Well, it's been a very long night, but well worth it. It's me who was fortunate enough to take a good buck today and also fortunte enough to have Dave come and help me drag it out. Here comes the story and pics if I can get them posted.
My plan was an all day hunt with a stand switch at some point as the winds were due to change in the afternoon. I got to my morning set well before light and had a big bodied deer come in right at 0600. Could see the body well enough to know it had some size, but could not see the head well enough to tell if there was any bone or not. Obviously not enough light to shoot so it got a pass. About 0700 a fairly good 6 point came in, but also got a pass. 1030ish brought an end to my morning sit and I went out to the truck to meet my new friend Dave (SouthernMDArchers). After catching up with him for awhile and having some lunch I went home to switch out a batch of jerkey from my last deer
. I got to my stand at about 2 PM and got settled in. At about 2:20 I spotted a nice buck...off to my right at what I thought was 75 yards or so. He was crossing right to left and going deeper into the woods all the while. I lost sight of him when he went behind a deadfall and a bunch of thick junk. Figuring that I had nothing to lose I hit the rattle bag and gave about half a dozen long grunts to see what would happen. Sure enough...this guy came in on a string...I mean he was looking to see where in the heck this fight was taking place in his neck of the woods. He came in hard and fast and where do you think he stopped but DIRECTLY below my stand. NO SHOT. He stood there for at least 5 minutes, although it seemed much longer and all the while he was looking around trying to figure out where thisfight was taking place. He finally took a few steps away and I had to make the shot. If he kept going he would have been in very heavy briar and I would not have had a chance. It was a very hard angle, but I felt the shot would be a good one. It ended up a little further back than I would have liked. He bounded off about 10 yards and just stood there. I could see where the arrow went in and knew it was liver. After a bit he walked a few steps until I stopped him with a grunt. A few more steps, another grunt. I could tell he was hurting and I was just trying to keep him as close to me as I could. Each time he walked, I grunted and it worked. Finally he stood still for a couple of minutes before stumbling and falling. He got up, walked about 20 yards and bedded down. I could still see him from my tree and at this point it was about 2:35 so I decided to just sit still and wait him out. I texted Dave and let him know and he said he'd be down to help when the time came. My intent was to wait at least until dark, but being able to keep an eye on him with binosit was obvious to me at about 4:00 that he was dead. I climbed down, got my arrow and backed out to meet dave. The arrow had heavy blood, but also some brisquit fat and white hair which told me that the entry was high and the exit low. IF I had not been able to watch this deer bed down and not move for 1.5 hours...I would have waited until tomorrow to go after it. At any rate, we felt comfortable that it was dead so we walked in and easily found it. Dave was a great help getting it out of the woods and into my truck. Friends came over during the skinning process and they have just left so this is my first chance to post this. I'll send this and then try to upload the picture with it.
Cheers,
Craig.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o310/craigbuist/DSC01411.jpg