Swamper
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2019
- Messages
- 10
It has been a slow season for me this year with few deer sightings from the saddle. I have been putting in at least one sit a week since September 14th, bouncing around from WMA to WMA hitting some of my favorite spots.
This past weekend everything came together and I was able to take my first saddle hunting deer. I found myself setup in the tree around 6am. The darkness faded and light flooded the creek bottom. Around 8am I looked to my right(weekside) and saw a deer moving my way. I reached for my bow and looked again at the deer and saw it was a doe. She was feeding slowly and without much direction. It looked as though she would pass by on my right so I turn 270 degrees and prepared for a shot. Unfortunately after ten minutes at 25 yards with no opening to shoot through she fed in the opposite direction.
I settled back into a comfortable position and resumed waiting for an opportunity, hoping she might feed my way eventually. 11am came quickly with only a few squirrel sightings. I had sent some text messages and was mostly day dreaming when I heard a noise down to my left. I glanced down expecting to see a squirrel but was shocked to see the back end of a deer showing behind a small palm tree at only 13 yards.
I had previously lengthened my tether so I was in a sitting position. I reached for my bow that was hanging on the left side of the tree. The deer stepped forward and I saw that it was a buck. I could see the buck had a decent fork on both sides and I looked closely for brow tines to confirm he was legal for the area (3 pts on one side). The deer was walking a line parallel to my tree. I drew my bow and when he stepped into and opening I bleated at him. The buck did not hear me so I tried again, and again he did not hear me and continued walking. The breeze moving through the trees must of muffled my attempts.
I held my draw as the deer walked behind a few trees and when he stepped in another opening I tried another bleat and he still continued. Finally I yelled MEEEEEYYYHHHH!!!! The deer stopped in place broadside about 12 yards from my tree, I steadied my pin behind his shoulder and pulled through my release. The shot broke and my arrow found its mark behind the shoulder passing through the deer. He bounded away curving to my weak side and disappeared from view.
I heard him run into water or maybe it was him crashing I wasn’t sure. I waited about 25 minutes before quietly climbing down and packing my gear. I inspected the arrow and though it had blood on it the blood was not bright red and mostly dried quickly leaving it looking dark and thick. I quietly looked for blood for 10-15 yards, I found none and decided to head back to the truck and give the deer a couple hours.
Around 1pm, two hours after the shot I headed back in with deer cart in tow. By the time I got back to the place of the shot it had been about 2 1/2 hours since the shot. I started where I left off and after 40ish yards of zigzagging I found and spot of blood about the size of a dime. 5 yards farther was a small depression filled with water. I worked my away around to the left but found no blood. I went back to the the spot of blood and worked around the right side of the depression. There I found a few more spots of blood but not nearly the amount one would hope to find.
Now I at least had a line of travel and continued slowly looking for blood. After 15 more yards or so I did not find any more blood and stopped to scan the terrain ahead. To my relief I saw the white belly of the deer laying up ahead! He turned out to be a basket rack 8pt, a decent buck for public land in Florida. It was great hunt that I won’t soon forget, thanks for reading.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This past weekend everything came together and I was able to take my first saddle hunting deer. I found myself setup in the tree around 6am. The darkness faded and light flooded the creek bottom. Around 8am I looked to my right(weekside) and saw a deer moving my way. I reached for my bow and looked again at the deer and saw it was a doe. She was feeding slowly and without much direction. It looked as though she would pass by on my right so I turn 270 degrees and prepared for a shot. Unfortunately after ten minutes at 25 yards with no opening to shoot through she fed in the opposite direction.
I settled back into a comfortable position and resumed waiting for an opportunity, hoping she might feed my way eventually. 11am came quickly with only a few squirrel sightings. I had sent some text messages and was mostly day dreaming when I heard a noise down to my left. I glanced down expecting to see a squirrel but was shocked to see the back end of a deer showing behind a small palm tree at only 13 yards.
I had previously lengthened my tether so I was in a sitting position. I reached for my bow that was hanging on the left side of the tree. The deer stepped forward and I saw that it was a buck. I could see the buck had a decent fork on both sides and I looked closely for brow tines to confirm he was legal for the area (3 pts on one side). The deer was walking a line parallel to my tree. I drew my bow and when he stepped into and opening I bleated at him. The buck did not hear me so I tried again, and again he did not hear me and continued walking. The breeze moving through the trees must of muffled my attempts.
I held my draw as the deer walked behind a few trees and when he stepped in another opening I tried another bleat and he still continued. Finally I yelled MEEEEEYYYHHHH!!!! The deer stopped in place broadside about 12 yards from my tree, I steadied my pin behind his shoulder and pulled through my release. The shot broke and my arrow found its mark behind the shoulder passing through the deer. He bounded away curving to my weak side and disappeared from view.
I heard him run into water or maybe it was him crashing I wasn’t sure. I waited about 25 minutes before quietly climbing down and packing my gear. I inspected the arrow and though it had blood on it the blood was not bright red and mostly dried quickly leaving it looking dark and thick. I quietly looked for blood for 10-15 yards, I found none and decided to head back to the truck and give the deer a couple hours.
Around 1pm, two hours after the shot I headed back in with deer cart in tow. By the time I got back to the place of the shot it had been about 2 1/2 hours since the shot. I started where I left off and after 40ish yards of zigzagging I found and spot of blood about the size of a dime. 5 yards farther was a small depression filled with water. I worked my away around to the left but found no blood. I went back to the the spot of blood and worked around the right side of the depression. There I found a few more spots of blood but not nearly the amount one would hope to find.
Now I at least had a line of travel and continued slowly looking for blood. After 15 more yards or so I did not find any more blood and stopped to scan the terrain ahead. To my relief I saw the white belly of the deer laying up ahead! He turned out to be a basket rack 8pt, a decent buck for public land in Florida. It was great hunt that I won’t soon forget, thanks for reading.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
