First Archery Buck

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10-15-2007, 09:32 AM

Lady Bow Hunter

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Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Beaver County, PA

Posts: 154

First Archery Buck

It was Thursday afternoon (10-11-07) and I was leaving work, excited that I had a vacation day Friday making for a three day weekend and I would be able to hunt that night and the next 2 days. The temperatures had finally dropped from the high 80s, making it more enjoyable to huntwithout all the mosquitoes that I had encountered since the opening day. Here it was early October in Western Pennsylvania and my air conditioning had been running for the past week. But that was about to change, the temperature was dropping and the front was approaching. I was anxious to hunt the last few hours of the day in hopes of seeingdeer.

This year was starting out much slower thanthe last few years when I was watching numerous does and an occasional small buck under my stand on a regular basis. The legal bucks I had encountered the previous years were all too far for a shot.
The only deer activity I had experienced this year was walking to and from my stand. On the opening day of archery I had bucks fighting about 30 yards from my stand. It was the harvest moon and I could see and hear them in the moonlight as I approached my stand. A week later I crossed paths with a legal good size buck standing approx. 50 yards from my truck and 20 yards from me. We stared each other down in the sunset and then he turned and leaped from my view.

I was in my stand at 4:00 Thursday evening. Around 5:00 a light breeze kicked up and not in my favor. It was too late to move to my second stand so I decided to stay put and quietly sprayed myself with scent killer again.

Between the breeze, drizzle, squirrels and acorns falling there were plenty of noises to keep me constantly straining my eyes and ears. At 6:30 I was looking to my right and slowly turned to look to my left when I saw him. I knew instantly he was at least a 6 pt. with his high even horns. He was eating acorns about 50 yards away and walking away from me up hill. I slowly reached for my bow as he went behind a tree. OH NO,, my bow got stuck on the holder, I struggled quietly to release it while my eyes were watching for him to clear the tree. As he did I got my bow loose and made a light clicking noise in the process. He looked up and I saw his brow tines making him a legal PA buck. He stumped his foot and briefly stared in my direction once but didn't seem to recognize as me a threat. He continued eating but now turned down hill and was walking away from me. My heart started THUMPING. I was afraid he could hear it. I made my self take quiet big breaths and somehow got my heart to slow down, not an easy accomplishment[/i]. He continued walking back down the hill away from me but my then turned in my direction and downwind of me. While he was eating I drew my bow back and waited, and waited and waited thinking that I was going to be smelled and busted at any minute. He was now at my 30 yard tree and he was,,,,,,,,,,,, stopping broadside, yes stopping broadside. I aimed and squeezed, as I did he snorted and I thought he was going to duck my arrow. But he didn't, the arrow made contact in the kill zone. He turned and ran away from me. I could see my arrow and fletching sticking out of him as he ran. He cleared my view and within seconds I heard a large crashing going down the hill and then silence. I was positive he was down. I listened a while longer and heard nothing. I tried hard to visually recall every detail I could as I wanted to put marker tape where I hit him and where I had last saw him. In my excitement my heart started pounding heavily and I was shaking.
I immediately called my husband at home. It took a minute before he could calm me down enough to understand me. He assured me he was on his way but wanted me to first make sure that I had hit him and see if there was indeed a blood trail; I ASSURED HIM that I hit the buck and KNEW it was a good shot.

With it approaching dark, I carefully packed my stuff and headed to where I hit him. There was no blood anywhere. Going against my better judgment and going instead with my woman's intuition I decided to take a peek ahead of me. Figuring that the crashing noise was up about 75 yards, I slowly, slowly followed his trail, never picking up a hint of blood. After going my predetermined distance I turned around and viewed what looked like my arrow sticking straight up from the ground. Could this be him? My heart started pounded again, no, it was just a stick. I started recalling everything that happened after I struck him. Actually the crashing sound was over the hill a bit I recalled. I slowly worked my way back to my stand to meet my husband, this time walking and looking a little more down the hill. After going just a few feet, I saw something white, I slowly moved closer. Looking at my feet I finally found fresh blood and a trail with a wide skid mark. Looking below me and behind a large log I glimpsed him. Was he dead? My heart was RACING, was he dead, Could I shoot again if I had to? But the need wasn't there. Realizing he was indeed dead, I gave my typical loudest ye-haw and jumped up and down.
It was dusk and I was wondering where my husband was. I called him back and hollered,, “I GOT HIM I GOT HIM”[/b]. “What do you mean?" my husband asked. Just what I said I got him, I repeated my actions and again he reassured me that he was on his way, he hadn't left the house yet but would be leaving soon. I returned to my truck and removed a layer of cloths (my ASAT camo) wondering why my husband hadn't left the house yet. I immediately called my favorite nephew and archery mentor (PAHUNTER21) to inform him of my good news. I called 3 times and each time I received his voice mail. I was disappointed I wasn't able to give my mentor my good news but knew he would figure out what was going on after viewing his missed calls from me and listening to my messages begging him to call me back.

When my husband finally arrived we walked to my prize buck and he said “why didn't you tell me he's so big? There's no way the two of us are getting this buck out of here, he has to be 200 lbs." I recalled telling him it was a big deer but I don't think he understood me in my ramblings. We recruited a few loyal friends and with their help by 10:00 we had my first archery buck home. After weighing him at 160 lbs we figured he was close to 200 lbs. as my husband had guessed. I performed what I call a "triple by-pass special" on him, I hit both lungs and his heart.

At this time I have the biggest and only buck on the buck poll. I won this same contest a few years ago with a very respectable rifle killed 9pt. I don't care if I win anything or not with this buck. I am so appreciative of just getting my first archery buck and being lucky enough to have a clean shot and everything falling into place making for a perfect hunt. That's winning!!!!

BTW I later found out that my husband was late because HE was calling everyone to inform them of my good news. I think he was more excited than I was/am.