The Whole Lucky Story!!

[brendonp]

12/18/10. This all started when December began I realized I was going to have about 5 days to go back home to Kansas and hunt. So my dad and I through phone communications came up with a plan and put corn in a feeder and trail cam to observe. Left Lubbock at 4:00am and was in the treestand for the first evening by 3:00pm. Had numerous deer come in and walk by, took a shot at a flat racked short tined 11pt, MISSED!! I ranged the whole area as soon as I sat I guessed him at 26yds (he was with the range finder after the shot), but I forgot to dial it down for being 10ft up in the air. As he runs off my heart sinks, I think that was my chance perfect set up and I blew it. My dad walked the south end of our property to spook deer into moving to the north towards me. He spooks a group of 14 with what he says is a GREAT deer (not a term we use loosely). He says it was a 12pt with 20-22” spread, great mass and a big body. When they spook he sits down and the deer calmly walk to the north, the buck passes no more then 20yds away from him. He thinks the group has passed and starts walking to the south again, a doe is no more than 30yds further north when he steps out. She blows and goes and all the other deer jump up (they were bedded down at 4:50pm) and head off to the east. That night I sit down with the media card from the trail cam, it took appx. 200 photos of deer from 12/2 through 12/16. I see a nice 8pt buck and tell myself if he walks in he is a shooter. 12/19/2010. Next morning my cell phone alarm never went off, I set it for 5:00am. I woke up 20min late and had to rush to shower and get out the door to make it to the treestand. As I drove to the location the sun was beating on its rise and I was pissed. This is one of those spots were being early and sitting quit in complete darkness is necessary to see deer, not today. I got in to spot without using a headlamp it was about 30min before legal hour of shooting. I got ready as quickly and quietly as possible, I was expecting not to see anything and have to wait until the evening for another chance at a buck. Here is the break down sitting in finger off trees creak 50yds to the west, sandhill pastures to the east, and more trees along the creek to my south; I am sitting facing north. There is no wind, frost and fog are present.To the north of me I hear noise; in walk two young does about 10min before I can shoot. They mill around the feeder and pick up loose corn. As I sit watching they keep looking off into the trees to my east. In walks a small tined, narrow racked 11pt (I estimate 2yr old). All three are no more than 15yds from me and I am just trying to sit still and use the “live decoys” to draw in more deer, IT WORKS!! 20min of them walking around the area directly to my east in walks the buck I missed and a nice 8pt. I look long and hard at the 11pt, and the 8pt. I realize the 8pt is the one I said I would take so after all other deer leave he remains, gives me a shot at 20.5yds, WACK!! Damn, bad shot back, he falls over immediately, I grab another arrow nock it, he is out of range running!! Now I am really pissed I still see the arrow in him but there is something weird about his running. I call my dad and tell him I am going to need him to help track, it’s a far back shot I’ll check for blood in 45min. I get down and there is great blood bright, bright red and I can see blood 20yds to where he makes his first turn. I wait 2hrs for dad to get done with the farm chores for the day, and we talk it out and start tracking. I told dad I think I hit the leg in his femur and he is limping badly. We track and track in 5ft tall CPR grass, we don’t pasture this little chunk of hunting. The deer goes for 70yds and changes directions; this is how it goes for the 700yds he traveled. Sometimes we find great blood and can track easily, but when the grass get short or he goes under trees we are on our hands and knees looking for blood the size of a regular tip sharpie. I am so frustrated because I made a bad shot, and now I might lose this deer. We break after 2 hours of tracking to give the deer sometime because we are starting to find wet blood, we wait for an hour and start out crawling on the ground looking for blood. About 50yds south of our one windmill on the property we find good pools of blood where the buck stood for a long time and bleed. From this small group of trees he veers of to the right into a thicket of Russian olive trees. We lose all blood, now we are tracking his drag marks from the back leg, and just finding tiny pin size spots of blood. We spend an hour tracking him through this thicket that is no more than 20yds in radius, I work the entire outside edge and cant find blood for 20 yds from the edge of the trees. We finally find some blood, and decide we need to wait again, another hour goes by and we decided to walk to the south end of our property along the creek. My dad will walk the fence line on the east edge looking for blood and walking through all thickets and groups of trees to check for sign. While, he does that I will be walking on the mowed paths silently stalking in front of his positions in case the buck breaks out and trying to finish him with a shot, while I look for sign if he crossed my path. We go about 300yds and dad finds great pools of blood in a small group of trees but can’t tell where he goes from there. So I go over and I take a knee and look in all directions for a sign of where he went. After about 30min I find two drops of blood on grass about 4yds from the group of trees. Dad works up to them I go up on his right about 2yds ahead and see a great pool of blood. I tell dad to move up to it he hooks around two small cedar trees and there the buck LAYS!! I am very lucky I entered his left side about 2inches behind the last rib but the angle missed the liver. With my elevation the exit was about 4inches above the right side back knee. I am pretty sure the arrow fractured the femur and when the deer jumped the fence twice and with all his running he tore that back leg up. Which means it will be really hard for me to shoot any other broadhead than a Muzzy, I used a three-blade 100grain. I feel bad about not making a clean kill, but I am just glad we recovered the buck and he is not still out there laying dead without being found. All in all I took the shot at about 7:40am, and we found him at 3:30pm. Sorry for the long read, and thanks for all the advice earlier.

[92xj]

I think this is about the only time I will say that bumping this deer actually helped you. I believe that keeping him up and running around kept the wound for clotting and healing, keeping the blood flowing and eventually bleeding completely out. Congrats on the buck and a great story!

[mikebohio]

congrats on the buck. thanks for sharing the story with us.

[aldridgem1]

Congrats on the buck.. Hold his mass all the way out his tines.

[Tominator]

That's a great deer.

[hunter109]

congrats on the good buck man

[buckee]

Very, Very nice buck. Way to go !!!

[ruttinbuc]

I agree with Ben on keeping the deer going. Great buck and a good story! Congrats