Don't Come To Ohio....


Tominator

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 118
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

HOLY SMOKE!! :eek: What a hawg!!! Congratulations!!:cool::cool::cool:

Please, please, please! tell the story!!!!:D

Yeah, it's coming. :D

Sorry, really busy at work. I'll try and get it typed up at lunch. Shot him around 7 last night, it was warm so I got him to the processor as soon as I could. He field dressed at #220 on the butcher's scale. :eek::cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, the story.

The story should actually start with what I saw in the morning. My wife had a diabetes problem in the morning, so she got up at 5:30 to take a shot of insulin. She came back at 7:30 and woke me up and asked me if I wanted to go to breakfast, so I got up and do what I always do, take a peak out back in my field. After not seeing any deer in my field for close to 2 months, wouldn't you know, there were 3 deer in my old sweet corn plots munching away. :rolleyes: As we left for breakfast, I walked out back to see if they were still there, and they were, and all 3 of them were bounding away. I made a mental note that they may be back later and I'll hunt my ladder stand if we get home early enough after my son's football game.

Well, the day came and went, my son won his game and we headed home around 6:15. When we pulled in the drive I noted the time was 6:37. I told my wife "I'm just going to go out back and sit for an hour." So I got dressed and took off. I got settled in my stand what I'm guessing was around 6:45 because I forgot my phone. The first 10 minutes were uneventful except watching about 20 doves fly into roost in my pines. About 5 minutes after that, I heard something moving in the corn behind me. Sometimes the birds make the same sound when they land on the dry corn stalks, but this sound was a bit different. The sounds were deliberate and in a cadence. "Crunch.....crunch......crunch..." You could also hear as if something was sifting through, you know that sound that corn stalks make as you walk through them. I figured "cool, here come the does back..." so I stood up and was looking kind of over my left shoulder when all of a sudden I heard the "thump thump thump" of something heavy landing, here it was my buck. I thought, "Holy mackarel (well, since this is a family forum, I'll use the word mackarel), it's that big 8!" Some of you will remember an earlier thread I posted about a big 8 and a huge 10 in my field back in August, the ones I belly crawled on and got pictures of. Sure enough, I'm 99% sure this was the same deer, only he was a 9 and not an 8.

Anyway, the deer jumped the fence on my left and turned right and started walking towards me. :cool: At 40 yards he turned and made like he was going to hop back into the corn. The release was on by this time and I had thoughts of taking the long shot, especially when the deer put his head down and put his left leg forward offering a perfect broadside shot at the heart, but I decided to wait to see what he was going to do since he was headed my way anyway.

So on he came, now he was at 20 yards and he turned again. This time he was headed right for a shooting lane I had made. I couldn't believe it, this was way too good to be true. He walked into the lane. His head and neck were fully in the lane, he looked away and I drew. I kept praying for one more step, but then I noticed a very slim hole between 1 goldenrod stalk right on his shoulder and his heart. I settled the pin on the gap and let it fly....

At the shot the buck wheeled, hopped out into the field to my upper left and stood there. I kept hoping for the teeter and drop, but it didn't come. He just stood there. It was at that moment I knew I clean missed him. This deer just stood there looking back at the base of my tree and shooting lane where he just came from. I pulled another arrow out, and unfortunately the Rage 2 blade deployed, so I reached out, got the blades back in the O-ring and knocked it. I noticed then that the arrow didn't exactly "click" on the string like they're supposed to. :mad: So now I'm cursing myself a little, but fortunately the deer was still standing there, and actually walking towards my field. About a minute later and now he was in my field right near a mowed path. I had another clear shot at his shoulder, this time I had to thread the arrow through 2 maple tree branches that were in front of me. That was both a blessing and a curse. I was still upset about having my first arrow deflected, so I was really hoping the 2nd arrow would find its mark. It was a blessing because the upper branch masked my movement when I went to full draw. The buck was just standing there looking into my field when I let the next arrow go.

To be honest, it was auto pilot when I released. I was in my follow through when I think I saw the mule kick, then the buck tucked his tail, wheeled and ran back from where he came. About 30 yards into the run I could see his legs starting to give out, at 50 yards he was doing the "bulldozer" run, I lost sight of him as he was right near my neighbor's fence. I didn't see him jump the fence, but with his tail tucked like it was, maybe I just missed it.

I sat down, got settled down, packed my bag and got down out of my stand. I scurried out of there and up to the house and called my good buddy Tom (Ohiobucks). Tom's wife answered and asked me how I was and I said "nervous." :D Tom got on the phone and before I could ask him over for help he said "I'm on my way!!!" :D :D :D:cool: :cool: :cool:

What seemed like an eternity was more like about 1/2 hour probably. I asked my oldest son if he wanted to help, he jumped up and was ready to go, and so were his little brothers. :D I gave them some instructions on being quiet and we were off. On the way out my other hunting buddy called me, I related the story to him but quickly hung up as I got close to my stand. We got to the spot where I missed with the first arrow and couldn't find the arrow. So we looked for the second arrow and couldn't find it either. So now I was getting a little worried. I was really worried that maybe I hit another little branch on the 2nd shot as all the stuff in the field was pretty high. Because it was dark, I really couldn't swear to where I thought I shot the deer. I got back up into my stand and shined the light to where I thought I shot the deer and Tom took a look to no avail. I got back down on the ground and started walking towards where I knew the buck ran. About 20 yards into the trail I found blood. Ten more yards and I found the back half of the arrow, so I continued walking towards my neighbor's fenceline. I didn't see any blood, but I wanted to get to the fenceline to see if there was any evidence there. Twenty more yards and I shined my light on the fence, and there he was :D. He didn't get to the fence, he was piled up about 5 yards short of it. Turns out the Rage went through the right shoulder blade, through the heart and got lodged in the off side rib cage. I imagine that deer was dead within seconds. I have a pic of the heart if anyone wants to see it, PM me. If I get a chance, I'll post it later.

Thanks for reading. That was the best 15 minute hunt I've ever had in my life. :D

More pics:

2008buck_003.jpg

2008buck_005.jpg

Icing on the cake was having my boys on the blood trail with Tom and I. I wish you could have heard them. Believe it or not, they were talking about the steaks forthcoming, not the antlers that will be on the wall later on. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.