Matt / PA

A memorable PA opening day, a story of elation, heartache, briars, good friends and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow:

Some of you might know that even though I’ve always been a “Techie” (literally as a staff member for Bowtech) that I have fallen in love with traditional archery. The simplicity, romance and challenge. I have that “romantic” side when it comes to the outdoors, that feeling of reconnecting and leveling the playing field a little more than what conventional technology provides for us.
I set out in my quest to take my first animal with stick and string almost 1yr ago and to be quite honest I wanted the first good opportunity at ANY legal animal.
I received so much help from guys like ArthurP, LBR (Chad), Bob, JimPic steering me in the right direction on equipment and the (for lack of a better term) “technical” aspects of this quest that I felt like I had a leg up already. I do have some recurve shooting background and I guess a pretty healthy dose of natural ability which sped the learning curve.
I became as my buddy Frank would say “Obsessed” with it. I gave up shooting 3D with the compound bow, and began shooting nothing but the recurve and longbow everywhere I went. I honestly couldn’t even begin to estimate how much I practiced and how many arrows I shot. Making sure everything was tuned and ready to go for opening day.
As the night before the opener came and went I was starting to get nervous believe it or not. I can’t remember this level of anticipation ever for an opening day. I had everything laid out and kept telling myself, “Wow I’m really going to do this” (I even made a post titled that in the Trad forum that night)
I dedicated the entire PA season to traditional gear and I was going to stick with it no matter what. (My friends thought I was nuts probably due to my compound shooting pedigree)

So on to opening morning!

I got into my stand 40 yards down the slope from a corn field well before first light. On my way in I got an unexpected surprise: The farmer had combined the first 30yards or so of corn all the way around the majority of the field and right past the entrance to my stand. I was expecting to have to wade through the corn to reach the same spot and this new found surprise really gave me a shot of hope for the Am to come. I managed to slip into the area without bumping any deer.
When I reached my stand (One I hadn’t visited since last season) I had some difficulty because the skinny trail in had grown up considerably with briars AND a tree had fallen across the trail. YIKES. So a nice cool walk in started to get a touch sweaty. LOL
THEn when I got to hunting height the stand had settled into the bark a bit and squeaked as I pushed my weight onto it everytime. CRAP. So now I had to reset it, undoing the straps in the dark, repositioning and setting it fast.
That’s better and not a peep out of it. But I was warm now.
Luckily I allowed myself plenty of time so I had time to hit myself with a field wipe and cool off well before first light.
I can still remember the feeling of that wood riser in my hand, arrow nocked in the predawn light smiling a smile nobody but an owl was going to be able to see.
Around 7:15 I notice a doe in the lower green field about 80yards away slipping silently along, the entire time me wishing something would bring her my way. No such luck.
Sometime after 8 I had turned around for the 20th time to see what the squirrel was doing, only to find out the "squirrel" had somehow turned into a little basket racked 6pt. DOH!
Of course I’m rusty and moved too quickly and he happened to be in the only hole in the brush at that moment. Hard as I tried I couldn’t make myself invisible and a few headbobs later he walked away without much alarm (THANKFULLY) I still tell myself I would have shot him if presented the shot, after all I have never so much as shot a single arrow at a live animal with this bow.
I was planning to get down around 9AM but a pretty spike materialized on the upper trail 24 yards away heading the OPPOSITE direction that the other deer came from. He slipped through with me unnoticed.
Right about then it got windy and I told myself I would get down at 9:15, EXACTLY 9:15. I don’t know why I COMMITED to that time but I did to the second.
So I lowered my bow to the ground , strapped on the CatQuiver and climbed down. I picked my way back up the slope to the cut corn snipping briars and widening the trail a bit on my way. In no hurry whatsoever just enjoying the morning.
I don’t know WHY I didn’t have an arrow nocked as I entered the field but I didn’t. I expected to maybe catch a deer in the shadows still feeding but wasn’t prepared.
I peeked left, and peeked right like a kid getting ready to cross the street in front of his house on orders from mom to look both ways.
I stepped into the field.

At that moment I looked up and to my right at the point where cut corn meets standing corn as the field sweeps out of sight and see a RACK running around the corner at me which quickly materializes into a giant buck.
I hit the ground as fast as gravity would take me, like I got hit by a sniper’s bullet. In one motion I leaned over as low as my tall frame would allow and grabbed an arrow from my back quiver quickly and securely. Not sure how I did it so smoothly as I have never practiced that.
By now the deer hadrounded the corner and was running parallel to the standing corn directly in front of me. As I was looking down nocking the arrow I became aware that he stopped. Things went immediately into that swimmy feeling of everything being in fast forward and slow motion at the same time.
As I brought my eyes upward I started to draw at the same time only aware that I must stay low. I held the bow on a near parallel angle to the ground almost lying down and came to full draw. I hit anchor at the same exact time my eyes found the deer’s chest. I remember feeling the back of the broadhead blade brush my finger and I let the arrow fly.
I never saw even a glimpse of the arrow in flight which tells me the arrow flew straight and true. I heard the impact but didn’t see the arrow until the deer bolted into motion again.
There it was roughly 2/3 of the way in the deer’s chest about 1/3 of the way up and about 8” back from the pocket. As he ran I could see that the arrow appeared to be angled up and into the deer’s chest and I let out a celebratory fist pump as I concentrated as best as I could on his departure.
I could watch him run for only 50-60 yards before he disappeared over the contour of the hill out of sight still hugging the standing corn.
My immediate reaction was “I did it, I can’t believe I did it!” and I rolled on the ground in elation. Then I called my buddy Frank excited about what just happened and relayed the story. He was pumped and on his way for the 1/2hr drive in a blink. I then called my other buddy Dave who was hunting locally as well and he was on his way to my house as well.
I laid in the cornfield for about 20 minutes and then quietly and slowly walked up to where the deer was standing when I shot. I could find NOTHING that indicated he’d ever been there.
So I cautiously worked the cut corn row out to the left along the standing corn looking for blood. Stopping every few yards to scan the horizon for a glimpse of the deer I knew had to be laying ahead. I wanted to find that first blood badly but after 50 yards I found nothing and backed out a touch confused.

You can see in the picture exactly where I shot the deer. I was in the lower right approximately where the finger of sun meets the shadows only 2 or 3 rows up into the field from the woods. The deer had run around that standing corn hugging it tightly until he was directly above me standing broadside in the first row or so just off the standing corn about 30 yards from where it extends out of sight. The shot was approx 23 yards.



So I started making phone calls telling everyone of my good fortune and that we were waiting to take up the track. I poured over anatomy diagrams and watched videos to get a better feel for what might be hit and how best to proceed.
I made the executive decision to wait 4hrs. I knew it was a dead deer but not knowing for sure where the arrow exited kept me from rushing things. I was taking some flak about waiting so long but insisted that it was a must. I was in doubt and making myself ever more concerned.
We passed the time, the 3 of us in my living room watching “Monster Bucks XV vol 2” munching on some chocolate covered walnuts and just trying to stay calm.
I was becoming a basket case.
The shot was 9:50 AM. The time was now 1:30 PM and we made our way back to the farm.
We spread out across the cut corn in the direction of travel about 10 yards apart looking for first blood. Figuring the deer went over the rise and probably angled to the woods kept everyone in line on their toes and searching inch by inch. 75-80 yards later we were out of cut corn where the combine had stopped and still no blood. I became worried but still confident because I KNOW what I saw.
So we began the systematic dissection of the entire area. We HAD to find his exit out of the cut corn.
So stalk by stalk, blade of high grass by blade we searched for 2hrs and found NOTHING. Not a single tiny drop and now I became panicked.
BUT we were eliminating possibilities and putting the puzzle together. He wouldn’t have run here because, or he couldn’t have run THERE because and we came to just one conclusion……..he got off the field before he started to bleed at all and that only meant one thing, he’s in the woods. The corn rows were too narrow and the leaves overhung the rows so tightly you could eliminate them as a route of travel.
SO into the woods we went.
When I say woods do NOT think open hardwoods. Think of a 300 yard long, 75 yard wide strip of the nastiest briar filled , vine choked jungle that you could possibly think of and it might be worse than that. (which is precisely why I have a few of these bucks running around as this is the predominant cover adjacent to these crop fields)

Sometime after 3PM Dave finds the back half of the arrow and only 100 yards from the shot. It was blind luck he found it on a skinny trail on his hands and knees. So we had SOMETHING.
We marked the spot hard with ribbon and sat and discussed the sign and options. I also called rob and Greg and back and forth we all went trying to figure out what to do , where to go. You have to understand we had STILL not a drop of blood or a further direction of travel. We started a hands and knees circle of the arrow site looking for just ONE MORE drop of blood to show a direction but no direction made sense. The cover was so tight and thick you couldn’t imagine a doe running through there let alone a wide racked giant buck.
SO we went back to the only thing we could do, we started breaking the cover down into parts. Oh did I mention that Frank fell in the process of trying to find first blood?
Yeah, a little chinaman reached up and grabbed his ankle in the corn field and down he went. The severely sprained ankle was almost the least of his worries as he fell on his broadhead tipped arrow. YIKES! Dave immediately saw the tip jammed under his left bicep tight agaist where his brachial artery lies. We jumped on him and pinned him tl the ground with orders not to even breath.
Somehow the head became wrapped in his short sleeve and wedged under his camera case strap appearing to buried deeply in his arm. We thought he was a gonnerLOL.
Somehow he made it out unscathed but was now hobbling badly.
So fast forward to the crawling for next blood with Frank guarding the site. He could do no more on his bad ankle.
So Dave and I started grid searching the most likely direction of travel, down and down and away. We crawled into every nook and cranny, trail and briar bush we could until we were just flat out exhausted.
With light fading we grudgingly backed out and helped Frank to the truck.
I was CRUSHED.

I sadly relayed the events to everyone, Rob, Greg, and friends but vowed to go at it again the next day, I just couldn’t fathom why I couldn’t find this deer.
I have literally helped track probably 100 deer in my life for myself and friends and NEVER had a deer not bleed at all. Even gut shot deer would bleed better and I was sure this wasn’t a gut shot.

Day 2 Sunday:

Dave and I head back to square one. Where we found the broken arrow. At home I had measured and there was still 15” of broadhead tipped arrow lodged in this deer. Plenty enough to be completely through the vitals and lodged somewhere. But why no blood!?
So at 8AM a VERY long day begins.
We start a little 2 man skirmish line 20 yards apart and literally kill ourselves through the cover in a line parallel to the field until we run out of cover at a lane bisecting the property and the private land to the west.
200 yards later we hit the end and nothing, so BACK to square one to orient ourselves correctly and we start out again but further down. We did this 3 times until the entire cover was walked, crawled and bled all over. It was brutal.
Then we made the assumption that maybe the deer made it straight down and out of this cover and could possibly be in the large CRP field below or into the next strip of cover along the creek at the very bottom of the property on the OTHER side of the field.
So off we go, line by line, piece by piece walking everything in the fields like 2 crazy pheasant hunters. NOTHING.
We then tear apart the cover by the creek while it literally tears US apart with thorns and branches.
I walked ¼ mile of creek over my boots searching the water for any sign of him floating or stuck in a log jam.
I was miserable, beat up and exhausted. SO was Dave and we were at it for 9hrs non stop.
We decided to call it a night after one last trip over by my stand to check there and trim some more trails for a later date.
That’s when it happened.
I was just about to walk back into the cornfield to head home and decided to snap off one last treebranch about diameter or a little bigger than your thumb. I pushed it down and the flexible limb snapped at my hand. The free end then sprung forcefully into my left eye. Down I went.
I don’t remember hitting the ground but was vaguely aware that I was blind in my left eye. I was in absolute panic mode sure my eye was hanging out.
I couldn’t see a thing, but felt the socket to see if I could tell if it was ruptured or out of the socket. Everything felt ok but I was blind.
About a minute later I started to regain sight but it was like looking through a peep sight. I was scared.
I laid there with Dave trying his best to keep me calm while my sight quickly recovered. I could see and somehow clearly. I had got my eye closed at the impact because my contact was still there but WOW did it hurt.
Of course since I could see and my eye seemed to still be moving around I didn’t go to the doctor. I was too tired, too beat up and was “Manning up”
Of course my wife FREAKEd when she saw the blood colored eyeball and called the doctor. I still haven’t been there.Shhhhhhhh.
So day two ended literally with a whimper and a beating.
I was at the lowest of lows but dammit I was not going to give up if it took all week to find some closure.

Day 3. I’m on my own.

I’m on vacation but everyone else I know has to work. I laid in bed that night after day 2 unable to sleep, guilt and what if’s racing through my mind. “Why did I take the recurve?, but dammit the shot didn’t look bad!” “If I had taken the compound would I have even got the shot?” “Would I have my hands on him already if I shot the compound”
I kept trying to beat these feelings down and also wrestle with “What the hell am I missing!?”
So I sat there at 2AM looking at the arieal photos of the property asking just that. I mentally crossed off everything we covered and searched based upon assumptions.
I then noticed about a 75X100yd block of cover on a line of direction heading direcectly BACK toward where the deer was shot. In other words the buck would have had to make a decision in flight to basically turn 180 degrees and head BACK the way he came.
It didn’t make sense but it was all I had left.
I tried to stay confident as I sat at the ribbons marking the now dried single blood drop where the arrow had rested.
Off I went and I did it all for the next hr plus on my hands and knees, torn and shredded bleeding and sore I vowed honestly not to stand up until every inch of that last block was covered.
As I reached the bottom of the hill directly down from the arrow I went LEFT back the way he had fled initially.
I was only 30 yards into the faintest trail you ever saw on my belly when I saw a football shaped lump of white jammed into a tangle of briars. I rolled to my side and focused my binos on the patch and saw a slender back leg and a hoof sticking straight out.
Without moving I rolled onto my back and honestly tried not to cry. Ilaid there staring up through the hole in the tree canopy at the blue sky and whispy clouds and thanked everything and everyone I could come up with. I have never felt such a flood of relief but also remorse at the same time because I felt like I had failed this animal.
He was right here, maybe 60 yards from where we found the arrow but I had failed him.
I was pretty emotional.
He was just in the last place I would have guessed he would have gone. He had “J hooked” hard and his entire direction of travel when viewed from the air probably looked like a curved cane. A fairly straight line with and angle downhill as expected but he at some point curled off sharply and headed back where he was shot.
They say “You’ll always find something in the last place you look” and I literally only had this last place to look no matter ho much it didn’t make sense.

So I reached the deer and MY GOD he’s bigger than I thought. I was vaguely aware that I thought he might be a 12pt but tried to conservatively describe him to friends as maybe a 10 or 12 but the biggest buck I have ever seen in PA.
I was shocked at what he turned out to be.



You can see the spot where his missing left G2 should be which would have probably brought his gross P&Y score up to 155+" As it stands he is 149 5/8" gross score with a 21" spread, and almost 21" main beams. He is a 13pt but would be a very thick symmetrical 14pt if not for the busted left G2.

I lifted his head and apologized to him. No joke, I told him I was sorry for letting him down but I wasn’t going to give up. I felt like I owed him everything I could possibly muster physically to bring him home.
I immediately called my circle of friends from the site leaving rambling message after rambling message. I called Dave at work and God love him he immediately told his staff, sorry I have to leave and he rushed the 50 miles home to help me.
After 2 solid days of killing himself he came running without asking. I had other offers from Rob and Frank to come running as well but I didn’t need their generous offers. It was just a matter now of caping and and taking some pictures to record the moment.
I had found him exactly to the minute 48 hrs from the time I shot him. It was 9:50 Monday AM.



The arrow had entered exactly where I thought it did, in the ribs about 8” back from his front leg but rather than the arrow going straight through or angling forward into the vitals it had kicked UPWARD and backward and the tip of the broadhead tipped broken arrow was poking out up toward his spine and squarely in his stomach area. The arrow had broken a rib going in and kissed up and back on the impact sending it at an angle almost like he was shot from a treestand on the opposite side of his body. Very odd direction of travel.
There was no blood anywhere, even where I found the deer. The entrance had plugged up and was squarely in the liver and the exit was too high and had the broadhead jammed in the hole.
The arrow actually broke off INSIDE the deer and not flush with his side because the distance from tip of the broadhead to the entrance hole was much greater than the 15” of arrow that was still inside.

I tagged the deer, and headed back to meet Dave. We headed in together to get him out the final time and was so happy that he was there at that moment because of how much effort and support he showed over those 3 days.
I wouldn’t have found him without Dave and Frank’s help I can almost guarantee you of that.
I wouldn’t have stayed sane without the additional emotional support of Rob and Greg. I was wearing them out with call after call as I hit the lowest lows but they never gave up hope and suggestions.

I have so many mixed emotions over the whole thing, did I do everything I could and do it correctly? Why didn’t I just look there first?, but in the end I guess I did what I could. I did EVERYTHING my body and mind could and would allow just short of sleeping in the woods waiting for first light to go at it again. I never gave up and and took as systematic of an approach as a panicked and disheartened mind will permit.
I guess I did OK but I still feel guilty that I let him down, for letting him lay alone for that amount of time until I could finally wrap my hands around his antler bases.
I hope that feeling doesn’t go away to be honest. I tells me that this means more than just a score on a rack and that its something “romantic” and deep in my soul. It’s the reason I was afield with a stick and string in hand and accomplished what will probably be a once in a lifetime feat for a PA bowhunter.



Thank you to all of my friends for your love and support. I know I was a mess and you guys kept me off the ledge. And thank you to everyone for your congrats and genuine interest in this saga. It’s been something I will never ever forget.
I already have plans to print out the entire original congratulatory thread to save in a binder forever and you all will be a part of that. Thank you again.
Also one last thank you to Bob ( longtime HNI friend "Cardeer"), Bob was gracious enough to make many of us his Indian blessed antler necklaces 5-6yrs ago and many of us show them off with pride.
Mine had hung from my rearview mirror for the last 4 yrs. 4yrs until Saturday when I slid it off the mirror and wore it to my stand. I shot that deer wearing that special token from an old friend who swore it will bring good fortune in pursuit of whitetail deer.
I wore it Saturday and I put it on again one more time, MONDAY when I recoved my prize.
Makes you wonder doesn’t it?




Thank you all for reading. Its been a hell of a ride.

ijimmy

Great story , another BIG CONGRATS , hope you find the busted horn

Rick James

Wow, awesome story and awesome deer. Congrats to you on a fine trophy, thanks for sharing your story.

GR8atta2d

Great Story...Fantastic Buck and Awesome Friends and supporting cast. It doesn't get any better. Congrats Again, You sound like a proud and humble man, well deserving of this accomplishment and memory!

buckeye

Way to go bro! Your determination is a fine example all of us could learn from

Congrats on a great buck!

Rob/PA Bowyer

Matt, I knew that story would read every bit if not better than the one that played out between us over the phone. We'll talk but I have more to say then I will relate here. I'm proud of you brother. Reading that, I'm not ashamed to admit, teared my eyes. You deserve him.

Our Cardeer necklaces are over 6 years old. We received them in 2001 when I wore mine to tag my biggest buck to date. I haven't worn it since and it hangs from my rear view mirror. I'm going to wear mine again this year.

Pops423

Awesome story and awesome buck. Congrats.

fatsbucknut

Great story Matt!! If you would have stayed in the tree for a few more minutes would of you been able to get a shot from there? Either way, you were meant to get this buck. Congrats.


Zach

KCMO Cityboy

That's just a great story. I'll print it off and let my son read it. Congratulations.
I'm exhausted just reading the adventure.

bloodcrick

fantastic story Matt, good job on staying persistant. thats a beautiful buck. well done!!