Re: DEER HUNTERS !!! Got buck fever yet? Maybe we should post pics ?
I?m a little mad at me for doing a greenhorn thing. But, such is life sometimes.
At 0925 I was ready to get down from the stand and relieve myself. I?d been sitting up there for 3 hours and drinking coffee, so I really wanted to leave. But, it was a really nice morning and just ?felt? right to me, so I grunted on my Bone Collector call and rattled a little.
Five minutes later a doe came through from my left to my right?moving quickly, like she was being dogged. I struggled to move slowly and quickly at the same time, but finally grabbed my digicam as the doe was moving out of the field in front of me and into the woods to my right, just 30 yards away. She?d come in from 140 yards out and cut diagonally across the field. I did get some footage of her, but the file size is 95 MB, so I won?t post that until I get the file smaller.
After I got the doe on video, I slowly/quickly put the camera away and started looking for a trailing buck. Sure enough, about a minute later I saw a flash as a deer crossed the access road about 150 yards away and to my left. He was hot on the doe?s trail.
I put the crosshairs on him to make sure he was legal and he was a bruiser by local standards. His rack was easily a foot above his ears, but I didn?t count points. My scope was on 3x. At this point I was watching him through the scope and waiting until I knew he was in range. He followed the doe?s trail and when he got to about 120 yards he paused, sniffing. I?d hung an attractor 50 yards to his left and 20 yards closer in, but the wind was from that direction. I wasn?t sure if he?d move again, so I slowly squeezed off a shot.
The buck jumped and ran in a semi-circle toward me and actually moved closer by about 10 or so yards. Now he was standing mostly broadside to me, so I put the crosshairs on his boiler room and squeezed. He did the double back-leg mule kick thing and moved back uphill away from me. I fired again as he was moving and he stumbled a little but kept moving. By now he was 125 ? 130 yards away and I fired one more time. He stumbled again and his left front leg appeared out of action. By now he?d gone behind some bushes, crested the hill and was out of my sightline, probably 150 yards away. I sat back and shook a little. It was exhilarating to say the least.
I knew I needed to just sit for at least ? hour, but my bladder wouldn?t wait. I did tough it out 3 more minutes, then got down out of the tree stand and moved 70 yards off to my left to take care of business.
After that, I decided to take my extraneous gear back to the truck and pick up my deer drag harness and tarp. I walked up the access road, which was about 70 yards to the left of where the buck went out of sight.
Offloaded my extra stuff, got my other gear and went back to my stand. Figured out the direction that the buck last went and started walking that direction. It had been ? hour since I?d shot the deer.
I searched for some 40 minutes and realized after not finding the buck right away that I needed help. So, I went back to the Jeep and drove over to the checkout station. Yes, there was a hunter there who owned a tracking dog and he agreed to help. His nickname is Gator and I had to drive him to his house to get his beagle, then we went back to my deer stand. Along the way, we picked up 2 other hunters who wanted to help. So now there were 4 of us, plus a dog.
As we walked from the area where I shot the deer, one of the other hunters, Jim, found some blood. A good sign! And Roxy, the dog seemed to be on trail. She and Gator moved through the rough field and in the direction of the swamp. I tagged along well to the rear of that pair, while Jim and Bill, the other hunter, followed the blood trail.
About the time Gator reached the edge of the swamp, Jim found a large spot of blood, nearly the size of a dinner plate. See photo below. I was starting to feel pretty good about the situation. Shortly thereafter, Gator hollered over that he?d found blood going into the swamp. The dog was leading him inside and I followed, as did Jim.
While walking, Jim was telling me that based on the size of the hoof prints, that the buck was easily the largest they?d seen in the WMA. And Gator said that he?d seen that deer himself, some 80 yards away during archery season and that it was a big one. Damn.
We went all the way through the swamp and up to the main road, but found nothing. The four of us searched for nearly 2 hours. By now, Gator?s little old fat beagle was done in, so we headed back to the trucks. Jim mentioned that he also had a 2 y.o. dog that had been very successful tracking last year on a doe that he shot. Jim did volunteer to go get his dog and come back and try again while I was dropping Gator?s dog at his place. However, he made no guarantees about success in finding my deer.
So, Jim and I met at the parking area and went in with his dog. We found the big pool of blood and he put the dog on the trail. The pup took off, headed toward the swamp with his nose to the ground and in a hurry. We followed along, trying to keep up. The dog went all the way through the swamp and to the big clearing on the other side where another hunter?s truck was parked. The dog seemed to have lost the scent, so we decided not to interfere with the other hunter (or risk being mistaken for deer) and headed back through the swamp. We searched for another hour and Jim?s brother Tim joined us. We looked for another ? hour to 45 minutes and I finally called it a day. We had been searching for the deer for 5 hours, all told.
When all was said and done, 5 men and 2 dogs were unable to find the deer in the swamp.
I later realized that I should probably have waited until the buck followed the doe?s trail and gotten much closer, but once he paused, I didn?t hesitate. There was no guarantee that he would continue moving toward me. When it?s time to shoot, shoot! Don?t wait.
So, I?m very sad tonight. This would have been my very first buck.
Tomorrow afternoon I?ll go out there and look for the buzzards. Maybe I?ll at least be able to get the rack if I?m very lucky.
