11/2/2012 Hunting Trips

Headed out into the woods close to where I shot at the 11 point last evening this morning.  I got into the woods nice and early and found myself thinking man this is some perfect weather for the deer to really be moving.  Sure enough they were.  Just after 7am I had two small does walk by.. About 8am  I watched 3 does skirt off about 100 yards away and a couple minutes later 2 more headed in the opposite direction.  I knew with all these does there had to be one or more bucks close by.  I did a series of grunting and waited and then another. About 8:15 maybe 8:30 I heard a deer coming and sure enough it was the 11 point. Now I wanted to correct myself, this deer isn't huge by any means, but he is super cool and pretty good size.  Anyway, He was straight walking right for me and moving fast enough I only had about 2 seconds to get ready and draw my bow and by the time I did that he was at 5 yards maybe 6 straight down from me broadside.  Wellllll, being 30 feet up turned out to be a bad idea today, even now none of the deer saw me, I had a tiny window to land my arrow. Well whether I screwed it up or he jumped I shaved a big patch of hair off him but didn't draw any blood...  So I have now named this deer the interesting 11 with 9 lives, he used 2 of them in a little over 12 hours just with me! Needless to say he ran about 10 yards and stared walking away.  He walked about 100 yards over to where my friend was hunting and proceeded to chase an 8 point buck off several times but never presenting a shot to my friend.  But again, I was glad I didn't wound him and he will be out there again for me to tango  with. But two misses in 14 hours! What the heck, I never miss! So we all say I know...

Mid Day----  Came home super upset and sick that I missed a deer twice in less than 24 hours.  So I shot my bow to make sure I was still accurate and re adjusted some things. ( Shoot your bow often even during the season, things move like your rest!) Shoot more often than I do! 🙂

 

Evening, got a late evening start and wasn't as eventful as the past evening or this morning.  Saw 3 does all evening that was it..

Tomorrow is another day...

Good luck everyone!

2012 - 2013 Hunting Season Journal
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  1. Ramsay
    Glad you got another shot at him Andy! You'll get him. 30 feet up in the tree, huh? I like to rock climb, but I'm not sure how good I'd feel quite that high in a climbing stand! Well, my hours in the woods this first week of the rut paid off and I had a great hunt yesterday afternoon and tagged the tall 8 Pointer in the field behind my house! It was awesome. A 27 yard broadside shot with my Matthews Z7 Extreme. I got in the stand around 4 pm yesterday, which was about an hour later than I wanted. But, I guess you gotta work, right?! I spoked a couple if doe as I walked across the field and into the stand. I made a couple of grunts as they ran, and that seemed to hold them close by. I added a little bottled estrus to the scrape near the stand and then got settled in. Within about 15 minutes 3 doe came across the field walking directly towards me and stopped at the salt lock and corn at 25 yards out. However, due to the wind direction and the location of the stand, they were on me like white on rice. They didn't spook, but after about 5 minutes they gently walked away. About 15 minutes later a spike buck and 2 button bucks made their way to the corn, this time entering the field from my right. Once again, they spot me and after a couple of minutes if eating and looking at me and eating and looking at me, etc. they walked off. I started to regret the placement of the stand and began looking for other trees off the field that I would move it to. I chose this tree BECAUSE it was about 25 yards from where the deer typically enter the field and feed. Specifically, the deer very often enter from the right of G&S stand and make z pass in front of a s tree, before walking across the field. I figured this would be perfect for allowing me to draw my bow just as they disappeared for a second behind the branches if the small tree only to emerge broadside for a perfect 25 yard shot. What I didn't factor, though was that the field I'd sloped down towards the tree, so that the deer that enter from the top if the hill are bit that far below where I am in stand and they're basically looking right at me When they enter the field. As I surveyed the woods to decide on a new tree, I decided to let out a few light bleats and dome tending grunts - just to see if there would be any reaction. Well there was!! Within no more than 2 minutes, I heard the unmistakable clomp clomp clomp of a big deer. I looked over to my right, and through z slew of branches saw s big bodied deer and a lot of antler. I tried to glass him, but through all the trees, all I could see what that he was definitely a shooter. He stopped by a tree about 60 yards to my right and through some thick woods. After rubbing on the tree for a bit, he started heading away from the field and along the path the three does had left by! So, in desperation, I made another sequence of light bleats and tending grunts! It worked again!! I lost sight of him, but could hear him generally walking towards the field. After about 3 minutes, which felt like an hour, I couldn't see him and I couldn't hear him anymore. Then, all of a sudden, said he had read the play book of how to enter the field to give me a perfect broadside shot, I heard clomp clomp clomp of leaves directly to my right and exactly where I had hoped deer would enter! I saw his big antlered through the branches, he looked like the tall 8 but I want certain. He entered the field, and then crossed behind the tree in his way to the lick. I drew while he was behind the tree and when he emerged on the other side he was fully broadside at about 30 yards. I let him pass in front of me some more, as u got comfortable and sure of my shot. At about 27 yards - I key the arrow fly. I heard that the loud thwack as it hit him - almost - almost exactly where I was aiming. But,as he darted off back into the woods, I could see the arrow sticking out of his side! What the heck? Had I hit the shoulder? I kept a good eye on where he darted back into the woods and then settled in and replayed the shot over and over. The shot was good - I was sure of it. Maybe 2 to 3 inches higher and maybe 1 inch back of where I was aiming- but that should be a kill shot. It should be a double lung - but then why did the arrow not pass through? After about 35 minutes, I climbed out of the stand to see what I could learn. It was about 6 o'clock, so i figured that with only about 30 mins left of sunlight and with the arrow in the wound and therefore little blood, I had better start tracking. I couldn't find anything! No arrow remnant, no blood,no hair! Nothing. I set out into the woods in the direction I saw him go, hoping that a blood trail would start after about 50 yards or so- but nothing! Dejected, I traced my way back to the shot again and miraculously found the arrow. It was broken clean (a graphite arrow) about 8 inches back from where the broadhead should have been and it was drenched in bright red blood - a good sign! Based on all the evidence, I was convinced that the arrow hit one or two lungs and then hit the buck's back shoulder and the force of him running snapped the arrow. The good news- that's a kill shot. The bad news, that's a terrible shot for a blood trail. As the night fell and sunlight disappeared, I had found only 5 drops of blood leading from the arrow across the field and to the woods. At a frustratingly slow snails pace I marched stooped over one slow step at a time for about 150 yards. After 150 yards of looking, I had found only about 9 total drops of blood, and they were small drops at that. Just about the time I thought I had lost the trail, my best hunting buddy, Alex, called me to see how I was doing and offer some support. Thankfully, he suggested I take a break from blood trailing and just follow along the likely path. He reminded me that the deer would stick out like a lantern if I shined my flashlight on it. So, I followed his advice and slowly walked down the likely trail he was on. I shined my light throughout the woods and kept looking down for blood too. Not a sign of blood anywhere. But then, about 100 yards if so from where I stopped trailing this blood, so bout 250 - 300 yards from my stand - at the bottom of a hill, resting dead against a tree - was the beautiful tall 8 pointer! What a great hunt and what a feeling of relief to recover him! I've post a picture (or 2) of him below. Andy, I hope you'll be posting pics if a successful shot on your 11 point and I look forward to reading stories if your other reader's successes (and frustrations). Good luck and have a great time hunting the rut!!
    Reply
    November 3, 2012
    • admin
      Ramsay, Congrats!!! What an awesome deer, I must say the deer I shot years back that is on our site as my 100 inch trophy looks just like your deer. Again congrats and thank you for sharing your story and photo's. Keep up the good hunting and I don't worry about the errors, I do a lot of things from a tree via the Iphone! But auto correct is a pain in the butt! You will enjoy my story tonight! :-)
      Reply
      November 3, 2012
  2. Ramsay
    Here's another pic.
    Reply
    November 3, 2012
  3. Ramsay
    Btw - sorry for all the typos above. I wrote story on my iPhone while I'm in a stand this morning! Haha. Obsessed maybe??
    Reply
    November 3, 2012

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