I got back yesterday from Wayne County. Hunted Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Saw a lot of deer from my stand. Biggest on stand was a wide as his ears 8 pointer at 90 yards Saturday night. The biggest buck the 5 of us saw was a 130 class buck .. wide and real heavy.. under an apple tree at 6:00, 10 yards off the road.. on Sunday of course! Saw 5 bears in 3 hunting days, a bobcat and 8 different bucks.
Tuesday night as everyone should recall was a nasty night .. the wind was real bad.. and rain was predicted heavy that night. At 5:30.. while hanging on for dear life in my treestand had a nice 6 pointer start to work his way in from a swamp.. I was set up on a group of 3 wild apple trees(they were hitting the fruit trees hard) he came in broadside at 20 yards and as he passed some brush I came to full draw. The wind was real bad and my tree was rocking hard... so I really concentrated on that pin and picking my spot.. and slowly squeezed the trigger on my release .. as the arrow was releasing a burst of wind hit me pretty hard and I felt my pin sliding backward on the deer .. and WHAM .. I watched my arrow pass through about 3" ' s back behind the ribs. The deer was hit hard .. but to far back.. I watched him for 30 minutes .. he only went 50 yards and bedded down. I snuck out at 6:00 and it started to rain .. hard. I figured the safest bet was to leave him till morning because if I bumped him on Tuesday night with the weather that bad, I' d never find him. I was there at first light and snuck into where he bedded the night before and he wasn' t there... uh-oh I thought. I started small circles and found him... or should I say what was left of him 50 yards away. The coyotes had found him in that miserable weather .. and eaten both rear quarters and the backstraps down to the bone. I was amazed they had found him in those conditions. Well I slapped my tag on him as I wouldn' t feel comfortable shooting another buck knowing I killed this one already and headed home with the horns.. I took some photos of the carcass in case a WCO questioned me on only having the rack. All in all it was a great trip .. I' m sure Ma Nature enjoyed the venison.. and I' ll look at thoise horns and always think about trying to shoot in bad conditions.
Here is a pic of my buck ... not my biggest by far but a legal buck and only getting a few hunting days a year in PA I thought he was a beauty.
