buckmaster70

Well once again the Lord has blessed me more than i ever deserve. I normally take three weeks of November off to hunt the rut but due to work obligations i only had a week and it had to be the week earlier than i had planned well i can't complain.
Started off Halloween day i had driven 3 hours the night before to get to the spot arrived about 11 pm, decided to sleep in and go into the trip rested as opposed to stomping around in the dark trying to put up a stand. Well me and my son scouted the following morning and found two areas that looked pretty good, 1 was overlooking a scrap and the other was where i had seen a 150's 8pt the year before. That evening i ask my son which stand he'd like to hunt, i had in mind the stand i wanted him to hunt but seems like everytime i try putting him in the stand i think he can kill deer out of i end up seeing the deer and he gets the raw end. Well he chose the stand overlooking the scrap and i was hoping he'd chose the other but i didn't want him second guessing himself. Well the evening was pretty uneventful until about 15 minutes before dark, i herd a deer walking but i couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from. I listened and listened and finally determined it was behind me, i slowly turned my head totally expecting to see a doe and i was surprised to see a really nice buck, i knew he was a shooter right away and my heart started pounding. He was already 25 yards and heading right to the tree, he stopped put his nose up and checked the air, thought i was busted but he put his head down and started walking, i was ready and waiting, i hear him walking but don't see him, i turn slightly and he's walking the trail behind me instead of in front of me. I slowly get turned, he's now 20 yards and slightly quartering away, i draw and get the pin on him, i'm just fixing to mouth grunt to stop him when he stops and starts chewing on branch, put the pin behing the shoulder and touch the release, WHACK, sounds like i shot a piece of plywood, he tears outta there crashing through the swamp, i watch him for prob. 100 yards and all goes quite. I'm really concerned about the shot, seemed a touch far back but after i thought about it i must have hit the off shoulder. I called my boy and told him i'd shot a nice 1. His response was i thought so, he had heard him crashing and splashing and than all went silent, he was hunting about 200 yards from me. I wait 30 minutes till after dark and head to the truck. I was gonna wait for a couple hours but my son and buddy convinced me i had hit the off shoulder (based on what i had told them) we went back after and hour. We started looking but found no blood (hard to find blood in the swamp) we looked the way he ran for maybe 20 minutes i told the guys we'd wait till morning, it was a needle in a haystack in the dark in the swamp. My son said dad i know he's dead i heard him crashing and splashing and then all was silent. I ask if he remembered where he last heard him. He said oh yea. We decided we'd take a quick look than back out. We walked to my sons stand and he pointed into the swamp with the flashlight and said last i heard he was between those two trees, we walked 75 yards and my buddy said hey Bob i've got blood over here, first thing through my mind was how in the world did you find blood in this swamp, i walked over and he shined his light on the deer and said does that look like blood, oh man i was excited. Hugs all around i thanked them both for all their help and being a part of it, thanked the Lord and the rest is history. Ended up hitting him 4 inches behind the shoulder took out the bottom of the heart and stuck in the off shoulder, he ran about 125-150 yards. I laid a tape on him last night, he's a 12 pointer and grosses 148 6/8.


Well the story doesn't end there, i continued to hunt all week, brought my son home after Sunday evenings hunt (he's first year college he had classes all week) got home slept 2 hours and headed out again about 1 am, wanted to be there for the morning hunt. Well the week was warmer than normal and deer movement in the morning was very slow, the evenings were better but still fairly slow, me and my buddy did see two more shooters but no shots. He left on Thursday he had obligations at home. Friday mornings hunt was very slow, i decided i needed to do a little scouting, i ended up finding about 5 or 6 fresh scrapes that were pretty darn big. Moved a stand and got ready for Friday evenings hunt. Got in early and waited, temps were mid 60's and i wasn't expecing much, but about 4:30 does started coming out, ended up having 8 or 9 does under the stand. Never saw a buck and ended up getting trapped in the tree by the does till well after dark, they were under me for over 45 minutes. Was sure a buck would come in at some point but no luck. The next day Saturday would be my last day, had church on Sunday morning and was missing my very generous and loving wife (she puts up with my hunting more than she should). Saturday morning the alarm went off at 4:30, would have been very easy to go back to sleep after hunting hard all week but it was my last morning and figured it may be my last chance to hunt the rut. I headed to the stand at 5 and it was the warmest morning yet. i was set up and ready to go by 5:20. Started off slow but about 6:30 a small basket rack 6 pointer walked right under the stand, i was encouraged it was the first buck i'd seen in 2 or 3 days. A few minutes later a button buck walked by and i was starting to think maybe i'd get lucky yet. The area all the deer were coming from was so thick it was hard to see the deer coming no matter how hard i looked and the scrape had several hickorys around it that still had all their green leaves on it so you could barely see it even though it was only about 12 yards away. I was straining my eyes looking in the thicked when i caught movement at the scrap (basically straight down at 12 yards) all i could see was a piece of the rack but it was enough for me to know he was a deer i wanted to take (i had seen him at dark on Tuesday) as he walked away from the scrap he was walking fairly quickly and i didn't have many shooting lanes he was going to go thru my shooting lane pretty quick so i drew put the pin on and mouth grunted but he didn't stop, i touched off the release just as he started to enter the thick stuff quartering away, i was sick i hit him to far back. I was sure i'd gut shot him i watch him run a little ways and lost sight of him. I was watching and listening but it was so thick i couldn't see a thing. 15 minutes or so passed and i see him walking thru and opening about 75 yards out. i watched him go into some thick horse weeds and here some brush breaking. this went on for 45 minutes or so, i had a vision that he was standing and bedding, standing and bedding trying to get comfortable. I finally got down about and hour later snuck over and checked the arrow. I was pleasantly surprised there was no gut smell, no grease so sign of a gut shot. From the looks of the blood i thought i'd got the liver. i made a big loop to get out of there and not spook him. Figured i give him at least 6 hours for a liver and than take up the trail. Well went back about 2 (7 hours later) tracked him and found him in about 20 minutes he was stiff as a board right where i'd heard him last. He is probably the coolest deer i've killed, he's only 7 points but i'm really excited about him He's 5 1/2 years old. He grossed right at 125 inches. Not bad for basically a 6 point. Center punched the liver. Thank God he didn't go far. He may have traveled 150 yards total.