Week 2 Weather's Improving
Pennsylvania
Contributors to this thread:
Should be a perfect morning!! Good luck and be safe!!
It's a chilly one! Good luck, shoot straight, and share the story! I have a feeling there will be some good ones after today!
Sitting in a tree in 5C, nothing seen yet. Should be really good tonight.
Weather has changed for the better. Saw quite a few deer this morning and took a mature doe out of the herd. Hoping they will be moving tonite.
I took my recurve for a walk this morning on a local SGL. Saw three hawks playing tag. They were the only living things I saw. First hunt for me. Felt good to be hunting again.
Full moon, good wind, good weather- not a deer seen today. 5C and 5D this afternoon.
Was a VERY interesting couple days at the Keefer Farm but I’ll let Art tell the story! ;-)
Saw lots of deer yesterday but no shots. Great weather for bowhunting!
Nice pics of foliage, we don't have any of that here yet.
Beautiful morning to be in the woods but didn’t see a deer. Saw a red-tailed hawk try to take out an adult hen turkey right in front of my stand. The hen ducked its head just in time then proceeded to puff itself up and make some sounds I never heard a turkey make before. The hawk just sat in a nearby tree then eventually flew off.
Great day with crisp weather Saturday. 6 of us spread out across 125 acres. Some very nice bucks and does were spotted in the morning, including the six point I shot. The evening was kind of crazy with the full moon on its way up. The deer seemed to be acting odd and Chise even saw a bear. It was fun for all.
So, I watched a couple does in front of me around 8 AM that were being bothered by 2 bucks, one a 3 up six, the other a 2 up six. I decided to take the 2-D legal one and made what, at the time, looked like a perfect broadside shot in the 10 ring. After waiting a half hour I expected to find the deer a short distance away in a creek bottom. Blood was good for 50 yards, then nothing but some skid marks further down the hill.
After gathering the crew who were within texting range we started our search and did not find the deer where we expected to. After we started over one of the guys found blood where the deer doubled back across a logging road that was just out of my sight from the ladder stand. For the next hundred yards the blood, although encouraging at times was very spotty over some rugged terrain and ground cover (the end of an old reclaimed strip mine on a steep hillside.) The trail took us into another creek bottom edged by an almost impenetrable but narrow swamp full of cattails and briers. The last blood at the edge of the cattails lead us across a narrow mowed area where we found a little blood at a field of ragweed and other stuff up to 6 feet high. No blood anywhere in that stuff but we did find one drop where the deer entered the woods after he made a hard left out of the weeds. Pure stroke of luck. Rutnut was there and he and the guys followed the trail another 100 yards to another logging road. By then it was almost noon and we decided to come back after lunch. As we were leaving I took a different trail up past one of my blinds and the buck stood up 10 yards behind it, not offering me a shot. He walked off about 50 yards and disappeared into more thick stuff, only 250 yards from where it all started.
After lunch Dan and I checked the bed the buck had been in and determined there wasn't much blood there. I mentioned he seemed pretty lethargic when he left and seemed to be running out of gas and didn't go far. For the afternoon hunt, I sat in the blind in case he came back and Rutnut went to stand about 100 yards or so away. To our surprise Rut saw the buck on the far side of the stand when he got there. It stood up and slowly walked off out of sight. We decided to wait until Sunday morning after looking at the video of my shot.
My tactacam video that we were able to watch frame by frame looked to us as if my perfect shot hit higher than I thought, maybe shoulder blade, but the fletching disappeared as if it passed thru. (We never found the arrow.) Sunday morning 5 of us surrounded the area of (a long strip of woods) between ag field on top of a hill and reclaimed strip cut. With 4 of us around where we could see all escape routes Rutnut entered from the stand where he saw it disappear last and he found the buck lying about 20 yards further, just out of sight. He probably died a couple hours earlier and was still warm inside.
The entry wound was actually 3 to 4 inches further back the we thought from the video and got one lung and some liver. The exit wound looked like it went straight thru and he was full of blood. Not gut(shot). It was 28 degrees here over night and the meat was fine.
There was a lot of luck involved and everyone contributed yesterday It was amazing how where on guy missed something another guy found something. We figured that after he was hit, the buck crossed the logging road twice in a short distance and bleed a lot for 50 yards, then doubled back across the road once more. He angled around the steep short hillside (where blood was sparse) gradually into the swamp and into the weed field where he veered left into the woods. After a right turn in the woods he kept along the edge, went behind a blind by about 10 feet and crossed yet another logging road, where he eventually bedded down behind the other blind where I came upon him. So we kind of got to do some Sunday hunting this morning and it was a success.
Now I can guide and concentrate on bears. LOL.
Thanks for the help guys.
Now I can guide and concentrate on bears. LOL.
Thanks for the help guys.
He was a pretty nice sized deer. This was proof that you should never give up on a deer. Definitely teamwork at its best.
Good job art, congrats on the buck....
That was one TOUGH buck! Looking at the video the shot looked perfect but was actually further back than it looked. But still looked like a double lung shot. But that buck musta had some funky anatomy because it only nicked one lung and was essentially a liver hit. Hard to believe looking at both entrance and exit wounds.
But when spotted at noon and then again at 3:30 it was obvious it was weak because it wasn’t running and moving very slowly. In fact when I spotted it at 3:30 I got within 30y of it and it just stood up and stood there looking around. I watched it for almost 2 min before it walked off-still moving slowly. I would have shot it for Art but it was just too thick, so I let it walk. But I was pretty sure it wasn’t going far. We ended up finding it this morning only 20y from where I saw it yesterday.
Definitely a team effort and luckily Art and I spotted it twice on it’s feet as I’m not sure we could have blood trailed it the entire way. It made it approximately 500y total and made a bunch of turns and was zig-zagging at one point.
Funny how just when you think you’ve seen it all..............
Great job art. Nice buck. Glad you had help with the track job. Persistent on a blood trail, and good story. Glad it had a buck at the end.
Feel I got lucky on this hit...a bit far back and high. Slightly quartering away but he only went 20 yards and stood for a min then fell over.
Feel I got lucky on this hit...a bit far back and high. Slightly quartering away but he only went 20 yards and stood for a min then fell over.
sucks not having help for great pics...
sucks not having help for great pics...
I’ve been watching a group of bucks come across a huge field I have permission to hunt. They cross a road, hustle through the field and then down a fence row. They jump the fence and feed in a cover crop of buckwheat right at last light. Not daily but often enough to hang a stand in 1 of 4 cherry trees just opposite the food and 20 yards off the fence. Hung the stand Wednesday after work with my almost 4 year old. He was enjoying puzzles and snacks in the bed of my truck under me. I sat it for the first time Friday after work with a perfect NW wind and boy did the plan come together! Dressed 180lbs shot in 2A Washington county I can hunt both sides of the fence row although he never made it across haha
Great old buck there Matt. Sometimes only having one spot like that makes things easier than having hundreds of acres and not knowing where to go. LOL.
This piece is wide open. I'm used to hunting big woods mostly. It is a great rifle property but when I saw what the bucks were doing, I imagined a stand in one of the cherry trees and a perfect wind and it all came together! Thanks horsethief
Killed a decent one saturday evening on Boone Mountain elk county.
Congratulations everyone! Only deer I’m seeing are the pictures posted here! Even this morning turned up a big 0.
Art, nothing better than a good band of hunters to fall back on when the occasion calls for an intense tracking job. So difficult to tackle mentally when you are alone on the trail with a less than ideal hit. Way to persevere!
Congratulations everyone! Only deer I’m seeing are the pictures posted here! Even this morning turned up a big 0.
Art, nothing better than a good band of hunters to fall back on when the occasion calls for an intense tracking job. So difficult to tackle mentally when you are alone on the trail with a less than ideal hit. Way to persevere!
Nice going guys! Ive yet to enter the woodlot. Tomorrow night is a possible
Congrats to all above. Some great looking deer.
Congrats to all above. Some great looking deer.
Way to go Doug, tough one there.
Nice bucks guys!
Had 1 doe at 20y yesterday evening but had decided it was buck only since I had a 5 hour drive ahead of me! As it was I got home at 1am............
When I went to pick up Rut just before quitting time there were 10 deer in my neighbor's field and 10 more in my field. Rut helped me move a stand on Sunday and I just had to go sit in it this morning. The sun hit me at 7:39. I saw 3 does and heard turkey(s) gobbling close-by.
Two doe last night. Walked straight to my ladder stand, passed on the left, stopped directly below me for a bit. Then proceeded to walk straight away. Never quartered or turned broadside. Just showed me their butts as they slowy walked away.
I slept in this morning. I had over 8 hours of sleep and man I feel great today. Going to the store and pressure washing the front (NW side) of the house. Picking up my bear tag today, concentrating on the next 3 weeks and looking forward to getting Kathy out in the blind on these nice afternoons.
Had a short hunt yesterday evening with my son, Hayden. We weren’t in the stand 15 minutes and a fat doe with 2 young ones came right under our tree. She was straight downwind and knew something was wrong but couldn’t see the threat. I got drawn as she turned to leave but had no shot. She came back towards me and head bobbed back in to 13 yards. She was quartering to me a bit. I thought she was broadside enough and took the shot, hitting her tight to the shoulder. She tore into the cornfield and all went quiet. Then I saw cornstalks shake about 150 yards away and figured she was down.
Funny...... I got my bear tag yesterday and then pressure washed my house lol
Congrats on the deer Curtis!
Dale- that’s what happens when you retire!(or so I have heard! ;-)
Bad, or maybe good news Dale, the pressure washer hose coupler was broken, so that didn't get done. LOL.
Tree Stand Usie before climbing down to look for the doe.
Tree Stand Usie before climbing down to look for the doe.
The recovery for my doe was not as simple as I thought it would be. My arrow did not have much blood on it, but rather a thin film of bile. It was not like a typical gut shot with chunks of food matter or a foul odor, but it was not a good color. I should have back out then, but I was sure that I had seen her fall in the corn farther away, so we went and walked back and forth through the cornfield a few times coming up empty. I decided to leave and come back a few hours later with my dog to see if we could get on the blood trail from the site of the shot.
My dad and my dog accompanied me back to the site of the hit around 8:30 P.M., two hours after the hit. Right away my dog got on the trail. He's a 1 year old german shepherd crossed with a blue heeler/australian shepherd mix. I had him on a blood trail once last fall and he did great going over 200 yards across a grassy pasture with minimal blood. Last night he sped up the process big time. He took us 15 rows deep into the corn and turned down between two rows. Immediately I started seeing blood on the cornstalks and Russel was moving at a good pace. We covered 60 yards pretty quick and my head lamp illuminated a deer. I told dad I saw her up ahead and about that quick I noticed an eye, then two looking back at us. She was only 15-20 yards, but she did not bolt. We did an abrupt about face and marched right back out of the field. In total she had only traveled about 80 yards from where I had shot her. We knew she was pretty sick, but I decided to wait until morning to attempt the recovery.
This morning I drove right to my stand along the edge of the field and ducked into the cornfield before it was completely light. I was a little disappointed to find an empty bloody bed, but she had barely taken 3 more steps from that point before crashing over a few rows. She was fairly stiff with the temperatures having dropped to 40 overnight.
Entry high on shoulder, Exit not quite halfway back and just slightly off center.
Entry high on shoulder, Exit not quite halfway back and just slightly off center.
The shot evaluation through the field dressing process is where things got interesting. The entry hole was tight to the shoulder, but had a kernel of bloody corn hanging out of it. The exit hole was straight out the bottom and mostly plugged, but it was close to the point where the diaphragm separates the lung cavity from the guts. There was a lot of corn on both sides of the diaphragm and even all the way up in front of the heart, which I have not seen before with a paunch hit animal. I think the arrow must have severed the esophagus where it empties into the first chamber of the stomach right at the diaphragm. Again, the substance on the arrow was not as rank or chunky as I have seen with a typical gut shot, but more like a mucous/saliva/watery bile like substance. The treestand was high and she was only 13 yards away, so maybe the arrow deflected off of the shoulder blade a bit. I only hit one lung and I think the esophagus. Liver was perfectly in tact. I never paid that much attention to where the esophagus was located in relation to the heart, lungs, and liver, but in all of the images of ruminant digestive systems it seems to be in the mid to upper 3rd of the body cavity right between the lungs. If someone can find a better image of a ruminant, showing the esophagus all the way to the rumen with reference to proximity of the heart, lungs, and liver, I would like to take a look.
I am not claiming to be an expert on anatomy, so if someone has a better understanding, please give me some insight. Also, I should know better than to take quartering to shots, but like I said before I thought it was an acceptable angle at the time and we all have to live with the shots we take. It does not sit well with me that she did not die quickly.
Nice doe, yodermeister, congrats
Anyone tell me a good tick repellent with no scent I can spray on my hunting clothes , pulled my first tick off me yesterday , thanks
Good job being persistent Curtis and finding the deer! It’s amazing how just when you think you have seen it all in Bowhunting, a new scenario pops up!
Bowhunter- try Sawyer’s permethrin..................been using it for years.
Thanks rut nut... first time ever had a tick on me ... didn't mess around got 2 antibiotic pills, lyme disease is nothing to mess with, i will be getting a spray bottle of it after work, thanks again...
Congratulations guys, it's nice to read about some good outcomes!
Bowhunter- be sure to read the label, permethrin is good stuff but it's meant to be sprayed on your clothes and dry before you wear them. It shouldn't get on your skin when it's wet.
I went to the same stand I shot my buck in on Saturday just to enjoy the sunrise and scout for bears. Right on schedule the same 6 point that was with the one I got came out from behind me then went to the scrape and licking branch where my buck was standing. Hope to see him next year.