*After writing this I realized that apparently I had a lot to say. If you are just in it for the hero pics, scroll to the bottom!
It has been cold around here for the past week. Saturday morning it was 14 degrees when I left the truck. I had put some boots on the ground 2 weekends ago before our last snow melted to try to gain some near real time information for the late season. Work has finally started slowing down and I've been getting over all the illness's that I have been fighting this fall so I was hoping to put a good effort forward to try to avoid my first year without a mature bow buck since 2009!
I was settled into the tree later than I wanted but still a bit prior to shooting light. It was certainly cold but I was prepared for that. It was the unexpected snow shower that caught me off guard. When I went to bed Friday night there was no snow forecast. It was light and didn't bother me and as soon as it started to cover everything I was able to see much further through all the thick stuff I was in. The only action I had after it got light was the squirrels scampering around causing me to keep vigilant to make sure nobody snuck up on me. I was situated in a small opening in a small valley that a stream was running through. Both sides of the valley were covered with thick nasty catbriars and there was a small 1 acre section of marsh grass about 30 yards in front of me in the valley. This lead to a few trails crossing the valley in front of me going from one side to the other. At 8:35 I looked up and from the left side I see a big deer heading my way. I can immediately see his left antler from far away and I know that if I can verify he has 3 points on a side he is a shooter (we have antler point restrictions in this zone). Everything happened very fast and I really was never able to get a good look at his right antler, but as he got closer and stepped out from behind a tree I verified that he did have a brow tine on his left. He took one quick look down the clearing I was in and started scooting across. As soon as he moved I drew my elite impulse 31 (quick plug for the new bow's first buck. It has done well with 4 deer this year!) and quickly blatted when he hit the one good opening. I think I rushed the shot a bit because his front leg and neck were behind a tree and if he took one more step he was gone forever. I saw the arrow hit and immediately knew that it was way back. It was dead center vertically but clearly back in the gut. I watched him take off and after I lost sight of him in the thick stuff I quickly heard a loud crash followed by another loud crash slightly further to the right, then silence.
So there I sat in the tree, happy to have stuck an arrow that I knew was fatal in a buck, but trying to determine what the plan was. The hook to the right he made was a good sign based off my experience. The fact that I heard the 2 loud crashes and then silence seemed pretty good too. But the shot was back I knew it was through the gut. I considered backing out and coming back at 2:30 to look but I decided that if he was laying there and all I got was the gut that it would not be enough time. So I quickly decided I would let him sit until Sunday morning. If he was dead at 2:30 he'd still be dead on Sunday. I considered the coyotes but I knew the shot was fatal and if I jumped him he may be gone forever. The biggest complication was the snow that was coming down. While it was not much, it was enough that I was concerned any possible blood trail would be covered. I just hoped that he would be laying up there where I thought he went down.
Fast forward to 7:30 Sunday morning- 23 hours after the shot. The deer is likely dead, now I just need to find him! I went to the spot of the shot and started on the trail he took. I quickly hopped across the stream and my arrow was laying on the other side. It did have brown gut material on the vanes and arrow wrap, BUT there was a good amount of frozen blood on the arrow. As soon as the deer hit the brush I realized that I was going to be more fortunate than I expected. He appeared to be bleeding pretty good and all of the blood falling on the brush had quickly frozen and was not snow covered. I actually made short order of the first 50 or so yards of the track as it was fairly easy to find on the brush and catbriars. As I walked through the snow I was turning up blood on the leaves too. The trouble came when I hit a clearing and lost the blood without anything off the ground to catch it. I had really thought he started to move to the right so after I was unable to pick up any blood through the clearing I moved over to the thicket on the right and started scanning the edges and following all the trails shortly looking for blood. That didn't pan out so I did the same thing to the left. I did not find any blood although I did bump a coyote down in a valley. I took a quick look where he was but didn't see any sign so I just kept that in my mind in case I needed to grasp at straws. Straight out from where I lost the blood was an open hillside. I really didn't think he went that way but I took a walk around looking for blood or sign but again it was to no avail. At this point I was thinking that I may have exhausted my blood trail and it was going to be time to start searching for a body. I was pretty bummed because the blood had been so much better than I expected, but this was actually what I was expecting after the snow came down. My first plan was to search the catbriar thicket that ran along the stream. This particular thicket was similar in shape to a rectangle and it was thick and nasty, the kind of place where deer go to die. I started by following all of the easy deer trails down into it while still looking for blood. I didn't have any luck with that approach so the next plan was to belly crawl thought the catbriars to get into all of those openings that are tucked away. I carry my gps on me during all of my search so I can analyze things from a birds-eye view. I used this to make sure that I covered the entire thicket or that I could at least get into enough spots where I could see through the entire thicket. I did find another smaller dead buck while I was down there but not mine. The other buck had probably been there since sometime earlier in the fall because he was just a skeleton with a little patch of hair on his skull.
Two hours later I had covered the main part of the thicket and still had no deer. There was still a small portion that I hadn't got to yet that was further up the hill, but first I decided to go back to the last blood and take another look at the options the buck had. As I am standing there I look at the way he had been going and decide that maybe instead of going as far to the right as I thought, I would try to go a bit further across the clearing. Well wouldn't you know it as I get 2/3 of the way across I pick up some blood on a leaf that I had kicked the snow off of during my search. Game on! Sometimes it is just that one more drop of blood that can get you going in the right direction. After that one spot of blood I was able to follow the blood for another 15 yards or so before I lost it again. I spend another 15 minutes doing circles from that spot again looking for more blood. With no more blood again I went back to the new last spot and looked at what I had to work with. There was a little point of briars sticking out from the thicket and every time I started searching I noticed this point kept pushing me a little bit further to the left than I really wanted to go. So I forced myself to go WAY further to the right than I needed to be and cut through that point so that I could follow the thick edge looking for more blood. As I came out of the point I looked off to my left and there he was laying next to a big tree. After all that I had probably walked within 15 or 20 yards of him on my first wide loop of that thicket. He was just tucked into the thick stuff really well and you needed to be pretty close to see him. I was also probably looking mostly straight and to the right when I passed by there the first time too. After 3.5 hours and probably only 75-100 yards from the shot I had him! Time to call @hambone to celebrate. After that I went back for my sled, took some hero pics and dragged him out. The shot was quartering away slightly so even though I hit far back I ended up putting it through 2 lobes of the liver also. The cavity was just full of blood when I opened him up. I bet he died very quickly but based of my shot I'm glad I waited just in case. The first part of the drag was uphill but after that I had a nice downhill drag through the snow on a trail!
It was good timing too! There were 2 days left in our permit bow season so I filled that tag. As of today, January 1st, I have a fresh tag in my pocket for out winter bow season! All in all 2017 was a pretty rough year for me and my family. I am glad to end it on a high note and I'm looking forward to 2018!!!
It has been cold around here for the past week. Saturday morning it was 14 degrees when I left the truck. I had put some boots on the ground 2 weekends ago before our last snow melted to try to gain some near real time information for the late season. Work has finally started slowing down and I've been getting over all the illness's that I have been fighting this fall so I was hoping to put a good effort forward to try to avoid my first year without a mature bow buck since 2009!
I was settled into the tree later than I wanted but still a bit prior to shooting light. It was certainly cold but I was prepared for that. It was the unexpected snow shower that caught me off guard. When I went to bed Friday night there was no snow forecast. It was light and didn't bother me and as soon as it started to cover everything I was able to see much further through all the thick stuff I was in. The only action I had after it got light was the squirrels scampering around causing me to keep vigilant to make sure nobody snuck up on me. I was situated in a small opening in a small valley that a stream was running through. Both sides of the valley were covered with thick nasty catbriars and there was a small 1 acre section of marsh grass about 30 yards in front of me in the valley. This lead to a few trails crossing the valley in front of me going from one side to the other. At 8:35 I looked up and from the left side I see a big deer heading my way. I can immediately see his left antler from far away and I know that if I can verify he has 3 points on a side he is a shooter (we have antler point restrictions in this zone). Everything happened very fast and I really was never able to get a good look at his right antler, but as he got closer and stepped out from behind a tree I verified that he did have a brow tine on his left. He took one quick look down the clearing I was in and started scooting across. As soon as he moved I drew my elite impulse 31 (quick plug for the new bow's first buck. It has done well with 4 deer this year!) and quickly blatted when he hit the one good opening. I think I rushed the shot a bit because his front leg and neck were behind a tree and if he took one more step he was gone forever. I saw the arrow hit and immediately knew that it was way back. It was dead center vertically but clearly back in the gut. I watched him take off and after I lost sight of him in the thick stuff I quickly heard a loud crash followed by another loud crash slightly further to the right, then silence.
So there I sat in the tree, happy to have stuck an arrow that I knew was fatal in a buck, but trying to determine what the plan was. The hook to the right he made was a good sign based off my experience. The fact that I heard the 2 loud crashes and then silence seemed pretty good too. But the shot was back I knew it was through the gut. I considered backing out and coming back at 2:30 to look but I decided that if he was laying there and all I got was the gut that it would not be enough time. So I quickly decided I would let him sit until Sunday morning. If he was dead at 2:30 he'd still be dead on Sunday. I considered the coyotes but I knew the shot was fatal and if I jumped him he may be gone forever. The biggest complication was the snow that was coming down. While it was not much, it was enough that I was concerned any possible blood trail would be covered. I just hoped that he would be laying up there where I thought he went down.
Fast forward to 7:30 Sunday morning- 23 hours after the shot. The deer is likely dead, now I just need to find him! I went to the spot of the shot and started on the trail he took. I quickly hopped across the stream and my arrow was laying on the other side. It did have brown gut material on the vanes and arrow wrap, BUT there was a good amount of frozen blood on the arrow. As soon as the deer hit the brush I realized that I was going to be more fortunate than I expected. He appeared to be bleeding pretty good and all of the blood falling on the brush had quickly frozen and was not snow covered. I actually made short order of the first 50 or so yards of the track as it was fairly easy to find on the brush and catbriars. As I walked through the snow I was turning up blood on the leaves too. The trouble came when I hit a clearing and lost the blood without anything off the ground to catch it. I had really thought he started to move to the right so after I was unable to pick up any blood through the clearing I moved over to the thicket on the right and started scanning the edges and following all the trails shortly looking for blood. That didn't pan out so I did the same thing to the left. I did not find any blood although I did bump a coyote down in a valley. I took a quick look where he was but didn't see any sign so I just kept that in my mind in case I needed to grasp at straws. Straight out from where I lost the blood was an open hillside. I really didn't think he went that way but I took a walk around looking for blood or sign but again it was to no avail. At this point I was thinking that I may have exhausted my blood trail and it was going to be time to start searching for a body. I was pretty bummed because the blood had been so much better than I expected, but this was actually what I was expecting after the snow came down. My first plan was to search the catbriar thicket that ran along the stream. This particular thicket was similar in shape to a rectangle and it was thick and nasty, the kind of place where deer go to die. I started by following all of the easy deer trails down into it while still looking for blood. I didn't have any luck with that approach so the next plan was to belly crawl thought the catbriars to get into all of those openings that are tucked away. I carry my gps on me during all of my search so I can analyze things from a birds-eye view. I used this to make sure that I covered the entire thicket or that I could at least get into enough spots where I could see through the entire thicket. I did find another smaller dead buck while I was down there but not mine. The other buck had probably been there since sometime earlier in the fall because he was just a skeleton with a little patch of hair on his skull.
Two hours later I had covered the main part of the thicket and still had no deer. There was still a small portion that I hadn't got to yet that was further up the hill, but first I decided to go back to the last blood and take another look at the options the buck had. As I am standing there I look at the way he had been going and decide that maybe instead of going as far to the right as I thought, I would try to go a bit further across the clearing. Well wouldn't you know it as I get 2/3 of the way across I pick up some blood on a leaf that I had kicked the snow off of during my search. Game on! Sometimes it is just that one more drop of blood that can get you going in the right direction. After that one spot of blood I was able to follow the blood for another 15 yards or so before I lost it again. I spend another 15 minutes doing circles from that spot again looking for more blood. With no more blood again I went back to the new last spot and looked at what I had to work with. There was a little point of briars sticking out from the thicket and every time I started searching I noticed this point kept pushing me a little bit further to the left than I really wanted to go. So I forced myself to go WAY further to the right than I needed to be and cut through that point so that I could follow the thick edge looking for more blood. As I came out of the point I looked off to my left and there he was laying next to a big tree. After all that I had probably walked within 15 or 20 yards of him on my first wide loop of that thicket. He was just tucked into the thick stuff really well and you needed to be pretty close to see him. I was also probably looking mostly straight and to the right when I passed by there the first time too. After 3.5 hours and probably only 75-100 yards from the shot I had him! Time to call @hambone to celebrate. After that I went back for my sled, took some hero pics and dragged him out. The shot was quartering away slightly so even though I hit far back I ended up putting it through 2 lobes of the liver also. The cavity was just full of blood when I opened him up. I bet he died very quickly but based of my shot I'm glad I waited just in case. The first part of the drag was uphill but after that I had a nice downhill drag through the snow on a trail!
It was good timing too! There were 2 days left in our permit bow season so I filled that tag. As of today, January 1st, I have a fresh tag in my pocket for out winter bow season! All in all 2017 was a pretty rough year for me and my family. I am glad to end it on a high note and I'm looking forward to 2018!!!
