no avail.

Rained like cats and dogs Wed night/Thurs morning and I wasn't very optimistic. After a couple hours on stand, began searching further along the ridge and more ravines. Next were a couple more water holes that turned up nothing. I'm thinking there are two more places to check, a bedding area in the bottoms and one last pond. I took the 4-wheeler down to the bottom and took a slow ride for 100 yards back in the direction of the last sign.It got a little thick so I set out on foot, following the dry creek bed. About 50 yards along I spotted white to my right at about 40 yards and the closer I got , the bigger it got. There he was, probably a good half mile from where I arrowed him - untouched. I have never been so relieved. The shot placement was just a little back from what I wanted, resulting in a liver & opposite lung hit.


http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii174/wallhangr/08Archery.jpg

[/align]I'll finish scoring him tonight.
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Brett/IL

Todd-You are more than welcome and I was happy to do it. Talking to you on the phone and texting back and forth, I could feel all of the emotional ups and downs you were going through. From the way you described the shot I thought the buck was down, but it was a little disheartening when you didn't find him quickly.

Congrats again on a nice buck and even bigger congrats on sticking with the recovery!

5575gb

Glad you found him, good job!

KYDeerHunter03

Glad you found your deer, way to not give up!!

Great lookin buck as well. CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!

BOW HNT

Glad you found him! way to stick with it!- Congrats on a dandy buck!

It is definately good to have someone to talk to, bounce ideas and thoughts off of on those difficult track jobs - Way to goBrett.

TexasBowHunter

wallhangr- Congratulationson the deer brother!!!!!!! And kudo's to you for hanging with him!!!!

BOW HNT

TBH - when will you make it back up - is that next week?

TexasBowHunter

Like a week in a half...I fly back into the states the 19th....It can't get here fast enoughKilling me to read all of the hunting storiesBut glad they are there, otherwise I would be going crazy for sure!!!!!

BOW HNT

I know how that goes - hang in there - you will be out before you know it!!

Brett/IL

TBH-I bet you are more than a little anxious to get back and to get in the woods. I hope you have some luck when your home!

Things are definitely heating up here! We saw all kinds of chasing yesterday. I saw two different "shooters" but they stayed just out of range. I was able to put my buddy on his best deer so far. He has 5 on one side and 3 on the other. He's not real wide but he has decent mass. The shot was good, but the exit was a little back so we waited until this morning to recover him. Good thing too, he ended up giving us quite the tracking job and it would have miserable in the dark. I am very happy for him. After he shot he sent me a text that read "Just shot a big buck, my best ever. I can't breathe!" I about laughed myself out of my stand.

I can't hunt this afternoon because we are having a birthday party for my Dad who turns 60 on Tues. I will be out in the morning and anytime I can this week. It shouldn't be long now before I put some points on the board for our team.


Good luck to all of you!