What a great week

buckmaster88 · November 10, 2014

Just a quick little background I live down in Southeast Pennsylvania and my parents own some property in Lvingston County NY. My dad and I try and hunt as much as possible up in NY and we also try and do some deer management even though it seems to be difficult in our area. We spend a lot of time and money planting food plots and trying to create better habitat Last year was a difficult year for me and I did not get any deer, as nothing worked out. I did have a couple of opportunities to shoot some smaller buck but chose to pass on them because we are practicing deer management. We were up last weekend and the first 2 days I passed up a little spike and a young 7 pointer. On Monday morning I had the first buck picture walk up to me after first light at 26 yards. He stopped in the middle of my shooting lane I let my rage 2 blade chisel point fly. I didn't hear or see it him, he took off tale up in the air, and ran out of sight. I thought I might have missed him. I only waited 15 minutes and had to get down and check my arrow. When I got to my arrow all 3 fletching's had blood on it and when I picked it up blood came off the arrow onto my fingers. That made me feel better and I decided to just check the first 30 yards for blood. I had blood instantly and it was spraying about 4 ft on either side as I walked the blood trail. I stopped after 30 yards and decided to wait since I didn't see impact, didn't see him fall or hear him crash since it was so wet, plus my dad was hunting so I figured we would give him some time to bleed out and let my dad hunt since it was early. We started trailing him 4 hours later and followed a great blood trail. It was so good that I thought I heart shot him and he wouldn't make it 100 yards. Well after 100 yards I was beginning to get worried and after 200 yards we lost the blood trail, which made me very discouraged. We found a little spot here and a little spot there where he must have ran. Finally he started walking again and blood picked again. I looked up and there he was bedded down about 25 yards away, all I could see was his front shoulder back and it didn't look like he was moving he was down for the count. man was I pumped. He was bedded down his head on the ground looking the way he came from. He went 250 yards and in the second pic you can see where I hit. My rage 2 blade went in vertical right along the side of the rib and just took the tiniest sliver out of the back of his heart. I could not believe how far he made it. He did not have that much blood left inside when I gutted him. It just goes to show you how tough deer really are. I learned a valuable lesson and that is unless you see or hear them fall give the deer time to bleed out. If they are hit hard they will not go to far He was an 8 pt with a 14 inch inside spread and 16 inch outside spread. He weighed 165 pds dressed.

Now fast forward to Friday morning in southeast Pa. I started off seeing a small buck right after light a little 7 pointer. About 15 minutes later I see a big deer on the same trail. I put my binoculars up and saw right away it was a nice buck. I got my doe can call out and made 4 bleats that I don't think he heard. I lost him in some brush and finally saw a deer coming towards me it was a big doe. She came through 23 yards away and stopped and was looking around I thought I was cooked but she just continued on. A little one came through then another big doe . I couldn't believe none of them saw me. I figured at that point he would come to the same spot. I look up and here he comes on a leash right to where the doe were. I pulled back grunted and he stopped facing me dead on. I couldn't believe it thankfully he was looking back for the buck he thought grunted and not at me in the tree stand. I held my pin on his shoulder figuring as soon as he turned I would let it fly. It felt like a minute but probably was only 30 seconds. He opened up his right side and I let a 3 blade rage fly and he took off and I could see my arrow going up and down as he ran 80 yards. He stopped and his tail was flickering a hundred mph then he walked off, and I lost him. Of course now a million replays were going through my head and I was worried about penetration and where exactly I hit him but I felt confident and was hoping he was laying close to where I last saw him. I waited an hr and started tracking him with my dad and we didn't have blood for about 25 yards then we started getting some what looked like lung blood. We kept sneaking quietly and there he laid about 30 yards from where I last saw him. It was a double lung shot through his shoulder. He was a very symmetrical 10 pt with a 14 inch inside spread and weighed 142 pds dressed. I shot him within 5 minutes of the one on Monday and I used the same arrow from Monday with a new broad head. Unfortunately this buck broke that arrow but it sure was a lucky one this week. God has certainly blessed me this week with two great deer and I couldn't be more happier. The only thing that would make it better would be if my dad could shoot a nice one up in NY this week as he is hunting up there. Thanks for reading! And good luck hunting!