Whereareyoubuck

Still hiding that chrome cup from him, I see. Yeah, I'm pretty confident I'll see him again. I've been seeing him fairly often on the cameras.

Because I was miserable sitting in the rain for 3 hours!!! And texting!!!

So there I was, half an hour before sunset, texting in my deer stand. Out of the corner of my right eye I see a buck. I turn my head, and realize it is THE buck, the 10-pointer I have been watching for TWO YEARS. I stupidly did not even have an arrow nocked, so I do it quickly as he put his head down for a second. He is 15 yards from me. He never looked up at me, but he promptly trotted away, and I never got a chance to turn and draw. I tried to rattle him back in, but no luck. I need a “don’t text and hunt” law!!! I am so f*cking frustrated with myself!!!

Hmm good insight. So the arrow looks like there is a good 8-9 inches of penetration. Not a lot of blood. Tracked about 200-300 yards, and then I was literally on my hands and knees looking for single drops. Gonna get my neighbor's dog to help.

Thanks...if it is a recovery at all...

So there I was in my tree stand, in the last few minutes of sunlight (an hour ago), when I see a dark colored beast to my right. I couldn't see how many points he had, wasn't too big, but wasn't too small either. I'd guess 6. Anyway I wait until he gets to a clearing at about 30 yards, draw back my bow, and nail him. The arrow knocks him down, and he rolls around on the ground for a few seconds, before getting up and running away. I watch the lighted knock fall out about 50 yards away (not sure whether it fell out or if the arrow broke, etc.), then I climbed down and came home to write this while I wait. It wasn't a perfect shot, because the arrow was clearly hanging out. I'm thinking it hit the shoulder blade. I'll go out in about half an hour or so and see how much blood there is and take a look at what the arrow looks like...

He made an abrupt turn and headed downhill toward some thick brush, beyond which is a stream. Not sure if that means anything...

Even if the arrow passed completely through?

Well I realize what happened. I wasn’t sure if I hit him or not, so I figured I’d just come down just to check. And sure enough there was blood, so of course I just began following it, without thinking.

Yeah when I hit him, he didn’t immediately run away. I should have waited, since there were doe around him that didn’t run away either. Went back this morning to where I left off, couldn’t find anything else, will try again after work this afternoon...

Above the lungs

Actually now that I think about it, I’m very positive the shot was high.

Doesn’t smell, I feel like it might be high on the back, that’s why the hair is gray? If it were the gut, the hair would be white, right?

This is pretty much how much blood was on the arrow...also a tiny bit on the shaft, and you can see some hair too.

Darn! I’m not gonna be able to sleep all night!

Hit a 6-pointer! Unfortunately I don’t know where. It was not a lung shot, there’s some gray hair on the ground, and barely any blood on the arrow. I tracked the blood for a little bit, which is bright red, and saw areas where he laid down. I stopped tracking an hour ago, how much longer should I wait?

Never tried to find it, wouldn’t even know where to start! I did have a 6 pointer walk past me at 10 am though.

Ok I’m getting frustrated. This is the 10 pointer I saw last Sunday at 4 pm (50 yards away, couldn’t reach him). He has been coming around every single night since then, but never during the day! Saw him again on the camera last night at 11 and 3 am. Is he completely nocturnal now?

Saw a baby buck at daybreak. Other than that, looks like they’re all nocturnal now, according to the trail cams. Is it worth sitting here all day? Thought it would be good since it’s 30s and falling.

I saw one for the first time on Sunday! Didn’t know what it was. He came right up to me. Noisy little guy.

Just saw a huge 10 pointer 50 yards away! No clear shot, tried to rattle but he ignored it

Saw a nice 8 pointer past 50 yards, tried to rattle him in but it was like he didn’t even hear it. He circled all the way around me, staying out of range through cover the whole time. If it was gun season, I would posting a picture of some big antlers right now!

3 doe 15 yards right in front of me. Where the hell is papa?

Checked the cameras, lots of does and at least 1 buck this morning at 4-5am.

My thoughts exactly. Planning on being sick Wednesday.