Out There - Rebel Darling 2016 Journal

[Rebel Darling]

So far, I am happy with my bow hunting season.  I laid down a doe that yielded a good amount of meat for the wife and I, as well as some friends and family who will join us for dinner.  That hunt, in particular, satisfied me.  She is my third deer in two seasons of heading out with a bow, and I was able to adapt my hunt to her preferences.  The prior two deer felt a little more like luck, while this kill felt like how I imagined a hunt would (refer to archery harvest thread 2016 for story).

I have seen deer almost every time I've headed out, which is generally encouraging, and rewarding.  Each time I see them, I'm learning a bit more about their behavior.  I have not definitively seen a buck, however, and none of my trail cams have shown a buck over 1.5 years, and even those young fellas haven't appeared in about a month.  Unlike many posts read on this forum, I haven't seen any fresh scrapes, nor rubs on any of the land I've hunted so far.  In total, that's probably 60 or so acres, some private, some public.  Other than my neighbor's property, none of them are in the same WMU.

I saw two deer when I headed out for a sign scout on my neighbor's property at about 9:30 a.m. today.  The two were on their feet, and I couldn't make them out due to distance and leaf cover.  The flick of a tail gave them away at about 100 yards, slightly uphill.  I saw them first.  Having decent cover for myself, I grunted a few times, which didn't seem to catch attention, so I rattled a bit, and I could see the body move and tense up.  I got down on my knees, and rustled some leaves while rattling the bag on my thigh with my other hand.  After a while, I thought I saw the tail flick, and them wander off.

I stood up, headed into a clearer area, thinking I'd come around them from downhill and downwind, and hope to get a better view.  With the climber on my back, I dreamed of getting ahead of their route and setting up for an ambush.  But as I came into the clearing, I sensed that I was being watched, and as I peered uphill, I saw a big chest, a slumped back and hanging gut quartered towards me at 100 yards.  I couldn't see the head.  I stood still for a moment, the deer blew, turned, and I watched two of them bound off, never getting a clear look at either.  They'll be marked as "Other" on the bow hunter sighting log.

After that, I decided to still hunt my way up a shoulder to a ridge line.  I found a couple of beds up there, around an oak stand, but the indentations were fairly small.  I also found a game trail on my way down with fresh scat.  There's a good shelf about 50 yards up from a stream, and I'm thinking that I might be able to sneak in there for a morning hunt at some point with the climber.  Get up in a tree on that shelf, and watch above and below for travel.  That might be a plan for next week, if western winds prevail on a decent day.

At the moment, the wind is whipping snow and sleet around Taborton Mountain, and I'm checking the weather every hour to learn more about the morning.  The wind is supposed to change direction, and I've read that wind changes can get the deer up on their feet as they shift their preferred food sources and bedding areas.  I'd like to be out to see if a buck would be trailing a doe as she moves.

I'm realizing that with a doe in the freezer, my goal is to harvest a buck, and it would be my first.  I want that experience, and am holding out for it.  I passed on another doe earlier this week, and I had difficulty disciplining myself to pass on numerous harvest opportunities she presented.  The food was right there, so this buck hunt goal is splitting me down a bit.  I've decided that if presented with a doe on the last day I can hunt archery, I will harvest the doe. 

 

[Zem18]

Good luck out there. Ya never know when that buck will walk by so stay at it.

[Rebel Darling]

Friday went by without a hunt.  The alarm went off, and I simply shut it down and went back to bed.  Felt like the body needed the sleep, and I had to take the wife down to Hudson for a Chris Smither show at Club Helsinki that evening.  I didn't want to be dead-weight while out.  Plus it was raining and windy up here on Taborton Mountain.  During the day, though, I took some time to read an article over on Wired to Hunt, "The Power of Using 'Calculated Strikes' When Hunting Mature Bucks"

http://wiredtohunt.com/2016/10/27/the-power-of-using-calculated-strikes-when-hunting-mature-bucks

I decided to try the first scouting approach on this morning's hunt on an area I had yet to walk.  It's a hundred or so yards from the mouth of a creek that spills out from a marsh/swamp area on my neighbor's property.  Last year I jumped a buck from the tall reeds in the marsh mid-day, so I figured that he'd be back (or someone would) around now.

I'm still getting used to the Lone Wolf Hand Climber, and all the gear that I need to bag up and bring in order to get myself and gear up safely and securely.  It takes me about 20-30 minutes from the base of the tree, and that is too long once travel and walk times are factored in.  I think I need to try a different style of bag than the waist pack I'm currently using.  It seems like everything could be a bit easier to access with a hung backpack.

I also need to figure out how to control my body heat while walking and climbing.  The complicating factor for me is the safety harness, and my outer layers.  If I don't wear my outer layers while walking, then I'm packing those and my harness, which a backpack might help with, but it still seems like a lot to carry.  This morning, however, with it being 30 degrees, I was pretty close to sweating by the time I reached a tree, and had sweat beads on my face by the time I got all gear hauled up and sat down.  Probably not good.  I'm going to wash my base layers.

I did, however plan the wind properly.  I could sit that area with a south or east wind without sending my scent up in to the marsh.  We had a light south wind flowing over the mountain this morning.

I sat for a couple of hours and saw only squirrels and crows mobbing ravens.  A rattle and a bleat failed to bring in anything that I could see.  Then the weather turned for the worse.  The wind picked up, the forest swayed, and my joints could feel damp air coming through.  I got down (another 20-30 minutes to get down and packed up), and decided to walk around the marsh to get to my house.

Right at the mouth of the marsh, I found a line of fresh scrapes with licking branches and fresh scat in them.  Judging by the moisture of the scat, that deer had been there while I was in the stand, or not long before.  I didn't have a trail camera with me, so I'm in the dark as to who is working those scrapes, but I'm thinking / hoping that in the next few days here I can get an afternoon sit with a light southern wind somewhere in view of those scrapes.  It's a natural funnel between two houses, and where the creek starts to run with shallow drop-offs.  Those drop off banks bend the trees, so I'll have to do some searching for a tree suitable for the climber, hence the afternoon sit.  If I sit there earlier this upcoming week, I might be able to get another sit out there the following week, which is when I'm told the rut will begin up here. "It's always the second week of November..."

Now I'm back inside, fire going, and aggravated with the weather.  Cold, damp, raining, and windy.  I'm so friggin' tired of the wind.  I'd love for a stretch of cool, clear, and dry days to keep the blood pumping and to hopefully get the deer out here up and hoofing it.  Maybe a day or two next week.  And while I didn't see any deer today, I saw positive sign for a buck to hunt, and now have a tentative plan to get some eyes on him for the second half of the "Calculated Strike" strategy.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Rebel Darling
Grammar

[Rebel Darling]

Been outside too much to do a decent job of keeping up with a daily journal, but I'll have at it from memory.

Monday: 10/31

Headed over to my neighbor's property, the one with the shelf up 50 yards from a stream.  Well, that stream is more like 100 yards away from the shelf, but the shelf functioned how I thought it would.  Two doe walked right along that flat extension right at daybreak.  Aside from those two doe and the five turkey that scraped and pecked their way through, the only other excitement I had was before dawn.

I had my climber up about 20 feet, and was trying to settle in and throw on the release, the facemask, etc., when something stomped and then turned and ran.  I still had my headlamp on, but it's always on red light, so I'm unsure if that animal could even see it.  It was about 6:00 a.m., and I had pasted on some EverCalm on nearby trees.  The wind was coming from the North, not from the listed West, and that prevented me from setting up by the shelf like I had planned, so I was down closer to the stream.  Whatever it was that took off ran parallel to the shelf.  I'm unsure of which direction it came from.  I had a loud walk in, so it was probably curious to know what in the hell was coming through in the dark.  I had some EverCalm residue on my boots, so maybe it followed me in.

Just after daybreak, the two doe walked to the spot at which I judged the jumped animal to have been, and they stuck their noses to the ground and looked around.  I'm betting it was interdigital scent they picked up.  They didn't bust me, nor did they turn and run, so all was well for that, and I can hopefully get back in there.

Around 9:30 a.m., when the turkey were hanging around, I thought I heard a light grunt further down a slope towards a clear hard-wooded area.  The tom in the group didn't like how I looked in the tree, and kept eyeing me, so I didn't go for the grunt tube to reply.  I figured that if I spooked the turkey, I was going to spook whatever it was that grunted.  I opted to keep the peace, and no other deer materialized.  I sat from legal light to 11:00 a.m.  I worked around the house for the remainder of the day, and had to head into Albany for a band practice that evening.  I wanted to be in the woods the entire time.

I'm glad that my anticipated use of the terrain played out.  That will be helpful knowledge in the future.  Hopefully, I'll get a better wind for a set up, and a buck will be trailing those does next time.  It still seems like a subdued atmosphere in the deer woods, contrary to many reports from other parts of the state.

---------

Tuesday: 11/1

For the morning hunt, I headed out to the stand from which I harvested the doe a few weeks back.  I think I let an air of magical thinking take over, and my expectations flew out and beyond reality.  I saw one deer moving along at daybreak at a distance too far for me to estimate.  A couple hundred yards, maybe.  It was also too far for me to accurately identify doe or buck.  The neck looked a little thick for a doe, but I couldn't see any headgear aside from the ears.  Maybe it was a 1.5 spike.  There should be a couple around.  It'll get an "Other" in the sighting log.

I gave out a couple of grunts to prompt a response, but it wasn't a taker.  It paused for a bit, but then wagged the tail and moseyed on.  It's tail was half-up the entire time it walked away.  I don't know what that means, but I imagine it's a signifying behavior.

Same as the day before, the biggest excitement came in the pre-dawn.  This time, right in the backyard as I was putting my boots on.  I had just touched up the sides of the soles with EverCalm, and something ran back into the woods right behind me at 20 yards.  It scared me, and I jumped and turned around.  I fell over, and my hand ended up on my bow, which was sitting on my patio.  Fortunately, nothing was wrong with the components, and the bow is fine.  It could have been a lot worse. 

I was in the stand by 6:30, and other than the mystery deer, I saw zilch.

I also saw zilch on the midday through the evening hunt.  I headed over to my other neighbor's property to check out the scrape line.  It had been freshened, which got the heart racing, and I immediately started looking for a tree to climb.  It's too tight in that tight scrape grouping, which is by design, I'm sure, so I couldn't get a stand in the thick stuff without cutting tons of branches.  A little too late in the game for that.

I did, though, notice that the scrape line now continued down along the creek for a bit and then split off in another direction.  That presented many trees to climb.  I chose one, and then sat for 6 hours (12 p.m. to 6 p.m.) and saw zilch.  Long day, but at least the weather was nice.  It was a pretty decent day to spend in the woods, stood up by a buck.

I think I may have made a mistake, though.  I placed "curiosity" urine in many of this fella's scrapes.  While up in the stand, I second guessed that decision, because I'm unsure if doe would get up in his business that way.  I'm thinking that I should have used buck urine (which I didn't have on me), or my own urine instead.  I'm hoping that my use of "curiosity" in his scrapes wasn't the reason I didn't see any action.

I also thought, while in the stand, that just because the wind favors that stand location (southern wind), doesn't mean it favors the buck coming out of it.  If I were him, I wouldn't come out in a southern wind.  I wouldn't be able to see all that well through the funnel between the two houses, and the wind wouldn't be in my favor either.  So...  I'm thinking that the wind needs to come from the North, in order for him to come out and check that line, if he's even bedded down in that marsh on any given day.  I scanned around and picked another tree, and if I can get a Northwest wind, I bet I can escape his nose, and still have him think the wind is favorable.

There's a southwest wind coming in tomorrow morning, but I'm unsure if I'm hunting.  I'm pretty exhausted from house work, hunting and gigs and practice.  I'll bed my own self down soon, and see how I feel in the am.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Rebel Darling
Grammar

[Rebel Darling]

I slipped out of the office, made it into the Pine Bush, and up a tree over a scrape by 3:15 p.m.  I jumped something on the way in, but it's thick along the way to where I wanted to set up, and didn't get a look at the animal.  The wind swirled a bit as the high pressure front pushed out the low and wet one.  I was hoping a doe would walk by through a cut in the hill (I saw a pair walk that line last year) and to punch a doe tag tonight.  No such luck.  Legal light passed on without a sighting.

The best excitement came via text message from Long Lake.  My buddy stalked and drilled down a 10-point buck that ended up with a dress weight of 182.  He used his old man's 30-06 lever action in the NZ.  That buck is a noble-looking monster.  Symmetrical antlers.  He already downed a doe early season, and now he'll be working to rearrange for freezer space.  It's a good problem to have.  I'm super pumped for him, too.  He's born and raised ADK way, and this is his biggest buck to-date. 

As I texted him back just after legal shooting light, my rattle bag slipped out of my pocket, dropped the 15' and smacked down into the ground.  It was then that I heard and saw the buck that snuck into the clearing I was hunting over.  The drop startled him, and he bounded off a bit before turning to look back.  He didn't look up, so I don't think I was busted, but he didn't like that sound and took a few leaps into the thick brambles and was out of sight.  I didn't get a good look at his headgear, but I think he was a 4-pointer.  Maybe a spike.  It was getting dark, and he was 70 or so yards out when he stopped and looked my way.

Well, I finally saw a buck this year.  Ha.

I'm pretty sure I have a date with a buck tomorrow morning, too.  I'm going back into my neighbor's property to hunt the scrape line again.  I'm using the forecasted Northwest wind to get in, and hopefully get set up before he (hopefully) beds down in the marsh.  My plan is to locate the tree, set up the climber, and then walk the scrape line spraying a bit of estrous in each scrape, and then dropping some buck urine over the estrous.  With the wind, that scent should carry into the marsh, and I'm hoping that it will draw him out so that I can draw on him.  I'm all packed up with the scents and the clothes have been washed (I sweated a bit walking in today), dried, and sprayed down.

Tomorrow looks to be a beauty of a day in the woods even if bucky stands me up again.

[Rebel Darling]

I'd be lying if I didn't admit to a growing discouragement at this point.  It seems like over the past week the entire state has lit up with rut behavior, and I have yet to find a rub, and the does disappeared.  It's like they walked off a cliff.  I'm betting some of them headed up and over the ridge to new food plots on a 280 acre parcel.  That parcel is now a private hunting camp.  It used to be woods...  I'm probably spooking the others.

I've also been second guessing all of my decisions on how to call and scent deer.  Truth is, I have very little idea what I'm doing out there when calling or using scents, and I'm starting to think that I'm harming more than helping.  While in the stand on Friday morning, after I had worked up a sweat and made a ton of noise making sure I sprayed estrus and buck urine in a fresh line of scrapes, I sat in the stand and thought Why in the hell did you just ruin perfectly good scrapes?  If the scrapes occurred naturally, they probably didn't need any additions from me and a trove of overwhelming scents.  The deer up here are spooky, and all that scent probably spooked that buck.  As of this morning, those scrapes hadn't been freshened since I laid the scent.  I did get a coyote to walk that line this morning, though...

As far as grunting goes, I've heard so little of wild buck grunting that there's little chance I'm performing as expected, or anywhere near accurate for the deer around here.  I should put the damn thing away until I learn (hear it in the wild) more. 

So, over the past few hunts (Friday morning & evening, Sunday evening, Monday morning & evening), I've decided that I'm going to try and get back to how I started the season, which is to try and find where the deer are, learn why they are there, and position myself appropriately.  And in order to find the deer, I think I'm going to have to move my hunts elsewhere for the time being.  I'm starting tomorrow afternoon by heading up to 4H to return to some spots I know, and to explore a new one.  I'm hoping to find some definitive sign, as well as hoping that the spots haven't been too pressured in recent days.  I have permission to hunt a privately owned spot that, to my knowledge, hasn't seen hunting pressure all season, so that parcel might produce sign and sightings.  If I find sign, I'm going to shut the hell up, and keep all scents to a minimum.

All in all, it's been my best season yet (3rd, 2nd bow), and I'm trying to learn more to make it even better...

 

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by Rebel Darling
Grammar

[Rebel Darling]

Well, saw a spike from the kitchen this morning.  Nose down, way too close to the house for a buck with us starting at him through the window for him to be anything other than rut-headed.  I immediately decided to sit over that scent trail, and wait for another buck (or something, anything, Bueller?) to come along.  No such luck.  Saw no more deer for the day.  Population density is dramatically different than last year.  It's a very frustrating change, which makes this the most difficult and rewarding activity I've set out to learn.  30 seconds of adrenal elation that carry me through weeks enduring stiff limbs from still sitting, sore backs from poor posture, the cold, hunger, boredom, frustration, impatience, the deluded wild imaginings of flickering leaves as white tails, and boulders as bedded bucks...

Saw nothing but a lot of sign, trail, and an empty hunting blind in 4H yesterday, and like I mentioned above, nothing while on stand in 4L today.  Felt the damp in my bones and joints today.

The backpack is working better in stand than the waist-pack.  I've concluded, though, that I could use a better compartmentalized backpack.  Pockets, and the deep chamber are great, but I'm missing the organization of the waist-pack.  It had a convenient spot for just about everything: calls, scents, gear both small and large, cellphone, food, handwarmers, etc.  I'll continue to use the backpack with the climber and hang-ons, though.  The convenience of its carry makes a huge difference on the carries in and out and that deep chamber is a great spot to stow additional layers and the harness.  I think I'd also like a pack that I could easily affix to the climber while on my back.  I remember someone posting on another thread a product like that.  Well, this knowledge is a step forward...

I'm also learning about the serious limitations of the climbing stand.  How many friggin' perfect trees are out there?  Not many, which makes heading into a new spot pre-dawn a crap shoot, or a spin around the roulette wheel.  One of these days I'll drop into 00 and clean up, but right now I've been wandering around the woods looking up with the headlamp and stirring up the forest floor with a helluva racket.  No bueno, as my friend would say. 

So, when the climber is concerned, scouting in new areas in advance is a plus if not a must, unless I'm hunting afternoons or general daylight, in which I can employ more of a run-and-gun approach.  Come to think of it, I'm also disappointed with the tree width limitations.  The wider trees are usually straighter for longer lengths and have fewer low branches.  I've eyed a number of oaks tucked into hemlocks that would have been great ambush points only to be disappointed when trying strap around the base.  I usually end up in a tree out in the wide open, which is also frustrating...

I'm hoping that next year I get to hunt a bit more smarter, and less harder.  Time in the stands (especially without seeing any action) is starting to wear on my mind and body.  I am fatigued for sure, and have probably spooked every deer into nocturnal behavior in a 30 acre radius.  More to learn the hard way...

[Zem18]

It's easy to get discouraged and you become your own worst enemy and critic to how you have been handling each and every situation. You convince yourself to have an entrepreneurial mindset in that if you aren't trying something new each time you are out there then you aren't hunting right.

Well, I've hunted a lot over the years and am not always successful, nor am I an expert but have grown to learn that less is more. From what you've written above, you are learning this much faster than I did which is good. Keep up the hard work and eventually it will pay off. The more time you spend out there, the more you learn. And if all else fails, use the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid. Wishing you good luck out there. 

[wooly]

1 hour ago, Zem18 said:

It's easy to get discouraged and you become your own worst enemy and critic to how you have been handling each and every situation. You convince yourself to have an entrepreneurial mindset in that if you aren't trying something new each time you are out there then you aren't hunting right.

Well, I've hunted a lot over the years and am not always successful, nor am I an expert but have grown to learn that less is more. From what you've written above, you are learning this much faster than I did which is good. Keep up the hard work and eventually it will pay off. The more time you spend out there, the more you learn. And if all else fails, use the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid. Wishing you good luck out there. 

I think just the opposite way.

Get it out of your system.., no holds barred.., lay it all on the line!

 

Your first few seasons of successes and screw ups will be your best teachers. Sometimes analyzing from one hunt to the next with no time between them isn't the best way to look at things. Continue to experiment and after season you can look back on your journal to find out what works for you and what doesn't. There's still a lot of deer hunting left to be done this year, so I don't think you can start second guessing your tactics just yet until it's all said and done. Trying something new once or twice without it having the results you hoped for doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't work.... it just didn't work those days.

You'll have a better handle on things when you look back at the season as a whole and not just comparing one hunt to the next. JMO- but I think you're on the right track either way from what I've read so far here. Good luck the rest of the way!

[Rebel Darling]

This afternoon's hunt in 4H is the most recent in a string of hunts (7 days and over 30 hours) with no deer sighted while in stand.  I chose this spot because I had seen intense rut activity at the same location right before Nov. 15th two years ago.  That was before I became a bowhunter, and played a part in my decision to become one.  I didn't have the opportunity to hunt that forest last year.

In addition to a dearth of deer, I've been getting sloppy.  On Thursday, I lost my headlamp somewhere in the Pine Bush.  I didn't turn it on walking out because it was so bright, and it slipped off my hat at some point.

On Friday evening, which was one of the windiest I've hunted, certainly the windiest I've ever been in a tree stand, I lost my hat and an arrow.  I have no idea where I lost either.  The arrow fell out of my quiver at some point on the walk out, and my hat must have blown off my head in the wind.  I wore my balaclava on the walk out, so I didn't feel it blow off.  It was dark, the wind was blowing hard, and I couldn't find either when I doubled back.  I had already walked the 3/4 mile out before I realized they were missing.

Saturday evening, I forgot to bring in my new headlamp, but lucky for me, I knew the night would be clear and the moon already high by the time I climbed down.  I was also on familiar property, so I stayed until dark.  It was a beautiful evening, but I'd been scolding myself for all my recent mistakes. 

I jumped the spike buck on the way in on Saturday, and was so unaware that I got within 10 yards of him and didn't see him until he blew at me and turned to run.  I bleated at him using the Primos can, and he responded by blowing twice and running further.  I think that was a stupid move on my part.  I educated him to that specific sound, associating it with a threat.  It's not like he didn't know where that bleat came from...

Sunday morning, after leaving my buddy at a stand I hadn't hunted all season, I got lost in my own woods.  Fortunately, I could see a light on in my house, so I headed that way, raising a hell of a racket through trail-less brush, over blowdowns and freshly fallen, untrampled leaves.  I started over, forgetting that I had drug a scent rag all the while, through all that crap, no where near my destination stand.  Great.  Ha.

I think I'm exhausted both mentally and physically.  I probably need a long break, but I don't want to take one.  Work is slow this time of year, so I have lots of flexible time, and I'm stubborn on my goal to tag my first buck during bow season.  That said, these "hunts" are starting to cost me, and my resolve is waning. 

So...  If I hunt tomorrow morning in the rain, which I plan to do, and I see no buck, the remaining bow hunts will be doe or buck.  On Friday, if I haven't connected, I'll be heading to my buddy's parents' house.  They are tired of the amount of doe in their backyard, and I'd love to share harvest meals with those folks.  Hopefully, at least some of those does won't be locked down with a buck.

In other news, all trail cams on my property show nighttime movement between 1 and 4:30 am.  I did get a good sized 8-point buck (largest one I've seen on the property) checking does in the food plot, but there has been zero daytime movement from either bucks, or does.  Is the night movement a response to the biggest damn moon in years?  It's been fairly clear during the nights and evenings, and the moon is up before the sun falls behind the ridges.  Pair that up with warmer afternoons, and probably too much pressure from me, and my mind says that the deer around here have had little incentive to move during the day.

I attached a broadside look at that 8-pointer...

 

[Rebel Darling]

On Friday (11/18) morning, I perched myself up in my friend's daughter's tree fort.  I'm serious.  Their property borders a preserve of a few hundred acres, and the deer trample and dig up their lawn, eat the tree fruit, harass the garden, and because of the proximity of the preserve, are at ease and persistent daytime visitors.  The deer travel across their property on their way to and from evening field feeding, and use the preserve for their daytime bed and browse.

At about 7:45 a.m., frost on the grass, I catch sight of a deer about 100 yards out, about to cross their lawn, walking right towards my turret.  Before long, I noticed he was a young four-pointer, but it being the last day of bow, I had settled on "any deer will do" and that was the same approach my buddy and his folks took for their property.  He would be a suitable shared harvest for us all.

He took a while to work his way over the the row of locusts, but once he did, I knew that he'd present a clean broadside shot at 30-35 yards.  I positioned myself for the draw, drew, pinned him at 35, and as I released, he stepped forward.  Thwack...  He trotted off.  Gut shot.  Damn.  My first.  I think I pulled the shot as well, and that combination made my heart sink.  It was 8:05 a.m.

I stayed put for 30 minutes after watching him walk off into the thicket with difficulty, and losing sight of him.  I got down, and checked the arrow.  Definitely a gut shot.  I knew he'd die, but it was a question of when, and having no experience with gut shots, I started searching the web for answers.  It was like looking up health symptoms online: one site tells you it's a bruise, and another says it's a carcinoma.  I knew I'd have to wait a while, but the suggestions ranged from 6 hours, to 12 hours, to 24 hours.  Those are considerable differences.  I also knew that with a shot like that, the deer likely made it to the preserve's property.  That turned out to be a whole different set of difficulties interspersed with some fortunate accommodations that I'll avoid detailing here.

After waiting several hours (which is much harder than I thought it'd be), and getting approval to track, I flung out what I thought would be a Hail Mary, and reached out to Grampy for advice.  He got right back to me and set me forward with a solid plan, and even offered his help when he was available (we live in the same region, and I was hunting an area he was familiar with).  Truly generous with his time and experience.  The conversation lifted my spirit and gave my mindset a much needed realigning.

At 3:30 p.m. (7.5 hours post-shot), I returned to the shot site with a friend who lives in town.  He picked up the blood trail about 50 yards into the thicket.  The abundance of deer trail and sign made those first 50 yards very difficult, and a stomach bug settled into my gut, which ended up in nausea and diarrhea in short order.  I wondered if they might have been "sympathy pains" because it came on so quick.  I felt terrible for that deer all day, and started to feel worse.  I stuck with tracking, though. 

By the time the last light disappeared, the two of us were also joined by my buddy (who's daughter's tree fort I was in), and his teenage nephew, who went to tracking school over the summer; this was everyone's first blood trail, except for me.  Everyone was awesome, with the young fella really stepping up and paying close attention to snapped twigs and scuffed leaves / pine needles, and at one point picking up the thought-to-be lost trail.

Eventually, and a few hours into darkness, we lost the trail, and backed out for the night.  The stomach bug won, too, and I had difficulty getting out of bed the following morning.  It was a night of, umm..., violent illness.  I felt weak, but knew I had to get back out to track.  My request for a dog was denied, and I was given Saturday as the last day I could track on the preserve.  I had to get the deer, regardless of how I felt.  The temperature was rising quick, and I wanted a good shot at getting some meat before it spoiled.

So on Saturday morning, we headed back in and picked up the trail where we last taped off a tree.  We picked up the blood again.  The trail was scant, and there were a few drops every 10 to 15 yards, so we did a lot of circling through some thick blow-down.  But having been gut shot, I figured the deer would be headed for the closest water, and the track's general direction brought me confidence in this assertion.  We continued in that direction.

At about 1:00 p.m., my wife yelled my name.  She was standing lake-side with two ladies who had been kayaking and stopped to check out a thrashing deer in the tall grass around noon.  The deer expired just as they were getting out of their kayaks.  I walked up to it.  Still warm and limber, there he was the four-point buck.  He was probably close to 1,000 yards from where I shot him, down by the closest water.

As I stood there, feeling weak and sick, the sun beating down on my neck, I also felt sadness for the deer's struggle.  I brought over 24 hours worth of pain to him, and I knelt down next to him and apologized to him.  I felt no better.  Then, I put my hand on his side and thanked him for his offering, lightly smoothing out his fur.  It was not a proud and happy moment for me as a hunter, as my other deer have been.  For me, it was sorrowful, and I don't think that those who joined in the track quite understood my feeling at that moment.  It was a beautiful day by all accounts, and I felt like hell, but it was time to move on.

My agreement was that I'd drag the deer off preserve property before I cleaned it, and considering the shape I was in, I'm very grateful I had extra hands to help with the drag; It would have taken me hours to drag it all the way back, uphill.  Once in a good, clear spot, I dressed the deer, showing both my buddy's daughter and his nephew how to go about the dressing, and showing the different vitals.  It was as I looked at these kids and their fascination that I started to feel better about the ordeal, and my part in this situation, and I became even more grateful for the deer's offering.  The kids paid close attention, and the nephew, a recent young hunter learned a few lessons about the importance of a quick and clean harvest.  He asked a ton of questions about the tracks, and the cleaning, and I was very glad that I was able to answer them to the best of my ability.  He's a studious and curious kid, and will do well when afield.  I hadn't anticipated my role as educator until this moment.

Now, with the temperature around freezing, the deer still hanging, and me on the mend, the wife and I will get to cutting the buck up in a day or two.  We just finished a deer heart dinner, and I can now say that I feel pretty damn satisfied with all my fortune, and all the challenges that pressed me to learn this bow season.  It was the best yet.

 

Edited November 22, 2016 by Rebel Darling
Grammar

[grampy]

I truly admire your determination to go the distance and recover your deer. Your words here and on the phone tell me you are a very caring hunter. We need more like you in our ranks. Congratulations on your well deserved buck!

[Zem18]

Great story and well written. A hunters struggles and successes all in one story is something worth reading in my opinion. Congrats to you on the harvest, the tracking, the determination, and the education provided to the younger generation. You sir are a true gentleman and Grampy hit the nail on the head that we need more people like you amongst the hunting crowd.

We also need more Grampys too. Thank you for all the positive support you supply to all here. 

Edited November 22, 2016 by Zem18
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[wooly]

#1- GREAT job on the recovery effort!

It's unfortunate you had to deal with the rollercoaster of emotions that comes after a less than ideal hit, but give yourself a big pat on the back for doing everything right after that point!

Seriously.., you handled yourself like a seasoned veteran from the time you realized you made a poor shot, right up to when you pushed yourself to march on with the search even though you were feeling under the weather! That would have been the end of it for a lot of guys right there.

 

You had me on the edge of my seat right from the start, and my excitement kept building as you kept making one good decision after another using all the resources available to you! I was hoping it would end this way, and I'm very happy for you that it did!

Congrats on your deer.... you EARNED this one and learned some valuable lessons I'm sure you'll carry over on future hunts!

Super job, great story, and at the end of the day the best possible outcome you could have asked for, considering everything that led up to you finally getting your hands on him!

[fasteddie]

Great story . Thanks for sharing .

[Rebel Darling]

I'm honored by the responses, fellas...  Thanks!

[Rebel Darling]

Rifle season came and went.  That's kind of how it worked for me last year too.  I hunted hard during bow, let up during rifle, and now I'm excited for this short stretch of late season.  My regular season tag is now an either/or.  I did have a great experience last week with three doe, though.

I'd situated myself on the ground on my neighbor's property, near a trail I'd seen a buck walk during early season.  There were fresh tracks, so I chose to sit there. 

When I saw that buck, I had tried to call him in with some grunts and snort wheezes, but my other neighbor was taking his daughter for a joyride on his tractor just across the road, about 50 yards away.  While I stopped that buck in his tracks, he decided he wanted none of what I had to offer, kept looking back at that screaming joyride, and then continued on.

I'm pretty sure, based on the travel route, that this is the same buck that made all the scrapes in the above posts...

While on the ground last week, I had tucked myself under the low hanging branches of a young hemlock just off the trail, and sat like a rock for two and a half hours.  A grey squirrel tried my patience for over a half hour leading into the golden hour.  I won that contest, even though I thought that at one point he was going to jump on my head and tear through my balaclava.  I could hear him breathing just above me.

At 25 minutes or so before legal light ended, three doe snuck up behind me, with one coming in real close to investigate.  It looked like they were coming up the hill.  She did a half-circle around me, all upwind at under 10 yards.  She stomped a bit, bobbed her head around for a better look at me, scented the wind numerous times, pretended to lower her head to eat, but didn't spook until about 15 minutes or so through, and even then she just ran a few yards away, stopping to give me another long look before she and her friends bounded off, white tails flagging.  I'm now thinking that she could smell the doe urine in my backpack, which was right next to me on the ground.  If only I'd had a non-existent 4L doe tag...

I waited a while until after legal light and decided to cycle the bolt to remove the cartridge, and pack it up for the day.  As I pulled the bolt back, that signature "tlick" of the round popping out announced itself to the world and I heard a deer blowout.  I turned and saw the three doe bounding off again.  They had doubled back, trying to return to the area I was in, a promising sign, and the intel for today's late season hunt.

I figured they'd be coming up the hill because that's how I imagined they'd come up behind me.  I set myself up in the climber for the SSW wind thinking they'd pass 20 yards in front of me.  I also hugged close to the buck trail.  There were fresh tracks in the snow, traveled twice in the same direction I had seen him go in early season.  There I was up in a tree with my bow, thinking I had a good opportunity for either/or.

Well, about 20 minutes before legal light ended, I catch movement to my SSW, directly downwind, but also downhill, so I'd hoped my scent might travel over them.  They came across the hill, instead of up it as I had planned.  It's at this point that I think I started making mistakes.

I could see two of them, and they didn't appear to be moving.  After what seemed to be a while, but was probably only 30 seconds, I got nervous that they'd change course and head directly uphill 75 yards or so behind me.  The woods were thick, so my view of them was limited.  I decided to try and use some calls, and I chose poorly.  I gave out two bleats and they perked up.  One shot the other a quick look.  After a bit, I buck grunted a couple of times, and I don't think they liked that at all.  I never saw them wander off, but I never saw them come closer either.  In desperation, I rattled a little, thinking maybe the buck might be on his feet and wandering over, or that the ladies would check out the commotion.  Neither happened.  In the end, I think the doe winded me, and were eventually spooked by all the different sounds I threw at them.  Poor positioning, poor calling, and I'm worried that I've ruined the spot for the remainder of the season. 

Despite this evening's disappointment, it seems that the buck made it through rifle season, and maybe I'll be able to get him on a good set-up come next year's early season.  Maybe I'll even get to lay down one of those doe this year.  I have to give that spot another few days to rest, though, and set up further back by about 100 yards, and down hill for a S or SW wind.

[fasteddie]

GoodmLuck in the Bow / ML  season . Pop one of those does .