SmallCaliberCentral

Last Thursday (the 18th) afternoon I went out bow hunting for one last time before the first firearms season opened on Friday to see if I could score on a deer. My son Lucas, and I haven’t been seeing many deer this season or this past summer. We’ve talked to other hunters and they have been saying the same thing. Anyway, I got out to the tree where I had my climbing stand about 2:30 p.m. that overlooked an Alfalfa field to the east and a brushy wooded draw behind me to the west. I hadn’t seen a thing till just after sunset when a buck came over the top of the field and was walking down across to my right at an angle. I drew my bow and waited till he was at the closest point he would be from me and gave a soft grunt with my voice. He stopped and looked my way as I put my 40-yard pin on him and released the arrow. I heard the “smack” of the arrow and the buck whirled around to his left and ran back up the hill with his tail down heading back toward where he came from. I wasn’t sure I had hit the deer at this time but the deer’s reaction gave hope that I had.

I decided I would get down and see if I could find either the arrow or blood or both since I was out of sight of the deer and daylight was fading quick. It got too dark to see so I called Lucas to tell him what had happened and that I might need his help if I found the deer. He said that if I would wait, he’d come up and help me track it so I walked back the ¼ mile to the truck and sat on the tail gate and watched the stars and listen to the coyotes in the distance.

When Lucas got there, it had been about an hour and a half since I had shot at the deer and showed him what had happened. We quietly made our way to the top of the field and started looking for sign. We walked back and forth looking for blood but didn’t see anything along the field. Lucas is my bloodhound, if there is a speck of blood, he will find it. I was about 30’ from him when he gave a soft whistle so I knew he had found something. I walked over to him and he said look here. There were two tiny specks of blood on some leaves a few feet inside the woods. We looked up ahead and found some more specks and then some drops of blood. My hopes were picking up the further we went as the blood trail was getting better. The deer had started bleeding harder and then we saw where it was dropping blood from both sides and it was that bright red, foaming blood from a lung hit.
I looked down the hill ahead of us and there was the buck laying dead. I was excited now, because I wasn’t sure of the shot. I thought the buck was about 40 yards but was only 36 yards. I truly believe there was some Devine intervention on this hunt. The arrow hit high and went through the top of both lungs. The buck was able to run a bit before it’s lungs filled up enough to start blowing out the holes. The buck weighed 185 ibs. field dressed.

Here is a view of where I was from where the deer was standing when I shot it. You can see my climber at the bottom of the tree.



A view from the stand.



Here are a few pictures of the buck.



The right side.


The left side.


If you count the sticker on the back of his rack, you could call him a 10 point.

That's a nice thick buck Melvin!! Looks like a rock solid high lung hit too. You laid the smack down on that bad boy!! Congratulations!!

Congrats Melvin thats a nice buck .

Hey, is that the pet deer you had tied up behind the shed when we came out last summer on vacation. He sure grew a nice rack. LOL. Ok, just kiddin. Beautiful deer and looks like a perfect shot. Backstraps for breakfast, what time should I show up?

Dave,

I was hoping no one would notice the rope marks on the deer's neck where we had him tied up but you just had to bring it up . Come back anytime and bring the family again.

NICE!

Dave, You make me laugh!

Very cool. Congratulations on a nice buck!

Melvin--Heck of a nice shot on that buck. That's also a very respectable buck. Congratulations!!!

Thanks for the story and the great photos.

Nice buck, Melvin.

I hunt in north-central Missouri and have noticed a drop in deer sighting/activity in the last year or so as well. Some people have talked about disease being a problem, but we haven't found any evidence of that (no dead deer laying around). Have you had any issues over in your area?

Mike,

We haven't seen any sign of disease around here, I believe there are just fewer deer. This is the third year in a row we have noticed fewer deer. We haven't been seeing them around the edge of fields in the early or late hours of the day where we used to see them. I'm in Macoupin county and this first three day season was 8 less deer than last year's first three days. Last year's first three days harvest numbers were down quite a bit due to we still had a lot of crops in the field. I'm just not seeing the tracks or the deer like we had five or six years ago.

I used to hunt in the northeast part of Missouri, just northwest of Quincy till the folks we hunted on gave up renting/farming the ground we hunted. I hunted over there for 21 years and have a lot of good memories. It sure is different being able to use a centerfire rifle over there.

Small world, Melvin. I grew up in Lincoln County, not all that far south of Quincy.

My feelings mirror your own, but it seems like the harvest numbers keep going up each year. I haven't checked the statistics for the county in which I hunt, though.

That's a great deer Melvin. congrats.
Seems like most places in oregon that I hunt have less deer than they used to. Our spot in montana seemed to lack the whitetails that it usually has, but the mulies where about the same. Everyone has a different opinion as to why. However, in oregon I believe it is most definately due to predation by the big cats.