Scott/IL

Well guys to sum up my archery season so far----its has been one of many close calls.

Opening day I had a 130ish 10 pointer and a 150 class 10 pointer feed directly under my stand after shooting hours. The next day the 130 class came back and fed by me without a shot. I have since seen this buck about 5 times. The last was on Friday when he came into a rattling sequence but saw the decoy and took off.

I had a really good old 10 pointer chase a doe by me and never got it stop. I have seen some really good ones chasing off in the distance over the last week.\

Every year I am allowed to take off work all weekends and 4 days during the week in November. I usually take 3 of those days to bowhunt and 1 for the opener of shotgun. Well this year that started on Friday. From Friday-Sunday I only had 2 deer in range, a button buck and 110-115 8 pointer.

I went out this morning to hunt a funnel stand that is always good for seeing some bucks. I shot my last buck from this place 2 years ago. I got settled in and at 7:30 I saw a buck chasing a doe behind me. This continued for the next 30 minutes but never came closer than 100 yards. The buck was a solid 8 pointer.

I headed to the stand this afternoon that I had been seeing the 10 pointer from. It is in a corner of a cut bean field. I had the decoy set up as a doe. I had not seen a deer and at 4:25 I grunted and bleated. Right at 4:30 I hear some leaves rustling and catch movement heading towards the field. It was the same 8 pointer from this morning and he was headed right to the decoy. I stopped him at about 15 yards and released.

All 4 legs came off the ground about a foot and he took off. Tail tucked and running like a hurt animal. My first thought was dead deer---heart shot. It was a tad low, but I still thought it was good. I thought I had seen some blood on the opposite side but was not positive. I then saw a piece of my arrow laying about 20 yards away in the field.

I had to meet my family for my dads birthday dinner at 6:30 so I just did a quick search around the field and found a few drops of blood. He still has over 2/3 an arrow in him, but I'm not positive there is an exit hole. I got done eating and decieded it was best to wait until the morning to take up the trail. Temps are in the 30's here and I have until 10:30 to look things over. I have already got the neighboring land owners permission to cross the fence to find the deer if need be.

Tonight is definantly going to be a sleepless night.....wish me luck.