Friday Foggy Morning Monarch...
Settled in stand by 6:50am on the unusually warm, foggy morning(10/26/12).
The stand was situated on the edge of a hay field, 20 yards away from where standing corn came to a point. Behind me, to my right, was prime bedding area only 75 yards away. Across the hay field, which is 100yards across is an immediate bedding area(thick strip of immature trees) over-looking another standing corn field.
This entire area is littered with rubs and scrapes and historically has held larger bucks.
At aprox. 7:25am, I look to my left and there, standing in the fog 125yds away, is one, if not, the largest bodied deer I have ever seen sporting a decent set of headgear. His legs looked like they were an inch long. His belly appeared to almost touch the ground.
He looked as if he was going to enter the standing corn.
I immediately hit the True Talker with a single, dominant grunt. The buck made a 90-degree turn and started trotting my way along the edge of the corn. As soon as he responded, I grabbed my bow and quartered away from him, anticipating the shot ahead of time.
He stopped at the point of corn(@ 20yds) and stood staring to my right, looking for the buck, for a solid 2 minutes(seemed like 10 minutes!). Not seeing anything, he put his nose on the ground and started zig-zagging through the hay, left to right.
When he was off my left shoulder and he had his nose on the ground, I drew.
I did the infamous "MEEP!" to stop the walking buck and he froze. I settled my 30-yard pin and sent it...
Upon impact, the buck let out a very loud growl, jumped up and bucked his hind legs and took off to the corner of the field. It appeared half of my arrow was in him. His near front leg flailed about(broken shoulder). He hit the edge of the field and disappeared over a steep hill.
This when my knees started beating the living hell out of each other, I struggled for air and fumbled with the seat of the stand to sit down and attempt to collect myself...
I climbed down an hour later and went to the truck.
Myself and a couple buddies returned 3 hours later for the recovery. The deer did NOT bleed fro the first 100yds! After that, the blood trail was not good at all. A drop or two here and there, every few yards. He angled his way down a steep hill where he crossed a dirt road. The road was aprox 200 yds from the location of the shot. We decided to back out, and come back later in the afternoon.
At about 5pm, we returned to where he had crosses the road and headed for a creek. About 100 yards from the road, the flood gates opened up and the final blood trail could've been followed by Stevie Wonder!
The 4 of us, walking shoulder to shoulder, stopped for a brief second to look ahead for the next puddle and I glanced to the left...
There he lay, in a small depression amongst the crabapple thicket!
I threw my arms in the air and ran to him! My buddies in tow, they all tackled me, hootin' and hollerin'! The high-fives, back-slaps and hugs ensued...
My arrow laid on top of the buck, covered in blood?(Still haven't figured that one out) There was no sign of a struggle, no disturbed leaves, no exposed dirt.
It was quite obvious since the buck had never bedded down, how dry the blood was on the deer and the severity of riggy', that he had been expired for sometime, probably less than a half hour after the shot.
After examination, I hit him square in the shoulder. I know, I know, cruddy shot. Thanks to my 72# Mathews Helim, ACC arrows and Rage 2-blade broadhead.
After the photos, we got him back to the garage and hung him on the scale before gutting...235lbs!
I was also careful when I removed the vitals. There was a very, very small hole in the near lung. That was it.
He has a broken brow on his right and a broken G3 on his left giving him only 6 scorable. He also has a 30" neck!!!
The Rage 2-blade entrance wound measured in at 4 inches!
He was missing large patches of hair on his back and the top of his head was completely bald...like Spoony. Face had cuts/scratches/scars all over it.
We guessed him at 4.5 - 5.5 years old.
Another great year!!!
Ironhed
post edited by Ironhed - 2012/10/29 21:28:00