Well it was a pretty trying year in Kansas. First was a little property boundary issue. The neighboring property has a hunting lease and the hunter was about 100 yards from the boundary line. I hung my stand in the same tree as last season. The first afternoon brought in 10 deer of which 2 were bucks and 1 was a shooter but his left main beam was broken off about 4" from his head. The next morning I was in my tree and set to hunt about 45 minutes before legal shooting light. But when you have a 9800 acre lease for the week and you actually can see another hunter walk in late and loud it tends to put a sour note on the hunting! To make things as smooth as possible I walked out with my stand on my back after the first morning hunt.
The next two days brought more frustration as i couldn't find a place as good as I had. I finally decided after a few hunts that I would set up a "brand new" ground blind in a neighboring strip of woods to where i was the first morning but plenty far enough from any other hunter. Did I emphasize "brand new" enough, meaning new to me and never hunted from it before?
Well Wednesday morning brought my first shooter in range, a decent 8 pointer @ 16 yards in fact. I let go of a nice smooth shot and to my horror I heard a strange strange noise!!!! I missed the deer completely? OMG who misses a deer completely @16 yards? Did my bow fail me? did I hit a piece of clothing or something. It almost sounded like my bow made a hiss or ripping sound. The deer ran 10 yards and look around for the weird goings on. I grunted at him but no go. He had no blood or wounded look to him. 2 minutes later I retrieved my arrow and nothing---no blood at all. When I got back to my blind and sat back down about as shocked and confused as ever I saw the problem. The arrow had clipped the blind thru the velcro area. I had checked that the arrow would clear but after seeing a deer jump from the creek on my right I adjusted my seat just a bit to compensate but never rechecked the flight of a front shot. I should have my head checked for buying a blind and hunting from it the first time I ever sit in it. The good part is that I clean missed a beautiful deer. There would be nothing worse than wounding him with a gut shot or similar.
About an hour later I was surrounded by 9 does and i knew that 9 ladies would surely draw in a fella. It did and this buck walked in at 21 yards to try to be a playa. Bad move, as I was still steaming at myself for a dumb mistake and I was looking to end that embarrassment asap. Plus a big heavy rain was coming in on Thursday and was going to linger into Friday and I was to be on a plane Saturday morning.
Well, i would like to think i made the best of a rough week and it was certainly better than being at work. This deer, like many others I saw has broken tines. Both brow tines are broken off. score to follow
(PS this is my first buck with archery equipment I only picked up a bow a few years ago)
right-----left
mb--- 16 2/8-----16
g1 ---0------------0
g2---6 2/8--------6
g3---6------------6 2/8
h1---3 3/8--------3 3/8
h2---2 7/8--------3
h3---3------------3
h4---2 3/8--------2 2/8
inside spread 14 4/8
total: 94 2/8
i'll post this on the official score thread too
