Just shot a buck. I think I heard him crash but gonna give it a little while... I'm shaking! Of course he went into the thickest crap around!
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Team 10
- Thread starter Exhumis
- Start date
Nice! Slow and easy this time. Pictures, take notes.
You’re on a roll!
You’re on a roll!
Hang out and BS with us for a while ......u got plenty of time to wait......
How was the hit? U feel good about it
How was the hit? U feel good about it
Yes I feel great about it!
More later I've got a lot of work ahead of me.
More later I've got a lot of work ahead of me.
Y’all gonna make me break my rule of not huntjng above 60*…
Still got a lot of work ahead of me at home skinning and quartering but it feels good to be back at the truck. (Currently 52, Low of 44 overnight so I assume better to quarter and put him in a cooler than leave him in the truck until tomorrow (high 70 tomorrow)
Awesome buck @thedutchtouch ! Congrats!
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2018
- Messages
- 8,093
Came to say the same thing. Great job man! Happy for you!
U get on outta here.....get on back to whatever losing team ur on
I never claimed to be a fast butcher, but sheesh that took a while. Right around 3 hours to skin and quarter/pull backstraps, tenderloins, neck meat and grind trimmings. I need to take some lessons from the guys that quarter and pack out in the field. Time for a 2 am shower and dinner. More butchering tomorrow or the day after.
Too tired to write it up now, will post the story tomorrow. Or... I guess... later today.
Too tired to write it up now, will post the story tomorrow. Or... I guess... later today.
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Holy cow. I am so sore today. Remind me next time not to harvest two on the same day. And to pack my jet sled. And not forget my hitch basket.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2022
- Messages
- 3,082
Congratulations!! Awesome buck man!
U do all that same day? Dang. It'll be ok to leave it in the cooler for a bit and take on the butcher job later. I'd be exhausted too after all that.
Heart for breakfast is me and my son's "thing" we do together that's special. The girls don't eat it but he loves it.
On a negative note I had to cancel my island trip. Home life and crazy busy at work just isn't gonna allow it this year. I still have 3 local quota hunts plus some other options later in the season. I wanna go real real bad but it isn't worth getting all kinds of people mad at me over a scrub deer....if it were sambar it'd be a different story....hahahaha
My muzzleloader quota is in the same wma I just archery hunted. I only found 1 area with a large amount of fresh buck sign. If the wind is right I plan of going back in there....I only sat in there for 45 or and hour 1 afternoon and the wind switched so I left. As long as nobody goes in there during the 2nd archery hunt between now and my hunt it should be undisturbed.
Maybe Mr dutchtouch and Mr exhum luck will rub off on me and I'll kill my first buck
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Congrats @thedutchtouch!! Great deer.
Congrats @Exhumis and @thedutchtouch !! We're on a roll! I'm getting urges to leave work lmao...
I can skin/debone and put it in the fridge pretty quick, the tedious part is separating/trimming/packaging... I don't like trimming fresh, I definitely prefer aged and/or chilled. I still prefer to hang through rigor, but I don't have access to a walk-in box this side of the river lol. I hang them in my garage on a setup I had my brother fabricate, but it's part of the house, so it's never really "cold"... I still have stuff I need to grind from last year!
Whew yeah I am sore today as well. Mostly the forearms and the back.
So I was in my chosen tree, watching for movement with the mindset that "if it's brown it's down" for anything that came within 25 yards or so. I got into the tree around 5 and started waiting. At roughly 6:40 I saw a doe peek out of the thick cover to my left, roughly 35 yards away. I knew that she would likely walk behind this bush, and then pop out in a nice 20-25 yard shooting lane so I slowly picked up my bow and took a few deep breaths while I waited, scanning around where she came from to see if there were any other does coming in with her. Nada, she was solo. After a few minutes of her just standing there and taking a step or two she all of a sudden spooked off/jumped off into the rhododendrons and brambles, and my immediate thought was "did she wind me?" But it seemed that she was more irritated by something so I kept still hoping she had a yearling or something with her that I didn't see. I saw motion behind the bush and as his head popped out I remember thinking "it's a buck! You're shooting this deer regardless, so don't look at the headgear and get all excited!". He took another few steps and paused in a perfect lane as long as I crouched a bit to get under a branch, which I did, lined up the ez-v a touch high since he was just over 20 yards, took a deep breath and told myself to relax and let it fly, with the satisfying thwack and arrow makes when it goes through ribs.
Arrow passed through and I watched him run hard into the same thick cover that the doe had just gone into, heard him crashing through the brush, and then a few moments later heard him tip over, thrash around once or twice, and go silent. I gathered my gear relatively slowly and got out of the trees packed everything up and since I was pretty confident I heard him crash, went to look at the arrow.
Good blood on the arrow I decided to start tracking but for the life of my couldn't find the impact site. I think because of the hill I was further downhill than he was but not sure. I micro grid searched for about 5 minutes thinking I was going to have a repeat of my last deer experience where I found nothing, until I decided to trust myself and head to where I saw him disappear into the brush. I picked up the blood trail there and it was good, specks and splashes of blood every few feet, loosely following a game trail.
I continued on for about 20-30 yards until I pushed through the thickest stuff and about 40 yards on the other side I could see a white belly in the distance.
Walked over to him, video called my girls to share my excitement, took a few photos, and headed to the truck for my cart.
You can make out the entrance (just behind/above the shoulder in pic 1) and exit (slightly forward of the shoulder in pic 2) here, neither side hit leg bone:
When I got back to him gutting was no big deal, found that the arrow went through both lungs and sliced some of the main vasculature right above the heart. I was hunting around a lake/reservoir, and he ended up running almost all the way down to the water, which made it quite a bit easier to get to him, but unfortunately added quite a bit of uphill to the drag out. I have a hawk crawler cart but it's half broken, the upper half of the cart doesn't stay open, so that's in need of some repairs, it was quite the task just getting him into the cart, and then I had to redo everything to position him better to deal with the wonky cart, but I made it. The first 300 or so yards were straight 30- 45 degree uphill, I had to stop and yank the cart sideways quite a few times, but eventually made it, and the only obstacles at the top of the hill was another 3/4 of a mile of relatively flat with a few log crossings. Got him back to the truck, loaded up one end at a time, stopped for gas, ice and Gatorade and was home by 10:30 or so. Got to work on him at 11 after setting up some lights and a table in the driveway, took a while but he's now in a cooler.
So I was in my chosen tree, watching for movement with the mindset that "if it's brown it's down" for anything that came within 25 yards or so. I got into the tree around 5 and started waiting. At roughly 6:40 I saw a doe peek out of the thick cover to my left, roughly 35 yards away. I knew that she would likely walk behind this bush, and then pop out in a nice 20-25 yard shooting lane so I slowly picked up my bow and took a few deep breaths while I waited, scanning around where she came from to see if there were any other does coming in with her. Nada, she was solo. After a few minutes of her just standing there and taking a step or two she all of a sudden spooked off/jumped off into the rhododendrons and brambles, and my immediate thought was "did she wind me?" But it seemed that she was more irritated by something so I kept still hoping she had a yearling or something with her that I didn't see. I saw motion behind the bush and as his head popped out I remember thinking "it's a buck! You're shooting this deer regardless, so don't look at the headgear and get all excited!". He took another few steps and paused in a perfect lane as long as I crouched a bit to get under a branch, which I did, lined up the ez-v a touch high since he was just over 20 yards, took a deep breath and told myself to relax and let it fly, with the satisfying thwack and arrow makes when it goes through ribs.
Arrow passed through and I watched him run hard into the same thick cover that the doe had just gone into, heard him crashing through the brush, and then a few moments later heard him tip over, thrash around once or twice, and go silent. I gathered my gear relatively slowly and got out of the trees packed everything up and since I was pretty confident I heard him crash, went to look at the arrow.
Good blood on the arrow I decided to start tracking but for the life of my couldn't find the impact site. I think because of the hill I was further downhill than he was but not sure. I micro grid searched for about 5 minutes thinking I was going to have a repeat of my last deer experience where I found nothing, until I decided to trust myself and head to where I saw him disappear into the brush. I picked up the blood trail there and it was good, specks and splashes of blood every few feet, loosely following a game trail.
I continued on for about 20-30 yards until I pushed through the thickest stuff and about 40 yards on the other side I could see a white belly in the distance.
Walked over to him, video called my girls to share my excitement, took a few photos, and headed to the truck for my cart.
You can make out the entrance (just behind/above the shoulder in pic 1) and exit (slightly forward of the shoulder in pic 2) here, neither side hit leg bone:
When I got back to him gutting was no big deal, found that the arrow went through both lungs and sliced some of the main vasculature right above the heart. I was hunting around a lake/reservoir, and he ended up running almost all the way down to the water, which made it quite a bit easier to get to him, but unfortunately added quite a bit of uphill to the drag out. I have a hawk crawler cart but it's half broken, the upper half of the cart doesn't stay open, so that's in need of some repairs, it was quite the task just getting him into the cart, and then I had to redo everything to position him better to deal with the wonky cart, but I made it. The first 300 or so yards were straight 30- 45 degree uphill, I had to stop and yank the cart sideways quite a few times, but eventually made it, and the only obstacles at the top of the hill was another 3/4 of a mile of relatively flat with a few log crossings. Got him back to the truck, loaded up one end at a time, stopped for gas, ice and Gatorade and was home by 10:30 or so. Got to work on him at 11 after setting up some lights and a table in the driveway, took a while but he's now in a cooler.
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@thedutchtouch 2 things I was taught to do a long time ago that have helped recover deer, always mark the last spot you can see the deer as it leaves, might even snap a pic with you phone, and then take a compass bearing on the last spot you can hear the deer as it is leaving. Together it gives you 2 points of reference once on the ground and looking for blood. That and once you are on blood, use the track feature on your mapping app. If you happen to lose blood the track will give you a good line of reference for starting a grid if need be. Again congrats on a great deer!!
Congrats man!!!!!! Btw offer still stands on a quick hands on demo for gutless & pack out…….. a popup is a super cheap investment & you won’t be near as sore & deer is ready for cooler when you get home at 1030-11pm.
