Carbon poisoning

[weekender]

Saturday morning was a bust, nothing. I think only saw one squirrel. I hunted till about 10:30 and that pain that says it's go time or stinky pants had hit hard. I left. Went back to the house and took care of business. Kay wasn't hunting Saturday, she was cooking pies for the big family Christmas gathering. I get back to the house, she has seen 5 looking out the window while cooking, no bucks. I took a short nap, did a few chores and headed back for my tree about 2:30. The wind is good, NE at 10. The deer usually come through this area from the north or NW. I was very confident. I had seen 4 good bucks on this ridge this year. One was in the freezer:



(don't you love it watching the hunting shows on TV? half of the show is commercials, then another 1/4 of the show is where they replay the last 2 minutes that happened before the commercial, you really get about 5 minutes of action out of 30 minute show if you are lucky.)

I had seen this one on the same ridge but I knew he was dead:



another 20" 8 point had been with the one now in the freezer, didn't see him until after I shot the 11 pt., no picture, and had not seen him since. The big ones do me that way, ONE CHANCE, ONE CHANCE ONLY.

We had seen this buck several times from the house, chasing does mostly, running across the pasture. One Sunday 10:00AM (no hunting), he just lazily walked across the pasture like he all day, and he was a regular at the feeder out back that we keep just for viewing pleasure:



At about 4:55PM Saturday, still hadn't seen a deer. I look to the N where they are suppose to come from and just see a horizontal line a foot wide, some 150 yds away that I didn't think had been there all day. I USE binoculars a lot. I have a compact set of 9x25 Leopold, (not sponsored). They don't take up much room, easy to keep warm in my jacket pocket so they don't fog up from the heat and moisture from my eyes. I eased them up and not so much to my surprise, there were five does standing perfectly still looking away from me, full attention, ears high and forward. Good news to me cause thier attention was on something besides me. I eased my bow off the hanger, and slowly stood up. I had only been up a few seconds when they broke into a trot, at first to the east parralle to me then a 90 degree turn headed straight to me. I knew that something was pushing them and lucky for me, they came my way. I had to turn 180 around as they appeared to be going to pass my tree behind me. Just as I finished my turn, they are now only 15 yards and they make a 45 degree turn to pass on the side I was originally set up for. It's about now that I see thier pursuer. I can tell in an instant it's a 2 1/2 yr old buck and with our lease for sale and the season running out, I'm gonna shoot if a get a chance. By now I can't see the does, they have passed in front of me although I can hear them moving on rapidly. I know this buck will not stop so as I turning back 180, I bleat to him to stop him. It works. He locks up at 18 yards, right behind a 18" red oak, his head sticking out one side, his butt the other. He could not locate the sound, but he knew SOMPIN was up. I knew that when you stop a buck like that it's a gamble. You hope he is clear, you better be ready cause he won't stand there long, and he most likely will resume at the pace he was moving when you stopped him. A second bleat after the first one has worked, will often send him into HIGH gear. I was drawn, ready. Held my 20 yd pin 2 yards in front of his nose. If he made it 3 yards, a limb would block me from shooting at him today as he went on behind the smell good. He started to go, I tried to hit the release about the end of his nose. I was a split second to slow and the shot passed through in about the middle of the deer. I hit him, but too far back. He ran 40 yds and stopped behind another big oak, stood there while I called Kay and whispered that I had one shot. While I was talking softly to her, he took a 90 degree turn all humped up in the middle (a sure sign of stomach or gut shot) walking slowly parralle to me and out of site. I hung up from Kay, and sat quitely till dark. I eased down my tree, tip toed over to get my arrow. Yep, green gut and blood. Experts say leave him 12 hours if you can, I left as quite as I could. They will normally bed within 200 yds and be dead when you come back. Push too soon, they will jump up run a mile, then die. Usually with little or no blood trail. We went back Sunday morning at first light. He was less than 40 yds from where I had seen him last. Stone dead and the meat was completely chilled meaning he had died quickly. I could have probably went to him when I climbed down but hast sometimes makes waste. I did not know that he was one of the bucks we had been watching until Sunday morning. Once I see enough to know I'm gonna shoot, I don't look at the horns much more. I start trying to find the SPOT I want to hit. Not a big one, but a nice deer for where I live. Extreme hunting pressure exist on all sides of me. The kind where charges need to be filed, maybe someday. Most likely delvelopment will over take me first as land is being bought up by big money develpement groups as we speak. Here he is, let's go fishing.
20yd shot, 150 lbs, 9 pts, 65# Mathews, gold tip carbon, nap spitfire expandable. Kay just got a Bushnell range finder with the ARC feature for her aniversary. I'll give you report when we/she sees how it works.

[gottaflylee]

Pretty work and a great report!

[Capt-D]

Sweet!

Way to go! I am glad your long day finally paid off!

-D

[WAHOONBOX]

GREAT INDEPTH REPORT CUZ!


CONGRATS ON YET ANOTHER BUCKNBOX

[Dave Sikorski]

Nice work Weekender.

-D

[brandon558]

Pretty work man...great write up!

Brandon