I apologize for being AWOL the last couple of weeks. Except for a couple of one night trips home I've been remote since Oct. 27th. Coverage is spotty at camp and, honestly, I hate typing on my phone. In a nutshell I have had a rough camp season. It's usually wet here during that time frame with lake effect rain showers but this year was exceptionally so. I have struggled to find the quality of bucks I'm looking for although I have been inundated with 1.5 year olds so next year should be okay.
I think I posted on Nov. 9th that I missed one, not once but twice, on that morning. That afternoon I went back to the same spot and hit a pretty nice 8 point that I ended up not recovering. I was in the tree less than 10 minutes when I had an absolute monster buck for this area feeding under a beech about 50yds away. I tried grunting him in but he ended up wandering out of sight. Less than 3 minutes later (I was still considering grunting again) a doe with a decent 8 point behind her came running under me. I managed to stop the buck with a MEH as he ran through but he was quartering to pretty significantly. I hit him solidly and he collapsed on the spot. The shot looked good to me at the time. He laid there motionless for several minutes and I even picked up my phone and texted my buddies that I had one down. I hit send and he stood up and stumbled off about 50 yds before he fell down again within sight. He laid there for a solid 5 minutes before he struggled to his feet again and wandered up the hill. I waited 45 minutes before I got out of the tree and packed up my stuff. I was sure I'd find him within 30 yds of that last bed. The arrow had come out, less broadhead, at the first tree he passed. It was obvious I had a solid 8-10 inches of penetration from the blood on the shaft.
Here is where I think I screwed up. Based on his reactions after the shot and the awesome blood trail I proceeded to track him for about 300 yds that evening (it wasn't even close to dark yet). In hindsight I should have just backed out after the first hundred yds. I know better but I was sure he was done. After the 300 yds I then backed out and went back to camp. The following morning I picked up the still awesome blood trail and followed it for another 450 yds before losing it in a set of pines. I called a dog tracker who declined to respond based on the fact he felt it was a shoulder/one lung shot that had already been tracked a half mile. Can't really blame him, he's busy this time of year and he has to make judgement calls on which tracks to take on. I spent a couple more hours grid searching the pines, in and around them but to no avail.
The morning of the 12th the conditions were right and I returned to the same general spot but a different tree about 50 yds away from the tree I hit the deer from. I had a different, although smaller 8 point chase a doe right under that tree. I managed to stop that running buck with a couple of MEHs at 5 yds but my old shoulder acted up at the wrong moment and I found myself unable to get the bow to full draw. Try as I might I couldn't get that thing back (my shoulder still hurts today from the effort). The buck walked off about 10 yds a looked at me in the tree as if he was laughing at me . . . "Look at that silly old man trying to shoot me."
He eventually continued his chase. Bottomline no points from the bow deer camp but lots of close encounters. At this point in the year I've have 54 sits totaling 183 hours of saddle time with nothing to show for it. That's how it goes some times though. Heads still up and I'm heading back to the camp area tomorrow for the first Saturday of our rifle season. It has historically been a good day for me so I hope tomorrow works this year too.
Bottom line, there's lots of season left for me and I'm not giving up, still having fun and enjoying every sit.
