First VT Buck

 

The hunt started on Oct 11th. I meet Kyhl at the end of the logging road at around 3pm

Kyhl headed to his stand on the north end of the clover field and I had my climbing stand and was going to see if I could find where the deer were. We were into the second week of archery and had not seen a deer yet.

I followed a logging road till an intersection with two other roads. The trees to pick from were few and far between. I finally decided on a maple tree that I might be able to get a shot to all three roads. I could only climb fifteen or sixteen feet because of branches.

I noticed that I would be able to shot to the road up hill from me. Only a small shooting lane but could pull of a 30 yard shot.

After about 1/2 hour I heard something coming down the road on the up hill side. 

I grab my bow and get turned around and see a small buck walk into the lane. I see he has a y on the right side and draw my bow. I put the pin right behind the shoulder and let it fly. The deer takes a step at the same time and I watched the arrow drill him right in the gut. My hard drops, This is a first for me. All the years of hunting and this is my first gut shot deer. I watched the deer bound off about 30 yards and stop, tail flickering and hunched up. Then he walks in to the brush. I could still make out the deer with my binoculars. After ten of fifteen minutes I loose sight of the deer.  I set the first of  two timers on my phone. One is for the time after shot. The other is last time I saw the deer alive. I check my phone and thirty minutes have passed so it is time to climb down. I sneak up to the road and do a quick look for my arrow but cant find it. I do see some blood and it has all the signs of a gut shot deer.  Brown chunks in a dark red blood.I follow it to the where I was him go in the brush and take a quick look for my arrow there, That is when he jumped up right in front of me and disappeared. Disgusted with my self I set timer number two and walk back to the field.

 Sitting at the edge of the field waiting for Kyhl the shot plays out over and over in my head. Kyhl walked up and noticed I was missing an arrow and got excited for me. Then I had to tell him what had happened. Bummed out we head for the cars and a sleepless night for me. This property has a lot of predators on it. Opening day I saw a two hundred pound black bear and there are always coyote tracks on the road.

I get an early start at first light. I head for the last place I saw the deer. I pick up blood right away. I used a grim reaper whitetail special that has a two inch cut. The blood trail is much better than I thought I would have. The blackberry bushes are head high and visibility is only about ten feet.  Following  the trail about sixty yards and there he is laying dead. I dig my tag out and put it on his ear and took a few minutes to think about the hunt and what I could have done to make a better shot next time. After dressing and dragging the deer out of the thicket time to find my arrow. The arrow was laying right where I shot the deer. With low light and excitement I over looked it.