Got a fairly nice one last night! (Thanks to my wife) w/ pics
11-10-2003, 10:50 PM
#1
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Jackson, Missouri
Posts: 7,051
Got a fairly nice one last night! (Thanks to my wife) w/ pics
I went out Sunday evening to near-perfect conditions. The wind was blowing gently in my face as I watched two yearlings and their mother come out and feed to within forty yards in front of me for nearly two hours. Another mature doe approached from the opposite direction, and three others were visible in the distance.
Eventually, all the deer I had been watching slipped silently off, leaving me with forty-five minutes of daylight. At just after five o-clock, I checked behind me to see a buck slipping across an open field toward a grove of trees. Even at a good 125 yards away, I could make out antlers, so I gave him a few grunts. He snapped his head my direction on the third one, so I whetted his appetite with a couple more sharp, staccato bursts. He changed directions and started my way, and I gave him a bit more reason to continue by sounding off with my Primos " The Can" call.
Every fifteen or twenty seconds I called, alternating between grunts on my True Talker and tilting my can over, and it took the buck less than three minutes to cover the distance between us. As he closed to within fifty yards, I turned my head away from him and gave a couple quick contact grunts to give him a reason to come past my stand -- and not hang up twenty or thirty yards out looking for something to be under my tree. It worked to perfection, as he walked to within five yards before he started quartering away and looking past my tree.
I softly voice-grunted after coming to full draw, and touched the release after my pin settled on his shoulder. He kicked and took off full steam down the edge of the bean field I was overlooking, then circled out into the middle of it before crashing hard at the end of a 70-yard sprint. I slowly lowered my bow, climbed down and headed back to my vehicle which was parked just over a small hill to retrieve my mini-mag light.
Darkness enveloped me as I returned to the shot site and attempted to pick up a blood trail to no avail; there wasn' t a speck. I slowly walked the direction he had ran along the edge of the soybean field, and never found hair, blood, prints, arrow... anything. Since I had watched him pile up sixty or so yards out into the bean field, I headed that direction... only to search for thirty minutes to no avail. I simply could not find him.
I left and drove home to get my wife and to go buy a Coleman propane lantern, worrying if she could lend any help in looking since she was home taking care of our three-month-old. She quickly suggested putting our son, Matthew, into our front papoose-style carrying harness so she could walk and look with me. We put Matthew into a little snow suit since the temperature was dipping into the low forties. After almost an hour of searching, my wife discovered a bit of dirt which had been overturned in the field as I was saying, " He' s got to be right in through here!" I walked over to her, found the first drop of blood, and took three steps to find my deer!
The shot had ended up too far forward, smacking the buck' s shoulder squarely as he was slightly quartering away, and the arrow only penetrated about seven inches. The 100-grain Spitfire and Gold Tip shaft had stayed in the deer, effectively plugging the entrance wound. The one drop of blood where he had began his descent into the ground was the only one to be found. The buck had indeed only traveled the seventy yards I had witnessed from my aerial perch, yet he was as tough to find in the pitch black and tan-colored, waist-deep soybeans as the proverbial needle in a haystack.
I' m extremely proud of my first 2003 buck, but I must say, I' m even more proud to have been blessed with such an awesome wife who would come out at 10:30 p.m and help me look for my deer, take pictures, and help me load up my deer -- all the while taking care of my son -- and not be able to lay down in bed until after midnight.
Eventually, all the deer I had been watching slipped silently off, leaving me with forty-five minutes of daylight. At just after five o-clock, I checked behind me to see a buck slipping across an open field toward a grove of trees. Even at a good 125 yards away, I could make out antlers, so I gave him a few grunts. He snapped his head my direction on the third one, so I whetted his appetite with a couple more sharp, staccato bursts. He changed directions and started my way, and I gave him a bit more reason to continue by sounding off with my Primos " The Can" call.
Every fifteen or twenty seconds I called, alternating between grunts on my True Talker and tilting my can over, and it took the buck less than three minutes to cover the distance between us. As he closed to within fifty yards, I turned my head away from him and gave a couple quick contact grunts to give him a reason to come past my stand -- and not hang up twenty or thirty yards out looking for something to be under my tree. It worked to perfection, as he walked to within five yards before he started quartering away and looking past my tree.
I softly voice-grunted after coming to full draw, and touched the release after my pin settled on his shoulder. He kicked and took off full steam down the edge of the bean field I was overlooking, then circled out into the middle of it before crashing hard at the end of a 70-yard sprint. I slowly lowered my bow, climbed down and headed back to my vehicle which was parked just over a small hill to retrieve my mini-mag light.
Darkness enveloped me as I returned to the shot site and attempted to pick up a blood trail to no avail; there wasn' t a speck. I slowly walked the direction he had ran along the edge of the soybean field, and never found hair, blood, prints, arrow... anything. Since I had watched him pile up sixty or so yards out into the bean field, I headed that direction... only to search for thirty minutes to no avail. I simply could not find him.
I left and drove home to get my wife and to go buy a Coleman propane lantern, worrying if she could lend any help in looking since she was home taking care of our three-month-old. She quickly suggested putting our son, Matthew, into our front papoose-style carrying harness so she could walk and look with me. We put Matthew into a little snow suit since the temperature was dipping into the low forties. After almost an hour of searching, my wife discovered a bit of dirt which had been overturned in the field as I was saying, " He' s got to be right in through here!" I walked over to her, found the first drop of blood, and took three steps to find my deer!
The shot had ended up too far forward, smacking the buck' s shoulder squarely as he was slightly quartering away, and the arrow only penetrated about seven inches. The 100-grain Spitfire and Gold Tip shaft had stayed in the deer, effectively plugging the entrance wound. The one drop of blood where he had began his descent into the ground was the only one to be found. The buck had indeed only traveled the seventy yards I had witnessed from my aerial perch, yet he was as tough to find in the pitch black and tan-colored, waist-deep soybeans as the proverbial needle in a haystack.
I' m extremely proud of my first 2003 buck, but I must say, I' m even more proud to have been blessed with such an awesome wife who would come out at 10:30 p.m and help me look for my deer, take pictures, and help me load up my deer -- all the while taking care of my son -- and not be able to lay down in bed until after midnight.
11-10-2003, 11:02 PM
#3
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Jackson, Missouri
Posts: 7,051
RE: Got a fairly nice one last night!
Could someone more technically proficient enlarge my pics for me?
Never mind; I figured it out. I had just saved the properties of a thumbnail version.
Never mind; I figured it out. I had just saved the properties of a thumbnail version.
11-11-2003, 03:38 AM
#6
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Plum Boro, PA
Posts: 1,423
RE: Got a fairly nice one last night! (Thanks to my wife) w/ pics
Thats a great story buddy!!! Congratulations. Happy dad and baby is cool. Too bad you couldn' t drum up another person so mom could get in the picture also. Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!
11-11-2003, 04:41 AM
#9
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fredericksburg Virginia USA
Posts: 13,672
RE: Got a fairly nice one last night! (Thanks to my wife) w/ pics
Well let me say congrats on a nice buck and a very cute baby! Tell your wife she is great and that you are a lucky man to have her! Tell her there are a lot of male hunters who would love to have a wife like her.
BTW I am a big Spitfire fan, did it drive through his shoulder blade?
BTW I am a big Spitfire fan, did it drive through his shoulder blade?
11-11-2003, 04:49 AM
#10
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Omaha Nebraska USA
Posts: 530
RE: Got a fairly nice one last night! (Thanks to my wife) w/ pics
That' s a really nice buck and story, but Matthew stole the show!! 
Congrats, and that is one awesome wife, also. Maybe a nice dinner on town is soon in order?
Congrats, and that is one awesome wife, also. Maybe a nice dinner on town is soon in order?