I decided to go to the back stand on a property that only Lucas and I are supposed to be hunting on and see what it looked like. The ladder stand is at the edge of the woods and what use to be a tilled field. The owner put the field in the CRP program and planted trees in it two years ago. The field is now grown up with weeds and volunteer cottonwood trees that are so thick it’s hard to get through them, some as high as 7’. I didn’t see many deer out of this stand last year so I planned on moving it back across the creek and putting it up on a ridge where we’ve seen several deer.
The stand is behind the leafed hedge tree.
I tried to get across the field as quietly as I could and when I was about half way across, I caught a glimpse of a decent sized buck running along the top of the hill with its head down like it was trailing a doe. I slowed down even more and eased into the edge of the woods in case it was still around.
I got to the stand and looked up to see one of the hooks on the ratchet strap hanging down. Someone has been in the stand and the strap had broken and they used what was left of it and tied the stand to the tree. I eased up on the first rung and shook the stand, it seemed solid so I went ahead and climbed to the top. A shot out in the field behind me was going to be a challenge with all of the weeds and in front of me was the hillside and about 20 yards to the top of it.
I had been there about 20-25 minutes when I heard a noise to the left. A little four point buck was coming into the woods and was smelling the air checking for doe. I watched him as he made his way up a little draw and disappeared. I sat for another 35-40 minutes when I heard something again to my left. When I turned my head, all I saw through the brush was a lot of white tines coming into the brush on the same path the four point had come in on. After the four point had disappeared earlier, I ranged the path it had been on and got 26 yards. I drew my bow as the buck stopped broadside to look around and released my arrow to see it hit a small limb and go ricocheting through the brush. I’ve been back two times since and still haven’t found my arrow.
The buck jumped and ran up the hill a few yards and stopped with its head behind the biggest tree on the hill. I grabbed another arrow and knocked it and drew again just in time for the buck to walk out from behind the tree and stop. Now here’s the part where I’m supposed to say I made a perfect 27 yard broadside, double lung shot, but I didn’t. I had to shoot through the tops of some small trees in front of me and either I hit a limb or just flat out pulled the shot, but I hit the buck in the hip.
The buck almost went down at the impact of the arrow but caught itself and made a few jumps up the hill and stopped. I could see a lot of blood running down its leg and was hoping the arrow hit the femoral artery in its leg. There was no way to get another shot so I sat motionless hoping the buck wouldn’t get alarmed and start running, making for a long tracking or maybe not getting the buck at all. After a few seconds, the buck limped, staggered up the hill a few more yards and just over the crown and stood behind two oak trees. I could just see its head and part of its shoulder and saw its head swaying side to side and then it fell over.
I stood up and could barely see one of its antlers thrashing back and forth at 37 yards for a few seconds and then go still, a good sign that maybe the buck was going to die right there. I called Lucas on the radio and told him what had just happened and that I was going to sit until dark before getting out of the stand. Just as I finished talking to him, I saw the buck’s head raise and then disappear. I couldn’t see the antler anymore so I didn’t know if the buck had gotten up and went down the other side of the hill or if it was still there.
It was a long 30 or so minutes till it was getting to last light so I got down and tried sneaking up the hill to see if the buck was there or gone. I would take one step at a time and look and listen and then I saw part of an antler less the 12 yards over the crown of the hill. I knocked another arrow just in case and took one more step up to see a horizontal white strip on the ground in the fading light, the deer’s belly. I stood for about 20 seconds and took one more step and could see the bucks head and an open eye. I stood for about 30 seconds and didn’t see a blink so I took one more step and could see the buck was dead.
I called Lucas on the radio and told him the buck was dead and asked him if he would go home and get the 4-wheeler to drag the buck out, otherwise we would have to drag it about half a mile to the truck. The problem was going to be if I couldn’t get the 4-wheeler up the far side of the creek bank, we would have to drag the deer about 250 yards through the CRP ground. While Lucas was heading home for the 4-wheeler, I gave Clint a call to see if he could help us in case we had to drag out the buck and he graciously said sure thing, I’ll be right there. It took about 4 attempts before I got the 4-wheeler up the creek bank, but at least we wouldn’t have to drag the buck by hand through all of those cottonwoods.
When my youngest son, Ethan, skinned and cut up the buck, he found where the arrow had hit the femoral artery on the entrance leg and penetrated deep enough to break and shatter about four inches of the far leg bone.
Not sure if the one tine will measure an inch or not, if it does, it would be a twelve point. The buck only weighed 168 lbs. field dressed, but it looked run down from rutting. There was a lot of luck getting this buck. It’s my biggest buck so far with bow and I am having a European mount done on the head. I think I'm going to leave the stand right where it is for a now!
Here are a few pictures of the deer.
12/18/11
I took the head to the taxidermist http://fleshandbonestaxidermy.com/index.php on 11/6 and they called me on 12/8 and said it was ready. They did a nice job on it and quick turn around. Here are a few pictures of it.
