Don't Call It a Come Back: My First Archery Buck

It's no secret, I have been an absentee blogger the past few months. Marriage, school, work, all the normal excuses; not to sound like a broken record but I am going to try and get back on track. It is after all, my favorite time of the year.

This past Saturday was opening day of archery season in West Virginia. For the first time in five years, I was completely unprepared for  archery season. At this point I had ran my trail cameras all summer, but that was it. I had a few very nice bucks on camera and the majority of them were coming in during the morning hours. My hopes were as high as they could be for this season. Little did I know this opening day would be one to remember.

After finally getting my first deer with a bow,  I was hoping to get another deer early in the season. After knowing I had deer, especially buck coming in between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM, I was planning on holding out until at least then. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be, the fog set in early and finally lifted around 8:15 AM. By this time, I was sure I had heard deer milling around but still hadn't seen any. At around 8:45 AM I was scanning the area when I thought I heard something  but still hadn't got visual conformation of the noise. A little before 9:00 AM I finally saw what was making the noise, it was a buck using a licking branch. I couldn't tell which one it was, but it seemed to have a nice body and decent main beams. I was wanting to wait for a decent buck, but at the first sight of this deer I grabbed my bow just in case... By the time I got my bow the buck had closed in from 115 yards to 85 yards. At this point there were two trails this buck could have came in on, one would have allowed me to get a perfect broad side shot, but that didn't happen. The other trail he took, lead him on a string to within six yards of my stand. This didn't allow for me to draw on him, at this point I thought my chance was done. At that point,  he turned to walk away and and this allowed me to draw back on him. This caused him to spook a little bit, but this actually allowed for a better shot. He spooked out to 22 yards with a quartering away shot. This took a millisecond to get my sights on him and release, it felt like a great, solid shot but I didn't see him drop in my sight.

As the rule goes, at least with the guys I hunt with, if you don't see them go down, you back out and give them time. Not more than five minutes after I shot my buck a spike came in on the same trail and worked its way through the area. I watch this buck for a while and finally got down from my stand a worked my way back to the truck where I was meeting Jared. At this point I wasn't sure, but was feeling good and just wanted a cup of coffee, funny I know, but Jared and I even discussed while waiting to go recover the deer about how great that cup of coffee is after taking a deer. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to see the truck door already open and Jared working on perking a pot of coffee. As I was walking up the trail he caught side of me and I gave him the thumbs up I got one, but then the conversation of what happened ensued. After telling him this and a discussion of previous deer shot like this we decided to wait a minimum of two hours. After waiting over two hours we went back to track if from my tree stand. I was worried about finding blood, because I did not get a pass through, but this was not an issue. After finding the first spot of blood 10 yards from the shot, it looked like the trail was painted with blood. we proceeded to track this deer 50 to 60 yards over top the ridge and a quarter of the way over the side. At this point we lost the blood for a second, at that same time we heard twigs start to snap and my stomach sunk, we saw the deer and it went another 25 yards over the hill before we lost sight of it.  We held tight there to make sure it didn't advance any further and we backed out again. This time we back out and went to make/eat lunch and wait another two hours. After a great lunch and a little fretting on my part we went back to where we saw the deer jump up and we found the spot where it bedded down, then in 10 feet from it was another bed covered in blood with my arrow, still fully intact. At that point we heard something crashing and trashing down through the woods and finally come to rest in the creek. We held tight for 20 minutes to make sure it didn't get out of the creek, then we slowly progressed toward the creek. Over this four hour period and bumping this deer twice it still only traveled 150 yards roughly.

After looking at the shot placement and gutting the deer, I had got a double lung shot, but I missed the heart as it was a little high. All in all, this was a great day and an even better opening day and not bad for the first buck I was able to take with my bow. Now for a picture of the buck, it is a 2.5 to 3.5 year old 8 point. This is the same buck as pictured above on the bottom right.

My First Bow Kill: Filling the Freezer

If you follow along with this blog, you know I love to bow hunt. This has been a newly formed passion. I use the term "newly" loosely because this is my third season of bow hunting. Three long years, in reality this is just a short time period, but this past Saturday was a first for me. It was this first time I was able to harvest a deer with my bow! I was close to taking one my first year, I had a 6-point at 26 yards but buck fever got the best of me. I nicked the deer and tracked it for roughly a mile but never found it. I found out that later that it was a non-mortal injury as this buck was shot on another property later that month. As you can imagine with those thoughts racing through my head as I released this arrow, it was  a BIG relief to see this deer drop in sight.

This past Saturday started the same as opening morning, minus the fisher. The night sky was clear as could be but soon there after sunrise the fog started the settle in. The first movement I heard was around 7:00 AM, it wasn't much to get concerned with considering it was just a few squirrels. It wasn't much longer though until I heard something walking up the hillside behind me. This deer walked in the same exact path as the doe and fawn did the previous weekend. This time it was a lone doe, which meant fair game. As many have talked about before, I see anything I take with my bow as a trophy. Not to mention any chance I get to fill the freezer back up this early I am going to take it. 

The lone doe skirted around my stand, which would lead her to enter directly on my right hand side. As soon as I saw this I grabbed my bow and connected my release. Momentarily before she entered my food plot I drew back, but  she made a detour behind a tree. As she stood there for a few moments I let my draw down, this was the worst thing I could have done. Not because it spooked her but because this allowed me to start thinking. Luckily, this didn't matter before I could let anything throw me off too much she stepped out for a perfect quartering away shot and within seconds I had my pin on her and let the arrow fly. It looked like a good shot, she did the mule kick and then had her head to the ground as she tried to run off. That was a great feeling, but I still wasn't sure for a moment. It didn't take long to know that it was not going to be a long tracking job. She  started thrashing around and then went into a death roll within 15 to 20 yards from where she was shot. Before I could even think or have any real emotion, I heard my phone vibrating with a congratulatory text from Jay. It wasn't  hard to take this one, but all I could think of  is that I had my first deer with a bow and the freezer was back on its way to being full again. 

Below is picture of the tree by which I found my arrow (from a pass through shot) and the next one is the tree in the foreground with the deer in the background.

And now for the hero shot.. 

The before and after..

First Buck of the 2011 Archery Season

As much as I'd love to be posting this about myself, I am not. Yesterday evening Jay hooked up with this great looking 8-point. If you remember I had a few different TCT posts from another location Jay hunts, that is where this buck was taken. Congratulations goes out to Jay on a great beginning to a long season!

Opening Morning Rifle Season Success

I'd love to be posting how I went out this morning and I took the 130 class buck we have been after since this summer. I'd love to have an amazing story to tell you how the majestic buck walk in right at day like and proceeded to chase does all morning before before I could get a shot off at him, but that's not the case, I'm going to tell you the story of a how sometimes a big, bad trophy hunter needs to take a deer to fill the freezer. Haha.

It has been unseasonable warm here for this time of year, opening day of rifle season highs were to be in the mid 60's, this is something unheard of in north central West Virgina.  This time of year, highs in the mid 40's are considered blistering, so you can imagine the difficulty of trying to harvest, gut, drag, and process a deer with highs in the 60's. With this weighing on my mind I thought to myself, I only have today, Thanksgiving, Friday, and Saturday to hunt this week due to work and my freezer was nearly empty form last year. Not to mention, my dragging buddy, Jay, wasn't hunting with me to week due to his work schedule, so any deer I took this week was all on me to drag out this week.

Now that you know the frame of mind I was in and the envirmontal issues I was dealing with, but now onto how the day went. It was another opening morning, not as much excitement as there is normally for bow season, not sure why, I love rifle season, but there's still not the same excitement, maybe due to the fact I was heading out alone this morning.  I got to my stand just before day light and jumped into stand and just hoped that to day turn out a little better than my dismal bow season had done. As I sat there and watched the sun start to peek over mountain ridge behind me, I started to hear the first shots of the morning. It did start slow, but I knew it was from the lack of shots ringing through the woods that it wasn't only myself that wasn't seeing a lot of deer that morning. It wasn't to long into the morning till I started to see some deer, little did I know, this would be the only group I'd see.

Rifle season actually has me watching behind me in the treestand more so that the traditional way I should be, but I use the same to bow hunt out of so I figured I'd saw more deer crossing behind me this morning that I had any year previously. I kept my eyes peeled for deer leaving the feild top behind me and coming down the ridge line behind me to creek that ran 45 yards behind my stand.  It only took till 8:15AM to have the deer start trickling down the hillside looking for a drink in the unseasonable warm morning. I first spotted a doe with two fawns, one still having a faint sign of spots on it. You can call me a sucker but typically I don't try to shot a doe with fawns, then seeing that the does had her tail in the half cocked position I knew she was in heat, and proceeded to steady my rifle on the spot they came from, because it was only a matter of time till a buck was going to be trailing her. To my surprise, very soon after I not only had one but two deer in my scope, both were does though, also with their tails cocked. At this point I was sure a buck was on his way, and boy was I right. It was only a matter of a few minutes until I had a buck in my sights, it as a tall, heavy antlered spike, that right, the deer I had been waiting on, was a spike; Knowing that a larger buck could come a long at any moment I decided to pass on him. I then proceeded to watch these deer play games with each other all down the hillside, with a few times still putting my crossharis on the buck questioning if I should have just then the spike to get some meat in the freeze and get it processed before the day got hot, but the idea of what he would grow into next year got the best of me and I let him finish walking out of sight.

After letting those six deer walk in and out without even firing a shot at them, I proceeded to kick myself for letting them walk because I knew those does would taste just as well as something with antlers on it. As the mid day rolled around I decided to stay on stand for all day and just eat lunch there, I'm glad I did. I wasn't even two bites into my pepperoni roll (it's a West Virginia specialty that I'm sure not many other people will know what I'm talking about, but I plan to post a recipe for them sometime) when I saw a decent sized does start walking off the hillside. I slowly put away my food and got my rifle of the hanger. Still not sure if I was going to take it I thought what was the harm in being ready. As I watched this doe for what seemed to be a half an hour, it was actually 15 minutes, all the thoughts of being that it was now in the mid 50's, I didn't have anyone to help me drag it out of the valley, and there could be a buck trailing it. Then I finally thought I need meat and I have the rest of the day to process it, but only if it would get in a place that I wouldn't have to drag it out of the valley. So I left shooting this deer up to where it wanted to walk, funny and lazy I know, but honestly I thought if it walked away without getting a shot on it I'd get to see more deer that day, if not I finally had my first deer of the season in the freezer. Needless to say the deer choose wrong, it not only walked in the towards me, and then just a few yards above a side road that ran next to the creek. After seeing this and knowing everything I was lining up perfect for me I let a shot ring, the doe dropped right in the middle of the road for an easy job of gutting and dragging it out, now as I right this I have it quarted out and half of it deboned. I apologize for not having any pictures, but it was a hot day and I was by myself so my first thought was to get it processed and put into the fridge.  I promise if I take anymore deer, even a doe I will get you guys a picture.