2011 Archery Buck

[HSM_miner]

These are my facebook entries from Oct 22, 2011.

Ok now the wild TV play by  play...this morning I was in a stand after placing a few scent bombs to  stop deer at 15 & 20 metres in two different directions. And boy did  I see deer later on. Shortly after 8:30, a doe & twin fawns walk  down the trail. The fawns are looking back in the direction they had  come...then a doe with a single fawn come, followed by another doe with  triplet fawns. Now I have nine deer inside of twenty metres. They are  big does and their fawns are healthy & very large. Very pretty doe  fawns. They graze wandering about, sticking around until almost 10:00  am. One doe stomped at me once, but when I did not move, she decided I  was not a threat and resumed grazing herself. These deer kept looking back  in the direction from which they had come from. Occasionally, I could  hear a branch snap, and there was one angry squirrel making a ruckus  back there. Definitely more deer...maybe a buck. By 10:30 I decided to  come in for breakfast.

  I return to the stand just  before 2:00 pm.  No deer movement.  At  4:00 pm there is one angry  squirrel between my stand and Dad's portable stand.  At 5:00 pm I climb  down from my stand and move to my portable stand.  When I am set up and  ready, I gave 5 soft doe bleats.  Ten minutes later, another squirrel is  angerly chattering at something.  I can hear something approaching.  At  20 metres a small yearling buck pokes his head out from the brush and  appeared to be looking directly at me.  He comes out and give me a nice  broadside view.  I draw my bow and he bolts from the trail into the  bush.  Figuring that I blew my chance I come out of draw, but keep my  release clipped to the string.  A few minutes go by, then I hear him  start to move, circling back & away.  Suddenly, I can see him  walking back to the trail, this time about 30 metres from me.  As he  approaches the trail, I draw again and wait for him to step clear.  I  remember sighting, and watching my arrow smack into him.  He dropped on  the spot.  I climbed down from the stand and approached him.  I can see  that I had hit him high...spinal shot...and very much alive.  I grabbed  him by an antler to finish him with my knife...only to dodge flying  front hooves and took one head butt just above my knee...I back up to  where I had hung my bow and put an arrow through his chest.  Walking  back to my other stand, I can see that he had followed me up the  trail...eaten from a pile of apples...and was in fact the source of the  other squirrels anger.  Sometimes a quick location change is all that is needed.  Walking back to Dad's portable, I see that he is not in it.  Continuing to the stand in the open field I find him there.  When he sees me, he says that he just offered a little prayer for a buck this weekend.  I told him we have a small buck on the ground and to get Emma and a camera.  Off he goes...I return to the buck.

 Crouching in the spot where  the deer had dropped, I look back towards my stand.  What a tangle  criss-cross of branches. It it a miracle the arrow made it to the deer.   Did it deflect, or did the deer drop on release, thus the high hit.  I  am not sure which, but am very grateful to break a 3 year dry spell.

Emma with her Great Poppa & Great Grandma come to get the buck with the four wheeler and have the camera for a few pictures first.  Dad, tells me that he got down from his portable stand at 5:00 pm and moved to the other stand.  He had heard the squirrel voicing its displeasure to something and heard a few branch snaps.  I told him that I also moved at 5:00 pm and that I thought something was there...but that I kept hearing sounds from my portable, so I moved.  That buck had eaten my apples and walked up the trail to my other stand (stands are 100 metres from each other, a person sitting in my permanent stand would have watched my buck drop).  Dad said so if you stayed put...you would have had a shooting chance.  Yes, I would have.  But that a change in location, refreshed my resolve to sit for a few more hours, and stretches my legs.  Besides, it all worked out well!

As we are loading the buck onto the bike, we hear a second buck grunt, just behind my portable stand.
 
On the drive home Emma,  flexes her bicep and says, "I'm a strong buck carrier, aren't I Poppa?".   Then when we get home she informs Auntie Kayla that when she gets  older, that she will have her own tree stand and that she will  shoot her own buck, with her pink arrow shooter!

[bowhunter 51]

.........Absolutely Excellent!.....HSM
Now that's what you want...........................................BH51....

[davidlt89]

Awesome deer, congrats!!!! looks like you got a future hunter there also!!!! God bless.

[gitano]

OUTSTANDING!

Paul

[Jorge in Oz]

Nice deer. Good stuff.

[Alboy]

Emma looks like she is having more fun than you. You can't wipe the grin off either.
 
:D:antlers:

[recoil junky]

SAWEEET!

'Bout the size of the bruiser mulie I got last year with the 45-70.

RJ

[klallen]

nice recap.  and pics.  thanks for sharing.
 
 
 
 
 
k

[JaDub]

Nice going HSM  !!    Great story with a VERY happy ending.  Emma looks like a `keeper`!
 
  JaDub

[LvrLover]

Nice! Keep her interested.