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Story to follow up.

Buck down buck down!! My first buck ever, first buck with a bow.

9/30/22 I received a call from an experienced hunter this morning and we arrived a little over 12 hours later. He realized he shot a buck too far back and was able to watch him stand in one place for 20 minutes. He then slowly walked away while hunched up. The hunter was unable to see what trail he took into the woods, but knew the general area. After the deer was out of sight, the hunter snuck away in the opposite direction without even looking for blood. Well done!! Kunox was not on his game tonight for some reason. He initially seemed unable to focus, but after numerous restarts, he finally buckled down and went to work. There was very little blood on this 200 yard track. The buck was found in its first bed due to the hunter not pushing it.

Well , I screwed up . A few minutes after 7 , I shot what I thought was a doe . It was limited light in the laneway and the deer was 25 yards away . Luckily I had practiced at that distance . Anyway , the deer took off into the bean field and I lost sight of it . I called my son to let him know I had hit a deer because I had seen the illuminated nok hit . I waited a half hour , got down from the ladder stand and went into the field . It was overcast , so I didn't see any blood until I came across a bloody spot where the deer had laid down . I saw the deer stand , take a few steps and lay back down . I tore a piece of hankerchief and marked the spot on a tall weed where the deer had last laid . I went back to my stand and sat for well over an hour . My son who had been sitting in a stand at the back of the woods said we had waited long enough and came up on his ATV . He was several hundred yards away from me . I showed Matt where the deer was when I shot . We looked around and started finding specks of blood and then some big spots of blood . Finally found the deer thanks to it's white belly . Not a doe , it was a Spike buck . I have knee surgery this coming Thursday and today was the only day I could hunt . And , thanks to my son , I was able to hunt and retrieve the deer .

Story Time! Man of man, what a rush. This is not only my first bow buck but my first bow deer and first buck ever since I started hunting about 2 seasons ago now. Here's exactly how it all went down. It started yesterday, for a few hours I was debating not going hunting today due to the weather forecast. I decided that since I had been prepping for this very day, for months, I wasn't going to miss it. This would be my first time hunting before the start of regular season. At around 4pm I walked into my "spot" to setup my stand, prep work before Saturday's hunt. On the way in I bumped what I thought was a solid 4 point buck. I setup my stand then left. The next day I woke up around 3am, showered, headed out the door by 3:30am. I arrived at my spot around 4am, climbed up my stand and waited. There was rain, on and off, not as bad as I thought it would be. While I was in my stand, cold and wet, I decided to try and pull back my bow, practice run. I couldn't do it..... my muscles were cold, I was tired. It took me 3-4 tries before I could pull it back. At that point I was extremely nervous. And in that nervousness I realized I am 100% overbowed, 70lbs is not for me. Not only am I overbowed but I increased my draw length by half an inch and ever since the bow randomly jumps forward if I let up on it even just a tad at full draw. No bueno. 7:20am rolls by, I have to go to the bathroom... hell of a chore when you have to get past 3 layers of tight clothing. As I'm about to open the flood pipe I see my shooter buck 15 yrds from me ... Looking back on this, this was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life for so many reasons. My johnson in my hand, buck 15 yrds away from, and my body instantly flooding with adrenaline. I scramble to get myself decent. After I position my feet, I grab my bow SLOWLY, then freeze. It's crazy how you can be 15yrds away from an animal that is hyper aware of it surroundings and it not see you. I purposely would not look it in the eyes, for some reason I thought this would help me to remain undetected. His head is down, he's eating acorns in the exact spot I thought he would be. A twig snaps, he turns away from me, ears at the alert in the wrong direction. I pull back my bow, go to aim and the ^&%$ing bow jumps forward.... Thank GOD it was silent. I look at the buck and he goes back to his acorns..... For whatever reason he picks up his head and looks back in the same direction. I pull back once again, all crazy like, full left, because I am clearly overbowed. I put my pin on him. He is hard quartering to me. Only now do I realize this was a stupid, horrible, shot to make. I release my arrow. I can see the arrow hit him, it looks like it enters high. He does a jump, back legs kick out, he runs about 45yards and then I heard two crashes. I know this sound, I've heard it plenty of times on youtube videos. A crash is almost certainly going to be a death. I pat myself on the back. Within 5 minutes I'm on the ground, I go to retrieve my arrow ..... What I saw next horrified me. The arrows is green, the ground is green, everything smells like stinky a$$. I gut shot the deer. Now some of you members see me post on here. I have issues with shot placement for some reason. I guess this is the learning curve. All my shots, rifle, shotgun, and bow are always high. Even though my shot placement sucks, I have dropped every deer dead, over the last 2 seasons, with no tracking involved. Pure, dumb, blind, luck. I pull out my phone, google "gut shot deer with bow". Of course all the results mortify me. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure out what to do I fall back on my initial observations. I heard this the drop. With this in mind I decided to at least walk to where I heard the crash and go from there. I start to creep forward, very very slowly. I attempt to try to swing hard right and approach the spot instead of walking straight to it. After about 2 minutes I can see him. Belly first, no movement, head next, eyes open ... no movement. I get up to him and poke him, nothing. Despite all my f-ups and just plain amateur decisions lady luck is STILL with me. At this point I was happy but equally upset with myself. Again, for the third time I messed up a shot. Why oh why oh WHY can I not get this right. I roll him over, entrance wound is by the spine towards the upper half of the torso. Exit wound is on the lower belly. Keep in mind, no blood this entire time, no blood anywhere. I'm almost as excited to gut him as I was to shoot him. I needed to know how a shot this crappy could kill him in less than a minute. As soon as I punctured the chest cavity ALL excitement left me. This thing exploded, blood and bile came pouring out of the chest cavity, and I mean POURING out, it defied logic. The smell, THE SMELL. Even breathing through my mouth couldn't stop it, the air tasted like some kind of sweet sour rotting death. I quickly came to put the organ puzzle pieces together. When I hit the spine I must have hit a major artery, I clipped part of the back end of a lung and then flew right through the stomach. I'm assuming he died from the shear shock of the wound, possibly even suffocating as his chest cavity was insanely bloated before I started working on him. All the blood and the bile pooled inside of that cavity. The broadhead I used was a Grim Reaper White Tail Special. It punched through spine material and shattered 2 ribs. I'm convinced that the huge 3" cut is the ONLY reason I was able to recover this deer. And well, ya'll know the rest of what happens. Fun quarter mile drag out and off to Quaker Creek, lol. Since this is my first buck I decided to do a full shoulder mount. I'll be dropping him off on Monday with True-Life Taxidermy. I hear they do some of the best work in NY, hopefully as they charge 850$. Welp, if you stuck around for that entire story then props to you because you basically when hunting with me this morning Happy Shooting ya'll, and I can't wait to post again!

Well my brother just shot a bear. Looking for a bear at night will be fun lol. Update waiting on permission to track. Thos what the arrow looks like. Just started to rain.

Good luck and be safe!

Wonderful to be back out here. Seeing some deer, patiently waiting..... Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

Shot fired,a doe and smaller one came back. I think it was a good shot,going to be patient as i didn't hear hear crash.

Oooh. That was interesting. Crossing small creek spot eyes. One set at 20 yards one at 25. They locked up at red lens on headlamp. 2 big ole coyotes both giving me probably 90 seconds to knock an arrow. Full draw at one at 20 broadside eyes glowing. Couldn’t see my pins as still too dark.

This guy comes strolling though at 4:30pm today. Geeze. I might have to.

Well , I screwed up . A few minutes after 7 , I shot what I thought was a doe . It was limited light in the laneway and the deer was 25 yards away . Luckily I had practiced at that distance . Anyway , the deer took off into the bean field and I lost sight of it . I called my son to let him know I had hit a deer because I had seen the illuminated nok hit . I waited a half hour , got down from the ladder stand and went into the field . It was overcast , so I didn't see any blood until I came across a bloody spot where the deer had laid down . I saw the deer stand , take a few steps and lay back down . I tore a piece of hankerchief and marked the spot on a tall weed where the deer had last laid . I went back to my stand and sat for well over an hour . My son who had been sitting in a stand at the back of the woods said we had waited long enough and came up on his ATV . He was several hundred yards away from me . I showed Matt where the deer was when I shot . We looked around and started finding specks of blood and then some big spots of blood . Finally found the deer thanks to it's white belly . Not a doe , it was a Spike buck . I have knee surgery this coming Thursday and today was the only day I could hunt . And , thanks to my son , I was able to hunt and retrieve the deer .

9/30/22 Luna had a turn this morning. This 7 pointer was gutshot from the ground last night. We went in 12 hours later this morning and he was still alive and had to be dispatched. He went a very short distance and stopped and bedded down when we jumped him. The buck had only gone 100 yards from where the hunter and his brother backed out last night. These guys did things right. They didn’t realize he was gutshot, but were smart enough to back out when they jumped him. They also had ribbon with them and marked the blood as they tracked last night. Way to go guys! We were more than a mile deep, so I was glad the hunter brought his jet sled this morning as it made our drag out much easier. Great morning workout and it gave Luna plenty of time to chew on a leg as we dragged him out.

Got some dragging to do...

Partner sends me this lol

Morning sit was a cluster,overslept because my wife had a rough night and so did I by association. My first choice spot was out of the question and when I made it to the back up location a doe spooked when I pulled my rope up the tree to start my climb. I think she caught my scent but didn't know where I was and she just about ran me over. She hung around at about 30 yds to try to figure me out. Just when I got an arrow knocked she finally blew out of there. Nothing else seen but what a beautiful morning it was. Now I am in a nice gnarly ash tree at the narrow point of a hayfield,I have seen deer here just about every evening this week driving by,I hope they keep it up. I have lots of shot opportunities here and am not picky.

I'm in at little plot that's had a lot of action on camera. Tight spot and it's dead still out here. Will see. One comes out planning the draw will be crucial for sure. Current pic from stand and pic from earlier in sept off trail cam. Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

Up and in, bumped a bachelor group on the way in. Not thrilled about it but they went in a good direction so I’ll take it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Deploying buck bomb #14

I'm in. But of a change in plans. Doe and two fawns in between me and stand I wanted to hunt. Mom blew about 12 times so picked a different stand. Good luck all Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

This will get a set of wheels on it so she can store the mixer in the closet when not using it.

The Irish Spring has been deployed! Corn is cut south of me , beans are brown but they like to walk along this field .

Guess this no longer qualifies as youth baseball , my boys first college game and he started the first game of the fall season. Beyond proud, he pitched first 2 innings, couple strikeouts, gave up no runs. We traveled to play away at Bard college. This college baseball is legit and players / coaches all around are fantastic. Such a pleasure to watch.

Early scouts for the herd.

Good luck. Drinking coffee on couch. Heading in for PM today. Wind not right for our entry and food to bed paths. Did enjoy some Wagyu steaks last night though. Preseason ritual.

Trying to work out the wrinkles today Set up in the wrong spot this morning, deer looking at me as I was setting up , wrong tree, 7:15 I had two deer coming at me one gave a 25 shot which I miss. Nock another arrow this time she was about to give a 10 yard shot I lost my balance and she saw me and bolted out there. Working out the wrinkles Good luck to all

Buddy just text me, lost his release on the walk in. Says he'll use fingers.

Went to bed at midnight last night, still undecided if I would go this morning... here I am. I have no intentions of shooting any does this year (not enough around) and am pretty picky "selective" about the buck I shoot, so I don't expect to launch any arrows. But, it's been a long-busy-stressful year so far and some stand time might be exactly what I need for the soul, body and mind.

Different deer. (To the casual observer)

Last pa pull, he’s a regular daylighter now, another buck already broke his g3.

Just had a buck “appear” 10 yards from my ground blind…was quartering to tight to attempt a shot. It sensed something was up and bounced off. Photo of the deer I just saw taken from another spot on the property right after my short morning hunt.

Up and in way up top of the old Hole prop on a little slice I have left. At least I can watch cars drive by all evening lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spent the morning prepping a new butchering station. It’s all set except hanging the winch in the new garage. Handle that tomorrow. Then I can HUNT! good luck all and congrats @heavuser way to close the deal on your first bow buck!

Congrats @heavuser! I saw six buck and two dough. None were in bow range but all were in rifle range. Also played peek-a-boo with this guy for a few minutes.

It's opening day...take a break and get outside! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First shiitakes

Congrats! Buck of the year on the forum so far! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I attach mine on my wrist before I leave the house Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The deer were trying to figure out what that contraption was you were hanging from the tree in.

Lone doe

Good luck everyone!!!! Shoot straight, look like cloudy with northeast wind. Could be awesome. I'm headed to Fort Myers, my inlaws house got pretty jacked. I'll be hoping to see everyone's great hunts thos week!

Whack him… And I’ll drive us down @WNY Bowhunterfor an official gtg

And again at 6. Lol

One thing having children has taught me: Keep a big old pack of wet wipes in the truck. Handy for blood too!

Wow, that is one the best looking bucks that I ever saw posted on this forum. Awesome colored rack, super clean cape and not dinged up at all. That’s one of the best things about getting them early . Good, solid 2.5 year old at least and definitely worthy of the “red wall” treatment. Make sure to cape it out, starting from well behind the shoulder, if you decide to get a mount. Not to often that a taxidermist gets as nice of a cape to work with as that one has.

Yep.. Dress pants.. √ Dress shirt.. √ Dress shoes..√ Crap.. nieces wedding.. not opening day of bow season.

Not for me if he's doing the filming! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah down at my parent’s in north central PA they have tons of big deer and tons of deer in general. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk