Shot my first Bow Buck on opening day of the Southern Tier opening. Sitting in my honey hole stand, a small 1/4 acre plot of wheat/brassica about 50 yards in the woods behind one of my bigger 3/4 acre plots. The honey hole serves as a stagging area for wary deer (bucks) prior to dusk. So I'm sitting 22 ft high watching3 does, 1 yearling and 1 fawn feeding away when all of a sudden one doe decides to leave stomping her hoofs and gets about 75 yards away upwind of me and starts snorting and wheezing? 3-5 minutes later and hear a grunt coming from that direction (now I know why shes in a hissy)and I slowing stand as to not alert the deer below me, which wasn't hard since all 4 where looking in the same direction away from me. Suddenly aBIG MASSemerges from behind a group of hemlocks, it's a SHOOTER! I saw big ass antlers, didn't even count, just came to full draw. However, the buck is coming to me straight on, giving me no shot. As many of us now, holding a bow at full draw for 2-3 minutes can feel like a life time, but the buck finally gave me a 15 yard quartering to shot and the Crimson Talon broadhead steered the carbon arrow straight through, I thought. The buck jumps, goes 3-4 feet and stops, looks around and then just walks off! I sat in my stand in disbelief, how could I have missed? The 4 deer are still standing around me wondering what just happened? They go back to feeding for the next agonizing 45 mintues till dark and they walk away. Thatwhole time, I'm looking at my arrow laying on its side on the ground, I'm looking at my vanes, 2 green and 1 white. The white one is, well still white.
I must have ran the whole shot sequence in my head a hundred times, I know my arm was shaking while holding the bow, but I'm sure it was steady upon the release. Oh well, this was the biggest buck I've ever seen while hunting and I don't even know how many points it had, hows that for a kick in the ass I'm thinking to myself. I call my buddy on the 2-way radio to tell him of my blunder, as the great hunter partner he is, he tries to console me and said we have the whole season to bag him. I climb down from my stand after dark, pick up my arrow and then I ACTUALLY fell to my knees. The arrow did have blood, but also gut slim. I call my hunting buddy back, gave him the news and we both agree to let the buck be for the next 4 hours before we track it. We go back to camp, have dinner (I didn't eat much) watch some TV and at 10 PM we RAN, LOL to the spot the arrow was. Took us 2 hours to find him, but not before the coyotes did. The poor guy was torn up from the chest back, no ass was even left. Thank the lord, the neck and 7 point head gear was untouched. We lifted the body, estimate the buck to be 200 pounds and to be 3 1/2 years old. This is my fourth year hunting and feel truely bless to have taken such a beautiful buck. I have spoken to many hunters, many who have hunted for 20 plus years who have never taken such a deer, so you can image my excitement!
[/align][/align]Would you believe the next day, Sunday evening(or same day since I found the deer at 12:10 AM Sunday morning) I'm sitting in another stand when a nice 6 pointer (which we named Hollywood since he loves to pose for my trail cams) gave me a perfect 35 yard broadside shot! Calm down, didn't take him, I'm a honest hunter, only had the one buck tag. But wow, needless to say my hunting buddy keeps rubbing my head for good luck! Didn't seem to help him just yet, we have next weekend!
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NY Opening Day Buck
