Well fellas, I went out this morning for some stalk hunting with the recurve & scored us one more buck. Though he doesn't have a huge rack, he does have antlers & he's a real trophy to me.
The temp when I hit the woods at 8am was 0 degrees & the wind chill was -11. The snow was deep & the tracks were everywhere. I picked a set of buck tracks that looked fresh & began following them. I soon found fresh scat on the trail & knew I had picked a winner. I slowed my approach down to a crawl & kept the movement to a minimal. A few minutes later I saw this buck bedded against a big deadfall chewing his cud with his back to me. I got low & crept up on him within 10 or 15 yards & then realized I had no good shot on him at all. After a second or two I went to full draw & went 'BAAA'. He jumped to his feet startled & when he did I jumped higher than he did & let my arrow fly out of pure excitement. My Montec hit him just behind his left shoulder quartering to me & ended up sticking out of him just behind his rear right haunch. Not a good shot, it was a terrible shot in fact & I felt horrible as he ran off staggering down the hill towards the creek. I literally sat down right there & began to pray & thought that I had ruined a great opportunity & was completely disgusted with myself. After about 20 minutes sitting there I started after him to see if I might have made a lethal shot. Low & behold I found him at the bottom of the draw piled up in his own blood dead. I was so relieved to find him, knowing that I wasn't leaving one of Gods creations to suffer in the cold. Again, he's not a huge buck but he is a great deer to add to my list of awesome hunting experiences.
