Ok so first off, looks like my buck will not count for team points.
While I was wearing my saddle at the time of the shot, I actually was on the ground. I don’t want to be the guy that misrepresents the truth just for points since that is not what the competition is all about. So here is the story…
Here is how the day played out. Left the house at 3:20am. Walked a mile in from the parking lot to a transition from a marshy bedding area and a hardwood ridge. I was set up in the saddle for the morning sit by 5:00am and sat until 9:30 (not seeing anything but squirrels). So I decided to climb down and do some scouting for fresher sign. Found a scrape the size of a car hood not far from where I was set up that morning but the scrape appeared to not have been worked for a couple of days. I decided to keep looking and checked out another ridge that I hunted once a couple years ago. I came across a fresh rub (shavings on top of the leaves and still wet), a freshly worked scrape and 2 other fresh rubs along that ridge and it had 3 parallel trails (one at the top, one at 1/3 down the ridge and the other at the bottom of the ridge) so that was the fresh sign I was looking for. I set up in the saddle in a tree 1/3 down the ridge which would have given me a shot to all 3 of the trails but I was betting on him using the bottom trail since that is where the scrape and rubs were located. At 1:30, I decide I better do some practice draws to make sure I would be able to draw at the moment of truth. Turns out, I couldn't draw for a weak side shot because of how the limbs on this tree were situated and how I had to set up on the tree to not be exposed to any of the trails. I tore down my setup and surveyed the immediate area for a better option. I even thought about hanging 1 stick up to get below the obstructions. I decided my best option was to fashion up a makeshift ground blind behind a V-shaped tree at the top of the ridge for the afternoon. I literally was kneeling on the top trail. Fighting through a few hours of my feet falling asleep and my back getting wrecked from sitting on my backpack. Now I’m thinking, hanging sure is more comfortable. Should I bag it and do some more scouting on my long walk back to the truck. Thankfully my better sense prevailed and I decide d it would be stupid to leave at prime time after putting in an all day effort.
At 4:04, I hear a grunt off to my left and I look over and see a body moving toward me through some pretty thick cover about 25 yards away. Couple more steps and I catch a glimpse of antlers. A fleeting thought flies through my head, holy spit this is actually going to work followed by a don’t screw this up dummy moment. Gotta love the ebbs and flows of hunting emotions. He is now at 20 yards and closing at a steady pace. At that point, I still wasn’t sure if he was going to take the top trail or the trail 1/3 down the ridge. I’m on my knees hugging close to the v shaped tree so he doesn’t spot me before he clears the edge of the thicket. Now he is just 10 yards to my left and when he hits the edge of the thicket. I draw undetected. A few more steps and he is in my shooting lane in front of me at 5 yards. At 4:05 the arrow was gone. I really didn’t even have time to look at his antlers (which was perfect for me) but at 5 yards, he looked huge.
I had my adjustable sight set for 22 yards which was the distance down to the trail at the bottom of the ridge. Needless to say, the shot was a little high but hit double lungs. Exit was mid body because of the downward angle of the shot from the slope of the ridge. I had hair and good looking blood at the shot site and I thought I heard him crash in the marsh grass 50 yards away. All is quiet so After a few minutes, I creep down to look for the arrow. No sight of it. Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, I was sure it was a passthrough with a 580gn arrow, fixed cutthroat head at 5 yards and where I saw it enter. I follow blood out into the marsh where I thought I heard him crash but no sign of him. Now I start second guessing what I thought I saw. No arrow, blood in the marsh grass was not great, it is getting dark at this point. Maybe I should back out. I pack up thinking I need to loop around to the other side of the marsh grass on my way back to the truck anyway. I’ll look for blood on the other side. Sure enough, I find good blood where he entered the hardwoods. Easy track from there about 75 yards up that hardwood ridge where I find him piled up.
To be honest, he had some ground shrinkage from how much mass I thought he had but he was a shooter for me any day regardless. This is my biggest bow buck to date by far. Admired him, sat down and savored the moment and thanked God for the opportunity to be out there.
circling back to the scouting. The buck still had cedar shavings stuck at the base of his antlers that matched the shavings at the base of the tree that had the first fresh rub I found so I’m pretty confident he was the one that laid down all that fresh sign earlier that day out. I am addicted to this mobile game. What an EPIC experience!
Pic of the huge scrape:
The fresh rub with shavings on top of the leaves:
The V shaped tree that became my ground blind:
Shavings in the bucks antlers:
Full body shot before taking a ride to the processor this morning:
