What a long 2 days it's been. I finished up all the butchering, had tenderloins for super last night, went back out to the hunting grounds to get my trail markers and some of my gear from the tree stand that I had left behind. I figured I might as well sit in a stand for the last 2 hours of day light. I think i was snoring in my tree stand in like 15 minutes. lol
I got about 5 pics on my sell phone, they aren't very good, and I don't have a patch cord to transfer it to the puter. It certainly won't make B&C. He has 8 points, 1 brow tine is just 1" long, the other is almost 2", inside spread of about 14 inches. He was only 2 1/2 years old. The cool thing is he came from dirrectly down wind, right up the same path I walked in on. He had no idea I had just been there.


titleAndStar(160,0,false,false,"","")Fork Horn


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Posts: 160
Joined: 5/20/2006
From: Castile N.Y.
Status: offline 41 years old and bumming gas money?? This is fishy
Yea, I've had 4 surgeries in the past 3 years,all with out insurance, am unemployed, have been for just over a year. I am truely hunting to eat. I might be elligable for SSI but refuse to take the hand out. I'm currently working with DVR to get training or education to learn a new trade. It takes time and we're having a difficult time making our house payments and paying our bills. This has been the toughest year financially I've ever had. We needed the meat badly. Going to need more meat.
Fishy? I hope you never have to face what I've gone through, it's difinitly a humbling experience. When I got home with the buck, my son who is 23 and has downs syndrom couldn't wait to eat some venison. We're so sick of hamburger here that last nights meal was like thanks giving and Xmas put together.

Of all the posts here, this one was the best.

No one is pefect here! A big reason why you hit that deer as high as you did was because the shot was to far out! A 36 yard shot gives that deer or any animal alot of time to either jump the string or move before that arrow gets to that animal! Everyone or alot of people thinkthey can take these long shots with these new compounds, this is getting rediculous, these are not guns were shooting, there still a bow and arrow!I blame alot of the archery shops for all this. I've been at a few shops where people young or old are there to purchase a new bow and the guy working there tells them this bow is quick enough or fast enough to take 40 yard shots at animals! This makes me sick! That is not something a person should be telling anyone who is buying a bow or is just getting into bow hunting for the first time. 9 times out of 10 these guys are going to take the advise of these so called proffesionals!

Steve, you are right on the money. This deer was actually standing at about 30 yards, wasn't even looking in my dirrection. I told myself it was at 25 yards. My mistake. At 30 yards, eating and looking away, there is no doubt in my mind that he herd the arrow coming. I'm shooting at 270 fps. If he had moved in another dirrection, I might not have even hit him at all, or worse, just wounded him.

Now for the 50 yard desperation shot. Bash away. I have no excuse. That shot put recovery at risk. Spooked him good, otherwise he might have just layed down with in my sight. Tracking after 2 hours, I kept getting the feeling that I was tracking too soon. I tracked as quietly as I could, and when the blood trail went into the thick stuff where it's impossible to track quietly, I backed out. The buck was only 25 yards away from where I stopped. I'm darn lucky that I didn't push him further. Another 50 yards and he's at the neighbors property. When I found him he wasn't even stiff yet. Certainly was still alive when I backed out.

I want to thank the guys here who stuck with me, the pms I got in support were appreciated. THANK YOU. You know who you are. I figured to get bashed for the 50 yard 2nd shot, and then when I wrote "I was aiming for....instead of what I ment to write "wasN'T aiming for....
I read the responses and they didn't make sense, until I reread my original post. What a difference a couple letters make.
What I'd like to know but will never find out is all of you who were bashing the spine shot, (and no, I wouldn't choose a spine shot over a vitals shot ever) all of you who bashed the 50 yard shot, anyone who wrote here or any other post bashing a bad shot or poor choice in a shot, how can you bash others? Have you never made a bad shot? Have you never made a bad choice in shot placement? Have you ever miss judged a distance or angle? Ever had a deer you didn't recover?
If you say no, I have a hard time believing you. I've had several shots that I've been bashed for. My last buck was shot in the skull, temple to temple and into the spine. I was bashed even worse for that shot and yet that buck didn't go 3 feet. I'd make that shot again if it presented itself exactly the same way and I'd eat that one too. (chances are slim to none, the angle, deer position and range made it nearly impossible to miss. Head, spine, vitals were all lined up at a very close range.)This is my 7th season and I have yet to shoot a deer that I didn't kill. 2 deer I killed I didn't recover before they had spoiled and eaten by coyotes, 1 deer, my biggest buck ever gun or bow, made it to the nieghbors, they recovered it, didn't tag it and the DNR took it from them when I called them. One other doe, I missed completely by hitting my stand, I grabbed another arrow and let her air out. I've put 24 deer in the freezer over the last 7 years with my bow, 21 of which were 1 shot kills. Bash me all you want but if you've ever not recovered a deer you've shot, you're no better than me. If you've wounded a deer that didn't die, I'm one up on you.I'd never bash another hunter for making a mistake, and I respect those who admit there mistakes and try to improve. For those of you that are perfect, never made a mistake, you're day is coming, you just haven't hunted enough yet. When you do, I hope you're as hard on yourself as you are judging others. I took pics with my cell phone in the dark hoping I could post a few pics here but I personally don't care if anyone believes me or not. The meal last night was awsome, the look on my sons face was priceless and all the reward I needed. I've never been big on taking pictures of dead animals. They're like pics of your baby, no one cares, they're just polite and say cute baby no matter how ugly it is. I didn't even get pics of my biggest buck (with gun) because like this one, it was real warm out and needed to be handled right away. To me it is an inpressive buck, to anyone else, it's just another dead buck. I don't have any antlers mounted, they get tossed into my garage for the mice to chew on, the only trophy I'm interested in is meat in the freezer. A big rack to me means I ate a lot of tough meat or spent a small fortune having sausage made. I'm sorry but spending $30 on a patch cord (My wife just informed me the price of the cord)to post a few pics isn't in the budget. I borrowed $50 for gas to go back to recover the deer and the rest I spent on freezer paper, tape and salt. It's tough to hunt on a shoestring budget but I'm not complaining, at least I don't have to get my venison from the food pantry for awhile. Things get any worse here financially, we're going to need the food pantry and the homeless center. 4 years ago I was donating to the food pantry, how quickly things can change. If I'm not online in the near future, it's because the bill didn't get paid. The TV is already off, and the cell phones are not far behind and I've sold about everything I can including my .44 mag, my shot gun slug barrel, hunting trailer, even sold my pet African gray parrot. The only good news I've had is I have 3 african gray babies in the nest box that are about 2 weeks old and worth $400 each right now and if we hand feed every 4 hours for the next 12-14 weeks they'll be worth $900 each when weaned. We need the money so bad that we'd sell all 3 right now for $1000 just to get our bills cought up. Starting the hand feeding soon will mean I'm stuck hunting close by on public land that's totally over hunted, not to mention won't help pay this months bills. ANYONE interested in buying unweaned African gray parrot babies please feel free to contact me. They got to go. They can't be shipped though, have to pic them up in person.