Persistence and the Never Give Up.
Haven't been here for awhile..Hello..still read but not commenting on much.
Second as some know, I hunt both states of Pa and Ohio.
So now thats said, I started hunting September 25th, first day of ohio, and Mixing in Pa hunts as well. Passing on a small seven in ohio around the 15th of october had me up until today questioning my season of ohio. And having missed a nice 8 point the second to last saturday of Pa, and 4 days later having a close encouter with another quality 8, and it being messed up with a squeaky trucking driving down the road...I almost had the craps of bowhunting...almost...I'm a stubborn kid and almost refuse to fail.
That leads to today November 21st. around 7 am in ohio. First morning I decide to hunt my backyard farmland. I saw him come out of a fence row into the cornfeild that I watch around first day light. I grunted just once and he stopped on a dime, looked my way and came into my thicket(sorry dad who was set up 60 yards on the edge of the corn where he was probably gonna walk by..)He Stood there for about a few minutes(which seemed like forever) just looking for the "buck" that grunted at him and then he took a few more steps to get into the opening I needed. I took a faster shot then I needed to, regardless my fault. Afer the shot, I wasn't quite sure where my arrow flew. It was still kinda gloomy out and I wasnt sure if I couldnt or just didnt see the arrow hit his chest, where I thought I was aiming.. So I Got down waited 20 minutes, IN THE RAIN..pouring...all morning...got my dad and went to the "impact" found white hair and the 'brown blood'(the not good)... so we backed out and left.
Came back around 2 pm, Found my arrow 5 feet from the impact where I had looked earlier without seeing it then. Started following trails into the thickets with no luck for sign of him running. Then after searching close we started making HUGE circles 500 yards out working back down wind and so on...on MY last ditch effort for the afternoon(4:30pm), I went back and started over. Walking to where I saw him last and told myself, I'm going to go further "this" way then I had the first time, and boy was I happy I went 20 yards further to see the unmistakable deer brown laying.
The shot was so to speak of better then I thought, I hit high, right on the second rib of the ribcage, center punched the liver and angled back towards the hind legs. I might have saw the arrow hit, if I was looking there when I shot instead of the "kill".
I had orginally thought the paunch(stomach)when I found "brown". Regardless bad hit, but made it a more killing shot and better for the animals recovery. I would bet if we bumped him on on a what I thought had happened I would have never found him.
He only ended up running about 150 yards, the woods is uber thick and mostly crawled in the down position. kinda like walking into a briar feild but worse. You really cant see 20 yards in any direction, so it was important making tight circles in the thickets and on/near deer trails. Also the feilds around my thicket are briar feilds and more tangles so I literally was searching for my needle in a hay stack.
I am very happy to recover this animal. and proud that I never gave up.
Thanks For Looking fella's, and good luck to those who havent scored yet.
Diamond Black Ice Bow 68#
Rocket Wolverine 3P 75grain broadheads
20 yard shot
Classic 8 Point
180 Dressed out on the scale.
post edited by Bull Lifter - 2011/11/25 03:48:30