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1st kill from saddle.

Joined
Aug 30, 2017
Messages
99
Location
Stafford, VA
2nd season hunting from a saddle, hit a nice buck quartering away last year with a rage through the lungs but it never opened and never found the deer, it took until Friday to get my first deer from the saddle. Me and the wife got out with her crossbow all day after the kids left for school but saw no deer from the blind. She wanted to go back to the house to be there when they got off the bus so I ran her home and threw on some camo, hunted in cargo shorts and a black t from the blind as it was 75.
Move into a new spot I’d never hunted in a cutover 130 yds from a main road on Quantico MCB. From the topo you couldn’t tell a strip of trees through his cutover was hardwoods but saw it driving The Mrs home and said that’d be a good spot as there is an old homestead orchard and food plot across the road from the cutover. So I hustle back and grab my saddle and sticks and make the short walk to the hardwoods. Looked around this 20 yd wide hardwood funnel and selected a giant oak 24-30” across with a few thick limbs around 25ft. This was my first climb with my new 3 step aider and man it was slick, still need some work on setting the stick up above my head. Only took 15 mins to climb and setup, it was hard to get my stick straps tight with only 3-4” of strap left but got it done. I Was sitting for about 30 minutes before I heard multiple deer coming from the left up the draw to the funnel, I grabbed the crossbow and set it across my bridge ready for a shot. The two yearlings popped out first followed by mama. Once the doe cleared the overhanging branches of the draw she looked up right at me but only for about 2 seconds then went back to feeding on the acorns with the other yearlings. She must have thought that is one hell of a branch coming out the side of the tree as I’m not a small fellow. She continued to feed towards me inside of 20 yards quartered to me pretty hard so it was a few more steps before she flattened out to a slight quarter as I watched through the scope. I checked the area both through the scope and with the naked eye to check for small sticks and upon not seeing anything I squeezed the trigger with the crosshairs on the top of her shoulder blade and aimed for double lung shot with a nice low exit hole. The shot broke clean and I watched the bolt fly though the deer and could see the ruffled hide where it had entered her rib cage and passed through into the soft, colorfully covered ground. The deer jumped initially and trotted for 10 yds then walked off, pretty typical reaction from a COC head that I’ve experienced. I set the crossbow down as she walked out of site and grabbed my binos and checked the bolt. It was glowing green and surrounded by bright red on the leaves, so I texted the wife that I’d made a great shot and should have a deer down,
I checked the bolt again and saw it disappear and reappear as I moved side to side. I climb down and pack my stuff up after 20 minutes and check the bolt. To my surprise only a single streak of blood on the fletchings and no blood at the impact site, It had been red leaves I had seen from above. I take 5 steps down the does exit trail and instantly see she was pumping bright red blood and lots of it. Knew it wasn’t lung or liver blood but thought maybe heart blood. I went back to the shot site and see a small sapling maybe the size of a straw at 6ft was cut clean off, possibly the thing that I’d seen blocking the lighted nock. I began replaying the shot in my head and remembered it sounding funny when it hit the deer. So back to the track I went and was able to walk briskly and track the blood into and through the cutover for 250yds at this point I’m thinking it’s just a deflection and muscle hit but there was not tallow/grease on the arrow as with most muscle hits. The blood track gets thought for the next 50 yds and it’s getting dark and I forgot my flashlight in the truck so I head back and grab my gear take it back to the truck and head to the game check station on base to see if they know of anyone with a tracking dog local as it was forecasting rain overnight and we have a cutoff time for tracking wounded game on base. The one tracker they knew local was on his way to his sons FB game. I grabbed my flashlights and headed back to the site of last blood and quickly picked it back up and continued along the edge of the cutover and across another hardwood funnel for about 150 more yards where the really good blood dried up to drops and out of nowhere large chunks of caul fat every 20-50 yards followed by lots of blood. She was able to cross a steep 6-8’ ditch, but you could see she was having trouble walking by her tracks and the leaf disturbance. The track came across a small clearing and to the top on a 50’ steep hill leading down to a small creek where the blood dried up but she had bedded 20 yds before it dried up. I didn’t hear her but thought maybe the light drizzle would mask her movement. But it was promising as it was then first time her track took a definitive downhill turn. I couldn’t find her track off the top of the hill but could see the creek winding below and it had an oxbow at the steep section while gently sloping down to the creek 20 yds in each direction. I bomber down the steep section and decided that I was going to check both slopes for blood quick as was quickly running out of time to return the check station. Once at the bottom I swung my light to the right and see a single eye light up over near a couple logs. I quietly marked the location and retraced my tracks to the truck. I didn’t want to chance bumping her out of that bed and losing her for good as I’ve had that happen before. I figured she was either dead or laying with her head down trying to hide. With temps into the 40’s and rain overnight and her being in a creek bottom I figured she’d either be dead in that bed or I’d be able to get a shot in the morning sneaking in from another direction. I headed back to the truck and got a call asking where I was, still had 4 minutes until my hard time and told them I’d be 2-3 min late. Got check out just fine but with a disgruntled attendant for making them wait an extra minute or two. Fast forward to the next morning it was pouring so I waited for the rain to lift and head down at 10 am and walked right to the oxbow and 20 yds from where I was the night before and had seen the eye amongst he downed trees was the carcass’of my doe. Sometime we’ll before the rain storm coyotes had gotten to her. Nothing left but the spine and hide. They had carried off the head, shoulders, and rear leg bones. Not a drop of blood to be seen and no signs of her moving from the last spot I’d seen her. Thinking back on the track the sheer amount of blood involved lead me to believe she was dead when I saw the eye. Due to past experience coupled with Blood trailing on base being cutoff due to time restrictions I aired on the side of caution and decided to wait until the morning instead of risking bumping her or returning too late and losing hunting privileges for the family on base. It sucks to lose the meat for the freezer but it was alearning experience tracking that deer. It was the strangest track I’ve had so far.
 

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