GaHeadHunter

Hey guys, just checking in. Sorry it has been so long. Things have been crazy with work, also we just closed on our first home. Any way, Been in the woods several times. I managed to kill a button head last week right at dark, thought he was a doe[:@]. Looks like everyone is having the same "luck" with the un-seasonably hot weather. They say a cold front is coming through later this week. Good luck guys.

Ricky

Justin

Well guys, I have to come clean - I shot a nice buck on Weds. night on the backside of this cold front that moved in and never found him. I wish I could say I knew what happened, but quite frankly I don't.

I watched him for close to an hour within 100 yards of my stand making rubs before he finally offered me a broadside to slightly quartering away shot at 30 yards. I had to lean out a bit on my stand to get a clear shot to his vitals, and when I let the arrow go it looked good. However, I lost track of the arrow in flight and only heard a good "thwack" when it hit him, then he tucked tail and bolted like lightning. I swear I have NEVER seen a deer just hit a dead run like that after shooting them.

I came back an hour later with my dad and Mike (dukemichaels from the forum) and we found the blood trail, but it wasn't great. So after about 100 yards or so we backed out and called it a night. Mike and I came back the next morning and picked up the blood trail, which was decent to good at times, and sparse at others. The buck made a giant loop around this swamp where I shot him, weaved in and out of some standing corn before making his way across the road and heading into a giant forest preserve area. He never layed down once in over a mile of tracking him, which is pretty disturbing to say the least. I have a feeling he's not mortally wounded, or else he would've bedded down somewhere along the line, considering he wasn't being pushed at all. The only thing I can think of is that I hit him high and forward in front of the shoulder. Nothing else really makes sense to me.

So, we should be on the board with a nice 140 inch 10 pointer and I should have my 3rd P&Y whitetail at the taxidermist, but instead I'm back to square 1 again and my confidence is lacking. I've got a week from today until I plan on getting back out in the woods, so I'm hoping to reorganize my gear, shoot some arrows a couple nights after work next week, and regroup so this doesn't happen again. Without a doubt, this is the worst feeling in the world for a bowhunter.

sid828

It happens to the best of us! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Q2INWHITETAILS

Justin keep your head up I'm sure you will run into him again. stay positive.

jim1966

Wow What a Sunday morning I had. Late post I know but been busy. I got in the woods at about 5:00 am. I'm sitting in my stand waiting for the sun to come up when It looks like i see something moving under my ladder stand. I look down and try to focus a little closer and it looks like a racoon. I'm sitting there thinking I hope he don't decide to climb up into this tree I'm sitting in because I know how mean these suckers can be especially if spooked. He finally walks away.
The sun finally comes up and I look out across the field (actually it's 2 fields) and I see a nice size doe about 350 yards out. I'm watching her when about another 50 yards past her I see a nice buck along the tree line. They both stay out there for awhile when out comes a smaller buck and starts to walk along the tree line. I sit there and watch these deer for a little bit thinking that one of them would come my way. Then to the right of me at about 75 yards a doe and 2 fawns come out of the corner of the woods and instead of coming towards me they cut diagonal across the field from me. I then decide to try and call them into me. Well all they would do is stop and look in my direction. they end up walking out across the field from me and mull around eating the corn out of the cut field. In the mean time the smaller of the 2 bucks I was watching earlierwas walking over to where the doe and fawns were. About 250 yards away. Finally the doe and 2 fawmns walk around the bend away from the buck. Now I can tell it is a decient 6 pointer so I decide I'll try to call it over to me. All he does is look in my direction too.Apparently these deer don't want to come to the call just yet. (Wonder if a decoy used while calling would have brought them in.) Any way I am seeing quit a few deer and the whole time I have been hearing something behind me all morning and I look around behind me and see nothing. Ok 90% of the time it's a squirrel. So I am watching 12 deer in total by this time now. I look and it is just 7:00 am still. The 6 pointer is just walking along the tree line eating and he comes up to a couple of trees and looks like he is trying to decide to make a few scrapes or not.In all I watched the 6 pointer for 2 hours and the doe and fawns for 3 hours until they decide to go into the woods. At around 10:00 I call my buddy and we decide to go to another location and scout it out because we had just heard about this area. I start to gather up my things when I hear something out in front of me. I look up and see an 8 pointer. I luckily still had my arrow nocked. I figured oh well I'll give it a try. Then I get my bow while I'm watching this deer and I hear something move. I see it isnthim so I look aroung the tree limd and there is a different 6 pointer with this 8 pointer. Well I guess the 6 saw me and stomped the ground. They both took off across the field.I figured whet the heck I'll try calling to these 2. Well guess what. LOL. They just stopped and looked too. I am not quit sure if these 2 bucks were making the noises I had heard all morning or not. I didn't see where they came from. it was either from behind me in the woods or from the left of me around the tree line. All I know is that they didn't come from the field.
I was kind of worried because of this EHD disease that has been hitting the deer in this area pretty bad. From what I saw Sunday morning it isn't in my area. I saw 14 deer total this morning so I am alot happier now



Jim1966

Justin

Well, it was a good weekend for me even though I didn't kill a buck. The weather here in IL was HOT (80 degrees) and the big boys weren't moving until dark. I did manage to whack a doe on film, which was pretty cool. We saw a few nice bucks, but they all came out right at dark when legal shooting light ( and camera light ) was running out. I guess that's life!

We finally got some cold weather to move in and I'm ready to go now. Leaving tomorrow early AM for the Campbell Outdoor Challenge, so I'm hoping that I can put something down while I'm there. And if I do it will be on video, which is just the icing on the cake.

I'll do my best to update HNI while I"m on my trip, so keep checking back if I whack one I'll let you all know!

rookiebowhuntr_PA

Hey all,

Sorry it has been so long since I checked in, school work and work have been eating alot of my time. I have been out a few times and saw a few does. They were out of range. Hopefully with these cooler temps things will get better. Jim I had the same experience with a coon 2 weeks go. Stopped right under my tree at 7 and looked right up at me. If small game had been in I would have been dining on some racoon that day.
I will be out of town this weekend so I will not get back into the woods until 11/3, prerut/rut should be kicking . Good luck to everyone.

jamiebuck

hi guys sorry its been awile got us working 6 days aweek 12 hours aday, did mange to get out a few times only seeing a nice doe that winded me and a yote trying to sneak up on me , sorry Justin to hear about the buck i know how that feels , thats a dandy u have a picture of , good luck guys

sid828

Got some bad news. Last Saturday I smacked a 135 class heavy eight. Same story as Jim. Must have just caught one lung. Trailed spot blood for over 3/4 of a mile with a dog for over 4 hours. Did not find him till today a full week later. He had been almost completely eaten by coyotes. Made me sick!

jim1966

Well heres the story finally. I get in my stand at about 5:15 am. 6:41 was legal shooting time inIndiana. Its just starting to get light enough and I can see the outline of a deer about 50 yards away. He starts walking towards me and get 35 yards away straight towards me. I standing there hoping for him to turn broadside when whats he do? He does me a favor and turns. I was already drawn so all that was left was to let the arrow fly. So I let it fly but it's not light enough for me to see the arrow hit. He jumped the string when I shot but it sounded like it hit the shoulder blade. He turned and bolted 70 yards to the woods. (I was hunting over a cut down corn field.) He looked like he was hit but I wasn't for sure. When he hit the wood line it sounded like he might have hit a tree with the arrowsticking out of him. I din't hear him go down but it sounded like he was hitting limbs going through the woods. I waited about an hour since I wasn't sure of the hit. I got out of the stand and went down where i shot at him and I couldn't find a single drop of blood. I was thinking surly I didn't miss him. I heard a thund. then I was thinking maybe the arrow hit a cornstalk. I started walking towards where he went into the woods not finding a drop of blood anywhere. I get to the woods still no blood look inside of the woods and I see my arrow had been broken off just about half of the arrow was still in him. I took a quick look in the woods and I didn't see a deer laying down so i back out and decided to wait a little longer back in my stand. I waited another hour and called my buddy that was hunting on the other side of the property and we decidedto go ahead and look for him. We never did find a blood trail so I was getting pretty discusted with the whole situation. I was just about to give it up and I told my buddy the last thing I knew to do was to go down bye the creek bottoms and see if he might have tried to go to the water source. We got down by the creek and there he was. About 250 yards from where i shot him. He had been dead awhile because rigor had already set in. The arrow ended up being a little high and to the back. When i field dressed him the back of 1 of his lungs had been hit and the arrow was angled down from the top a little bit. All the blood was inside his chest cavity. No exit wound so therefor no blood. Except in the spot where he finally died.



Jim1966


Captain Does this look accurate to you? First time I scored 1. lol


I hope this is right...

RightLeft
MB 11 0/813 0/8
G1 2 6/8 2 4/8
G2 6 6/8 5 4/8
G36 0/8 3 0/8


H1 3 6/8 3 4/8
H2 3 4/83 0/8
H33 0/8 3 4/8
H4 2 4/8 2 4/8

Abnormal point2 0/8
IS 10 4/8



87 2/8 total for team 1 Team No Name.