Some times a hunter might see a huge rack but this time I saw venison back straps, rapped in bacon, and grilled to med, rare.
I woke this morning at 1 am and headed to the hunting area, 130 mile to the east. I had set up a tree stand the week prior and do not like to hunt this stand in the am so I hunted another area farther down stream. No action there but I was excited to be hunting. Had lunch in the truck and thought about taking a nap before the evening hunt but that did not happen so I was in the tree stand at 1 pm, way too early but hey, one never know what might come wandering past.
I wish I had taken that nap because while in the tree stand I started to nod a few times. I was thinking about climbing down and taking a quick nap at the base of the tree, but did not. 2 PM came and went. 3 PM., 3:30 PM and stood up and looked behind me and here comes this buck. Wind was good and the buck decoy was in the deer's path. At first I did not pick up the compound bow but as he got within range of the decoy, I did. Maybe I would just draw on him for practice. The buck sees the decoy, postures, scrapes the ground not 10 feet from the decoy, and then he circles down wind and to within 10 yards of the stand. This is too cool! A practice draw for sure.. I should have kept the finger off the release but did not. "a bird in the hand".
Before dark, I had the stand, decoy and deer back to the truck and then spent the next two hours process the deer for the cooler. I slept in the truck for the night as I knew I would crash on the way home for lack of sleep and, I drove home this morning. Time to process and bag the meat for the cooler. Tenderloins for dinner. A great way to end the hunt and with good memories. Maybe I should have waited! NA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "a bird.........................."
I always enjoy your threads!
Naps are good at our age, but young buck backstraps... priceless!
Good stuff man!
Congrats Sir, thanks for taking us along.
Well sort of. Being up in the tree stand and the deer only 10 yards away and below, many hits are from a high angle as this one was. The actual hit was, as the deer was quartering away, half way back, top of the back, and into the lungs, etc. Not a pass through but at least 20 inch's of penetration with the 125 gr, 3 bld, VAP.. The buck sprinted back the way he had come, and I watched him go out of sight, 90 yards way back to the river which is very shallow with high sand banks. I was saying to myself, "Go down".
With that hit, I just figured he will be dead within a few seconds so I climbed down and headed to where I last saw him and looking for any blood along the way.. As I moved along, a blood trial was not evident until I got to where I had last seen him and found a few very small spots of blood in the tall grass, but that did give me a direction to follow. A few yards later, the complete arrow at the edge of a five foot high sand bank along the river.. I looked over the edge expecting to see him dead, but no. The sand bars below and across the exposed sand, were covered with thick cocklebur brush but I headed in that direction, crossing over the shallow, narrow, river in a few inches of water.. Fifty yards ahead, I see a white belly of a dead deer. A sigh of relief as always. Recovery, 100 yards.
I had been there before, a high hit and not a pass through that can lead to a poor blood trail as the majority of the blood is remaining in the deer's body cavity.
I left the buck there, and headed back to the truck to gather up a few processing items and also to bring back my Jet Sled to haul him out with. I had to field process the deer in the sled as the river bottom was all sand.. I, with some difficulty, I pulled him along on the sand bar, 400 yards, to where I could get to the river bank, adjacent to the path to the truck. I left him there, and then retrieved the stand and the decoy in two more trips back to the truck and then pulled the deer sled back to the truck. All in all, this is taking 3 hours but it was still light to see, as the sun was just ready to set.
The back of the truck was full of stuff and there was no way to lift this buck to the tail gate so I tied the sled's haul rope to the trailer hitch and pulled the deer sled down the two rut road for a mile where I knew another hunter, who I met was hunting. He had a very large empty truck and was was glad to take the deer and sled back to camp and also to help hang the deer to cool on the deer pole. This was here I ended up skinning and quartering the deer under the lights of the truck, and then bagging it up for the chest cooler, for the drive home the following morning.
So you asked, "Did it go smooth"?. Yea, until I released the arrow!!!! Then the work begins.
Congrats.
Matt
Well done. Not that you need it, but I certainly would endorse your priorities.