Got one tonight in WV! Long Story.....
10-15-2006, 07:05 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Orma WV USA
Posts: 1,791
Got one tonight in WV! Long Story.....
Alright, let's get into this story.....it's a long one.
Yesterday I hunted in the morning and saw a couple bucks, and a few other things here and there as I posted in my teams thread on the bow hunting contest. Yesterday evening I scouted and didn't really get to hunt. But last night I stayed up and watched the Nascar Race and got to bed kinda late. Well I was really tired when I got up this morning so I slept in and didn't go out this morning. So I finally get up, eat some lunch, and watch some football from 9am till 2pm.
I finally get took off at 2:30pm and make the short drive to my location in Clay county WV to hunt on Sunday. My grandpa and I unload the wheeler and we start back on the hill. Half way there we see a doe and I finally get him to his spot so he can squirrel hunt. I tell him I'll pick him up at dark and I would be at my stand if he needed me. I take off and about 10min later I get to where I park the wheeler. I get off and spray down one more time with fresh earth scent. I get my bow off the racks and check to make sure I got the little bit of stuff I'll need to sit the rest of the evening.
I take off from the wheeler and get about 45-50yrds from the wheeler when I see a deer look up at me from the low sag on my left. I freeze and get down on one knee. I look down through there with my range finder and Ican see three deer. Two are definetly mature does, and the other looksto be a doe. I just stay down for a few minutes as they are about 50yrds away from me. I stay down for a few minutes and figure I need to either keep going and getto my stand or maybe wait and take a shot on one of these does just to put something down.....so I decide to stay putfor amoment and see what happens. The deer just mill around and finally Ifigure I'll go on and get to my stand to wait for a buck. I stand up and move down the trail alittle bit and the deer spook and run upinto the trail I'm on. I freeze and take a arrow out and get itnocked and ready just incase. I range the deer closest to me on the trail at 42yrds. I didn't even think to see what kind of deer it was. I quickly draw the bow back and set the pin, I shoot and my arrow is flying perfectly....I'm already thinking mmmm bbqtender and inner lointomorrow for lunch. When my arrow strikes a small twigand flys under thedeer and "whack" anoise. The deer runs towards me angling to my right alittle bit andall goes quiet. I take a step and the two other deer still in the sag run back towards my stand on down on the flat at the interstate fence.
I freeze and listen for a minute and think this will be luck to find that arrow unless the noise was a tree as I missed by a good ways low. I walk down the hill and look around where the deer was standing. Hey there's my white feathers I think as I find me arrow. I pick it up and it's covered in blood. From grimreaperto feathers. I look around and check the broadhead, one blade isbroke abouthalfway up. I don't move and just look around and back up the direction I came from. There is the deer! It'sjust standing there looking around. Itake a few steps back on my trail and pick upmybow and step back over where I can see the deer. I get my bino's out of my cabela's bowvest and take a look. The deer is standingwith one foot up in the air, and is laborering really hard. Mouth open taking very deep breath's. I start back up my trail to get back close to the deer as he's about 40yrds from me where I stand. I get above him andwe slowly walks out of sight over the bank. I slip up to the edge and look down the hill the deer is walking broadsideon three legs very slowly....I quickly nock a arrow and shoot him for 30yrds....must have been 36-40 as my arrow goes right underthe deer.
I quickly get the bino's up as he half trot's on three legs over the bankto the nextsag. It's abuck! A small buck...probaly a 4 or 6pt buck. I sit there for a minute and wonderhow I shot a buck when Iwas just looking totag one of the mature does. I soak on the miss for a minute and walk down to look for my arrow.....no luck but a ton of blood on the trail the deertraveled on. So I walk 20yrds to look into the next sagand the deer is bedded down....I watch him through the bino's as he lays there still breathing hard....I look him over good with mySteiner opticsto find a wound and can't find anything.As the wind blow's and the traffic from the interstate makes noise I try to get to 40yrds tomake another shot and put him down...but as I slip he jumps up andslowly walks away again. He goes maybe 40-50yrds and beds down again. So I try to get infront of him as we are gettingclose to the think stuff where the deer usually bed at.
I am circling him still watching through the bino's to make sure he isn't getting up...I come out on a trail in front of him but little did I know it was the trail he was on. He jumps up and trys to quickly walk on three legs down over the bank. I stay up a flat from him trying to keep pace as quietly as possible. He beds again under a pine tree. I again circle out infront of him and come downon him. I draw as he stands but some junk is in the way at 20yrds and I'm trying to shoot 30 so Ihold off. The deer walks down a drawonto a small deerpath. He beds again in the sunlight. Icheckhim with the bino's again, and once again....definetly a 5pt buck, and no woundon him. I try tocome down on him again and he slowly stands up and heads down the hill. I decide to jump two sags overfrom him and come back onhis trail.
As I'm slipping through the thick brush I can hear a couple deer jump up and take off......too fast to be the buck I shot so I stay put for a moment. Then I slip on out to the next sag and come down the hill. Jackpot I'm perfect for the way he is slowlywalking As he steps out facing me to come up the bank I draw and he see's me he turns slowly and walks back down thesag. I let off and stand up. I look down the hill andwalk down where I saw him......still a lot of blood....ton of blood actually where he's been walking. I look down the bank and he's walking down the hill and I look out to see the cars on I-79 speeding back and forth. Ialso see some knee high grass where the huge field I gun hunt is at. I go back up the bank and out to the the next sag. I dropdown into the field there and nock a arrow.
AsI'm slipping on the edge of this field in plain view of the interstate I think...."I wonder what these people drive by are thinking....they look over and in a huge field behind the interstate fence is a guy sneaking around with a bow. LMAO. Anyway, back to the story, I slip along the edge in the grass until I look around a small apple tree...the buck is standing there looking at me. Iquickly draw the buck makes abreak for the interstate fence very slowly on three legs.......I'm following him at full draw whistling....he don't slow down as he gets close to the fence I left the arrow fly...."thump" it hits him......I look quickly and the blood is pouring out of his hip....he makes it about 15yrds and drops in the short grass. I feel likecrap for hitting him there but I had to get a arrow to him before he cleared the fence and into traffic. I quicklygrab my last arrow(I lose one on the second shot, and just shot the one I hithim with the first time through the hips). I walk up pretty closeand the deer is bleeding out as I hit that main vein/artery in the hip. But he isbreathing so I quickly put one inbehind his shoulder at20yrds to make sure his suffering ends quickly.
I kneel down for a moment and can't believe this is finally over. 45minutes from when it started. Iwalk over and pull my arrow out of his shoulder and make sure it's ok. I put it back in the quiver and walk back to where I shot him the second time.....I find myother arrow about 4ft from the interstate fence. I pick it up and put it back in the quiver. I go back to the deer and check him over....the first shot was deflectedbyasmall limb/branch/sapling and the grim reaper went through his foot about 1inch above the hoove. Breaking that bone andcuting a huge triangle in the top of his front hoove. That's why the blood was so good and why he would bed down and not travel more then 40-50yrds without bedding down. Itended up probaly800-1000 yrds from where I took the first shot but I did recover the animal and he was dead within 1 minute of the second shot thatfound his hips. Definetly not my finest day of shooting, but I was hellbent to prevent another"I lost a deer". Sure this deercould have survived the injury from the first shot, but I wanted to end his suffering, and when I saw he wouldonly travel 40-100yrds at most before bedding again I tried my best to use everything I knewon how to get another shot. I could have shot him in the behind a few times when I would jump him but I wanted to try and get a good shot at him.....I know the shot I took with him 1/2 trotting on three legs was wrong but I had to get another arrow in him before he tried tocross the fence and into 4 lanes of traffic.
I have included some pic's for you guys, and I'm sorry to my team the Tree Huggers. I didn't do much as a captain in taking this buck, but it was mymistake in shooting at him as a doe, andI had to try and finish what I started. I still have another tag to fill and if it's a good buck I'll really feel I let you guys down, but honesty is key in having a competition like our's, so thisis my first buck. Just a shade over 55inch's, but I entered him in the contest and I'm proud of him after all the work it took to get that second shot and finish this deer properly.
Surprisingly this deer almost bled outfrom his foot and when I hit him in the hipsit didn't bloodshot and ruin the ham's.....the third shot behind theshoulder hit the lungs and very top of the heart....it didn't pass through and didn't ruin any meat. So after a morning hunt tomorrow I'llhave to clean this deer up as the temps are warming up alittle tomorrow and most of the week until the weekend when it's cooling back down.
But thank you to any who read this far, and if you think the shot in the hips was bad and all then that's your opinion, but I wanted to end this deer's suffering, and to me he was hurt bad when he bedded down time and time again. I did what I thought was best, and I welcome any congrat's or opinions.
Yesterday I hunted in the morning and saw a couple bucks, and a few other things here and there as I posted in my teams thread on the bow hunting contest. Yesterday evening I scouted and didn't really get to hunt. But last night I stayed up and watched the Nascar Race and got to bed kinda late. Well I was really tired when I got up this morning so I slept in and didn't go out this morning. So I finally get up, eat some lunch, and watch some football from 9am till 2pm.
I finally get took off at 2:30pm and make the short drive to my location in Clay county WV to hunt on Sunday. My grandpa and I unload the wheeler and we start back on the hill. Half way there we see a doe and I finally get him to his spot so he can squirrel hunt. I tell him I'll pick him up at dark and I would be at my stand if he needed me. I take off and about 10min later I get to where I park the wheeler. I get off and spray down one more time with fresh earth scent. I get my bow off the racks and check to make sure I got the little bit of stuff I'll need to sit the rest of the evening.
I take off from the wheeler and get about 45-50yrds from the wheeler when I see a deer look up at me from the low sag on my left. I freeze and get down on one knee. I look down through there with my range finder and Ican see three deer. Two are definetly mature does, and the other looksto be a doe. I just stay down for a few minutes as they are about 50yrds away from me. I stay down for a few minutes and figure I need to either keep going and getto my stand or maybe wait and take a shot on one of these does just to put something down.....so I decide to stay putfor amoment and see what happens. The deer just mill around and finally Ifigure I'll go on and get to my stand to wait for a buck. I stand up and move down the trail alittle bit and the deer spook and run upinto the trail I'm on. I freeze and take a arrow out and get itnocked and ready just incase. I range the deer closest to me on the trail at 42yrds. I didn't even think to see what kind of deer it was. I quickly draw the bow back and set the pin, I shoot and my arrow is flying perfectly....I'm already thinking mmmm bbqtender and inner lointomorrow for lunch. When my arrow strikes a small twigand flys under thedeer and "whack" anoise. The deer runs towards me angling to my right alittle bit andall goes quiet. I take a step and the two other deer still in the sag run back towards my stand on down on the flat at the interstate fence.
I freeze and listen for a minute and think this will be luck to find that arrow unless the noise was a tree as I missed by a good ways low. I walk down the hill and look around where the deer was standing. Hey there's my white feathers I think as I find me arrow. I pick it up and it's covered in blood. From grimreaperto feathers. I look around and check the broadhead, one blade isbroke abouthalfway up. I don't move and just look around and back up the direction I came from. There is the deer! It'sjust standing there looking around. Itake a few steps back on my trail and pick upmybow and step back over where I can see the deer. I get my bino's out of my cabela's bowvest and take a look. The deer is standingwith one foot up in the air, and is laborering really hard. Mouth open taking very deep breath's. I start back up my trail to get back close to the deer as he's about 40yrds from me where I stand. I get above him andwe slowly walks out of sight over the bank. I slip up to the edge and look down the hill the deer is walking broadsideon three legs very slowly....I quickly nock a arrow and shoot him for 30yrds....must have been 36-40 as my arrow goes right underthe deer.
I quickly get the bino's up as he half trot's on three legs over the bankto the nextsag. It's abuck! A small buck...probaly a 4 or 6pt buck. I sit there for a minute and wonderhow I shot a buck when Iwas just looking totag one of the mature does. I soak on the miss for a minute and walk down to look for my arrow.....no luck but a ton of blood on the trail the deertraveled on. So I walk 20yrds to look into the next sagand the deer is bedded down....I watch him through the bino's as he lays there still breathing hard....I look him over good with mySteiner opticsto find a wound and can't find anything.As the wind blow's and the traffic from the interstate makes noise I try to get to 40yrds tomake another shot and put him down...but as I slip he jumps up andslowly walks away again. He goes maybe 40-50yrds and beds down again. So I try to get infront of him as we are gettingclose to the think stuff where the deer usually bed at.
I am circling him still watching through the bino's to make sure he isn't getting up...I come out on a trail in front of him but little did I know it was the trail he was on. He jumps up and trys to quickly walk on three legs down over the bank. I stay up a flat from him trying to keep pace as quietly as possible. He beds again under a pine tree. I again circle out infront of him and come downon him. I draw as he stands but some junk is in the way at 20yrds and I'm trying to shoot 30 so Ihold off. The deer walks down a drawonto a small deerpath. He beds again in the sunlight. Icheckhim with the bino's again, and once again....definetly a 5pt buck, and no woundon him. I try tocome down on him again and he slowly stands up and heads down the hill. I decide to jump two sags overfrom him and come back onhis trail.
As I'm slipping through the thick brush I can hear a couple deer jump up and take off......too fast to be the buck I shot so I stay put for a moment. Then I slip on out to the next sag and come down the hill. Jackpot I'm perfect for the way he is slowlywalking As he steps out facing me to come up the bank I draw and he see's me he turns slowly and walks back down thesag. I let off and stand up. I look down the hill andwalk down where I saw him......still a lot of blood....ton of blood actually where he's been walking. I look down the bank and he's walking down the hill and I look out to see the cars on I-79 speeding back and forth. Ialso see some knee high grass where the huge field I gun hunt is at. I go back up the bank and out to the the next sag. I dropdown into the field there and nock a arrow.
AsI'm slipping on the edge of this field in plain view of the interstate I think...."I wonder what these people drive by are thinking....they look over and in a huge field behind the interstate fence is a guy sneaking around with a bow. LMAO. Anyway, back to the story, I slip along the edge in the grass until I look around a small apple tree...the buck is standing there looking at me. Iquickly draw the buck makes abreak for the interstate fence very slowly on three legs.......I'm following him at full draw whistling....he don't slow down as he gets close to the fence I left the arrow fly...."thump" it hits him......I look quickly and the blood is pouring out of his hip....he makes it about 15yrds and drops in the short grass. I feel likecrap for hitting him there but I had to get a arrow to him before he cleared the fence and into traffic. I quicklygrab my last arrow(I lose one on the second shot, and just shot the one I hithim with the first time through the hips). I walk up pretty closeand the deer is bleeding out as I hit that main vein/artery in the hip. But he isbreathing so I quickly put one inbehind his shoulder at20yrds to make sure his suffering ends quickly.
I kneel down for a moment and can't believe this is finally over. 45minutes from when it started. Iwalk over and pull my arrow out of his shoulder and make sure it's ok. I put it back in the quiver and walk back to where I shot him the second time.....I find myother arrow about 4ft from the interstate fence. I pick it up and put it back in the quiver. I go back to the deer and check him over....the first shot was deflectedbyasmall limb/branch/sapling and the grim reaper went through his foot about 1inch above the hoove. Breaking that bone andcuting a huge triangle in the top of his front hoove. That's why the blood was so good and why he would bed down and not travel more then 40-50yrds without bedding down. Itended up probaly800-1000 yrds from where I took the first shot but I did recover the animal and he was dead within 1 minute of the second shot thatfound his hips. Definetly not my finest day of shooting, but I was hellbent to prevent another"I lost a deer". Sure this deercould have survived the injury from the first shot, but I wanted to end his suffering, and when I saw he wouldonly travel 40-100yrds at most before bedding again I tried my best to use everything I knewon how to get another shot. I could have shot him in the behind a few times when I would jump him but I wanted to try and get a good shot at him.....I know the shot I took with him 1/2 trotting on three legs was wrong but I had to get another arrow in him before he tried tocross the fence and into 4 lanes of traffic.
I have included some pic's for you guys, and I'm sorry to my team the Tree Huggers. I didn't do much as a captain in taking this buck, but it was mymistake in shooting at him as a doe, andI had to try and finish what I started. I still have another tag to fill and if it's a good buck I'll really feel I let you guys down, but honesty is key in having a competition like our's, so thisis my first buck. Just a shade over 55inch's, but I entered him in the contest and I'm proud of him after all the work it took to get that second shot and finish this deer properly.
Surprisingly this deer almost bled outfrom his foot and when I hit him in the hipsit didn't bloodshot and ruin the ham's.....the third shot behind theshoulder hit the lungs and very top of the heart....it didn't pass through and didn't ruin any meat. So after a morning hunt tomorrow I'llhave to clean this deer up as the temps are warming up alittle tomorrow and most of the week until the weekend when it's cooling back down.
But thank you to any who read this far, and if you think the shot in the hips was bad and all then that's your opinion, but I wanted to end this deer's suffering, and to me he was hurt bad when he bedded down time and time again. I did what I thought was best, and I welcome any congrat's or opinions.
10-15-2006, 07:09 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Orma WV USA
Posts: 1,791
RE: Got one tonight in WV! Long Story.....
Files too large on here, but I got a good pic of me and the buck in the scorecard post. This forum won't take anything bigger then 100kb and my two other pic's are like 102 and 106kb.
10-15-2006, 08:09 PM
#6
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Tonganoxie, KS
Posts: 978
RE: Got one tonight in WV! Long Story.....
Congrats. I would have done the same. If he was bleeding that bad theres a chance he wouldn't have survived it anyways. Either way it meat in the freezer.
Brandon
Brandon
