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First Saddle and Bow Buck - Redemption!

HaunSolo

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2020
Messages
225
Saturday night I successfully harvested a buck - my first deer with a bow and my first deer from a saddle. Here's the story....



Background

I'm an adult-onset hunter. I tried hunting in high school but between the EHD in the area, other hunters, and my inability to sit still, I never had much luck. However, I tried again in college and in 2017 I killed my first buck with a shotgun while sitting on a bucket in a brush blind. Since then, I have been hooked. I bought my first saddle in 2020 and have been sporadically hunting out of a saddle up until this year. This year, for various reasons, I committed to hunting solely out of my saddle and nothing else.



The Curse


One of my frustrations over the years has been my inability to kill bucks in consecutive seasons. It’s like I am cursed. I took a buck in 2017, wounded one in 2018, killed another in 2019, wounded one in 2020, and killed one in 2021. This year I hoped to break the curse by taking a good buck.



The Curse Manifests Again

On Friday, 10/14/2022, I left work early to go hunt my best spot. This spot overlooks a flat that is located between two valleys that used to be strip coal mines. On this flat I have planted a mix of clover, annual rye, and chicory. Deer activity is high in this area, especially before the rut. In previous years I typically saw more mature buck movement in the early season at this spot than later in the season. The plot runs in a diagonal from the Northwest towards the Southeast. We had a very strong wind Friday afternoon, with gusts out of the west up to 35 mph. However, as the sun started to set the wind died down.

FoodPlot.jpg

Around 5:30 p.m. a small four pointer entered the plot. I watched as the small buck milled around the area for 30 minutes. At 6:00 p.m. a doe and two small fawns entered the plot. I knew this doe; she beds in the area with these fawns and I had spooked her before getting in and out of my tree. While the other deer fed, she came within 20 yards of my tree and circled and looked in my direction, trying to figure me out. Around this same time a nice 7-point buck entered the plot. Based on his body he appeared to be 3.5-4.5 years old, and his rack looked to be about 115-120 inches typical – plenty big for my first bow/saddle buck. He worked his way within thirty yards broadside. I took my time, drew back, and released. The arrow hit a little low and back, but he ran hard. I got the whole thing on my GoPro:


I gave the buck a little over an hour before tracking. I reviewed the footage at the house with my dad and brother who were going to help with retrieval. They all thought the shot and reaction looked good. However, the blood trail told a different story. First, we looked but were unable to recover the arrow. We found first blood about 30 yards from where I shot the buck. The blood did not indicate a gut shot and didn’t appear dark enough to be a liver shot. The blood had no bubbles in it and appeared to be a little watery. From there the blood trail was poor. A few drips here or there every 10 or 15 yards. We trailed the blood about 200 yards before it stopped. The buck never bedded down. We decided to back out. It rained overnight, washing away any blood that was left. I came back the following morning at 4:00 a.m. and grid searched with my dad in the cold misty weather for three hours and we found nothing. I contacted a member of the United Bloodtrackers that was nearby and he felt, based on the information provided, that the deer was probably not mortally wounded (although he couldn’t say for sure without brining out a dog). However, the issue with bringing out a dog is that he would start the dog beyond where we had grid searched, so he could start on fresh scent. My father and I had grid searched all the property we had access to. Ultimately, we felt we made an exhaustive effort and came to the consensus that the deer was likely going to survive.

The Curse is Broken

Saturday morning after grid searching I bought my dad some Hardee’s for breakfast as a way to say thank you. On the way to Hardee’s we saw 12 deer, including three nice bucks in a field across from where we hunt. One buck walked towards the road and stared at us in the truck, almost taunting me.

I spent the rest of the day at home with my wife and son. I watched the footage of the shot over and over. I felt bad having wounded an animal – but I felt even worse that I screwed up the opportunity because I had spent so much of my weekend away from my family. I felt like I had not only let myself down, but also my family because I came home empty handed.

I decided to go back out to the same exact spot Saturday night. The wind was similar to the night before but with less gusts. Friday night was overcast but Saturday was clear and sunny. Around 5:00 p.m. a small button buck came in and fed in the plot for 15 minutes and then left. “That’s probably all for tonight” I thought. I was wrong. At approximately 5:45 p.m. a buck appeared from the thick brush to the south west of my position. He came out, checked a scrape, and then came into the plot. He worked his way through the plot completely broadside to me. He was about 30 yards from me – almost the exact range as the buck the night before. I decided to let him get closer so I didn’t repeat the night before. He started to move my direction, quartering towards me. I was shaking like crazy. I slowly attached my release and positioned myself comfortably in my saddle. When the buck came within 25 yards from me, he stopped and realized something wasn’t quite right. He slowly turned and started walking back the opposite direction, now quartering away. After he turned, I drew back and steadied myself. The buck was standing within two yards of the buck I had shot the night before. I released the arrow. The arrow hit with a loud, hollow sound. The buck ran hard, but unlike the deer from the night before, this buck had his tail down the whole time. He was almost squatting as he ran. I felt much better about this shot – it looked like it hit him right behind the shoulder at center height.

We waited 2 hours before trailing. Once again, I drug my dad and my brother along to help. We recovered the arrow; it had completely passed through the deer and was covered in red blood. Additionally, I found lung blood on the ground where I had shot the deer. The trail was much better this night. We followed the consistent trail over a fence and down into a valley. The blood trail really picked up in the valley, it was spraying everywhere. We were finding 2’ diameter spots where blood had sprayed all over. When we got to the bottom of the valley I looked up and saw him crashed against a tree. He had run about 80 yards total. The curse was over.
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Equipment

For this hunt I used the following equipment:

Trophyline Covert Prime Saddle

Tethrd Predator Platform

Sampson Predator Rope(DRT Climbed)

Mission UX2 bow at 55lbs. and 29 in draw(hand me down from my brother)

Easton Bowhunter 6.5mm arrows with G5 Montec Broadheads(381 grains total arrow weight)



Notes

I was very worried about my total arrow weight being too low this year. This is my first year bowhunting (I’ve used crossbow in the past) in a long time and I just went with what my local bow shop recommended. I made sure to sharpen my Montec’s until they were shaving hair on my arm. Overall, I felt the performance of the Montec was good. Both shots were pass throughs. The arrow on Saturday night entered right behind the deer’s shoulder, cut through the lungs, heart, and part of the esophagus before exiting in front of the deer’s offside shoulder. I was very happy with that result. At the end of the day placement is key, although I’ll likely up my arrow weight and try Magnus stinger’s next year.

My dad made up a device that straps to a tree with a Harbor Freight winch for recovering deer. It took a few minutes to set up but it was much better on all of us than dragging the deer up the steep valley.

The deer dressed right at 150 lbs. and I figure his rack will net just barely 100 inches typical. Not my biggest but I'm very happy with the deer.
 
Nice work.

We’re you able to zoom in on the video footage and confirm where your point of impact was on the first?
 
Nice work.

We’re you able to zoom in on the video footage and confirm where your point of impact was on the first?

I zoomed in on the video in VLC Media Player but it gets really grainy so I can't really determine the shot location. I was able to watch a closeup slowmo of his reaction and at first I thought it was good but if you watch it as he runs off he lifts his tail, which in hindsight I think gives some substance to my belief that it wasn't a mortal wound. On the other hand I know that deer reactions aren't always indicative of shot quality.
 
Nice write up! Congrats again fellow team member. From your description of the blood from that first hit and the approximate location, it seems like a muscle hit in the lower thigh area of the back leg???? It's hard to tell from the video but that red non oxygenated blood sounds like muscle or liver but you would have found that deer if was a liver hit.
 
Nice write up! Congrats again fellow team member. From your description of the blood from that first hit and the approximate location, it seems like a muscle hit in the lower thigh area of the back leg???? It's hard to tell from the video but that red non oxygenated blood sounds like muscle or liver but you would have found that deer if was a liver hit.

Based on my recollection of the shot I hit him about where the red dot is located in this picture. Best I can figure is that shooting a small diameter broadhead(relatively speaking), with a low shot and a downward angle, maybe I just clipped something and gave him a nasty cut on his belly. Also, I noticed when I re-watched the video that the doe spooked and blew right before I released - perhaps that had an effect?

whitetail-deer-buck-standing-broadside-facing-camera-beautiful-whitetail-deer-buck-standing-am...jpg

I was hoping it was liver but he never bedded down, he just kept moving. I liver shot my first buck in 2017 and that buck bedded down and died about 150 yards from where I shot him. My dad liver shot a buck back in the '90s and it bedded down within a few hundred yards, but it took awhile to die. This deer just never seemed to stop moving. When I grid searched the whole property I paid special attention to bedding areas but I saw nothing.
 
Congrats and keep at it as losing a deer unintentionally happens to the best of us but keep at it and you will continue your success
 
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