Well, I finally got a PA buck down. I went back to the spot I had hunted last weekend and seen around 40 deer and 8 or 9 bucks during an all day sit. I slipped in nice and early into a tree 40 yards from where I had been a week earlier that put me right in the middle of the action. I had a SSE wind which was just about perfect. There was a misting rain that had everything soaked and dripping so hearing deer would be a problem.
The action started at around 6:10 as I saw deer coming in from the field above me and feeding on the ridge I was sitting on. As time passed I saw a really nice buck out near the field about 200 yards away. I tried bleating and grunting to him, and he heard the calls but he had somewhere else he wanted to be. Shortly after that I caught some movement behind me and saw a good buck chasing a doe with a little buck in tow. The buck was grunting as they circled below me. He eventually ran the doe out of range and they disappeared. I quickly grabbed my Hunt Nut Switch call (shameless plug
) and started bleating and grunting and the buck started heading back in a bee line to the smaller buck. He was coming from my right to my left and I drew on the left side of my tree and waited. I bleated to stop the buck and he stopped about 10-12 yards up from the bottom of the ridge which I knew was 45 yards away. Figuring on a 35 yard shot I held my 40 yard pin on what I thought was the bottom of the buck's chest but couldn't be sure due to some leaves covering the bottom portion of his body. I held released and watched my arrow sail over his back.[:@] It was more than likely a 33 yard shot and I completely forgot to compensate for the deer being very much downhill from me in my excitement.
Deer continued to come through and I saw a couple more bucks including a small 6 that had a death wish and is lucky I wasn't looking for any buck and another smaller 8 point came through as well. After a while things slowed down and I got a text from my buddy Damien asking me if I was getting rained on as bad as he was.
I replied to him about the weather and told him about my miss and just as I put my phone away this buck steps out from my right 5 yards under my tree.[
] I saw a good rack and quickly picked up my bow as he continued up the hill. He got behind some branches and I couldn't see him that well despite only being 12 yards away. I made a quick decision to take him and drew back and leaned out as far as I could to my right, which is very difficult being left handed. I found his ribcage anddespite the contorted position I was in settled my pinright behind the 2nd to last rib as the deer was quartering away hard. Just as I released the deer turned to his right and the arrow hit very high and back.
Crushed to see where I had hit the deer I watched him run off and started grabbing another arrow from my quiver. The buck stopped about 55-60 yards away broadside and I prepared to get another arrow into him. As I looked down to nock the arrow and hook up my release I heard what I could have sworn to be a crash and looked up and the deer was gone.
I glassed the area looking for him, but could not see him. I knew there was a gully near where he was standing and thought maybe he fell in that. I figured I'd wait an hour or soand glass up the gully as I quietly backed outto formulate a plan. After waiting I glassed and saw nothing in the gully as Ibacked outso took my gear back to my truck and called my buddy Karl for some help. I went and got breakfast and waited for him and to my dismay the misting rain turned to a downpour as he got there. I knew that whateverminiscule blood trail there would be from my shot was now gone.
It was now 3 hours after the deer was shot. I showed Karl where the deer was when I shot and where I was in the tree and we started walking over to where I last saw him. With an arrow nocked and release clipped on I approached on the ready where I thought I heard him fall. It was all unnecessary and the buck lay there dead in the gully!
What happened with the shot was it was high and back, but punched through the diaphragm took out one lung and stopped as it took out the top portion of the heart. The deer was dead within 20 seconds of the shot. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
The buck is a little smaller than some of the ones I had been seeing and had on trail camera, but I had to make a quick decision and I'm just glad things worked out the way they did. I'm tickled to death with him and he is my second biggest bow kill to date.
Here he is:
PA Buck Down! 11/8/08
