I've been watching this buck for the last couple years and finally got an opportunity on him yesterday!!
The day started with a run back to the store where I bought my hunting licence because upon inspection of my licence and tag, I found out to my surprise that the kid at the register mistakenly sold me a 2013 licence and tag!!
A word of advice......don't assume the people selling you your licence always know what they are doing because they don't!!!..... I could have run into some serious problems had I not double checked things!
My initial plan was to be in the stand before first light and sit all day but after getting my licence and tag situation squared away it was more like 8:30.
It wasn't 15 Min's after getting settled in the stand before deer started to show up. By 11:00 I had 4 different bucks and about 5 does make their way through. I opted to pass on a decent 4x4 knowing that this guy was in the area. I had good deer activity all day until about 2:00, then nothing until about 3:00 before a doe and fawn showed up again! This guy showed up at about 3:30 and wasn't in very long before presenting a shot opportunity!
I wish I could say that I made a perfect shot and he didn't go 50 yards but sadly that was not the case!!
With the buck quartering away from me my shot hit too far back and missed the vitals!!
Immediately feeling disgusted with myself I got out of the stand and went to retrieve my arrow that was sticking in the ground on the opposite side of where he was standing!
Knowing that a buck can live a long time and go a long ways with a gut injury I had a decision to make. It had been snowing all day and was still snowing and I knew that if i decided to give him till morning before beginning my persuit I would virtually have no chance of finding him because the new snow would cover any blood or tracks.
Some may feel I made the wrong decision by choosing an immediate persuit but I felt like it was my best chance given the fact that his tracks would soon be covered by a fresh blanket of snow and i only had about an hour and a half until dark...... I hadn't tracked him more than about 100 yards before jumping him out of his bed, there wasn't much blood to follow so I was left mostly to following his tracks through the fresh snow. He went another 100 yards or so and bed down again but by the time I got there he was already gone again. He and I began to repeat the same process over and over for about 1/2 a mile, he would go 50 to 100 yards and bed down and despite my best efforts at a quiet stalk i would jump him again. He began loosing more blood which helped me in my persuit and I could tell he was hurting bad because he was going shorter and shorter distances before bedding down. I finally got withing about 30 yards of him but before being able to get a shot he jumped and ran one more time. This time he didn't go more than about 40 yards before bedding down again right in the middle of one of the thickest patches of trees and brush around.
I lost his tracks where he went into the thick brush and actually walked within 20 yards of him and didn't know it until about 2 minutes later when I began to backtrack a bit.
To my surprise I spotted him about 15 yards away bedded down looking right at me. I didn't have a decent shot because of how thick it was but I knew right where his vitals were behind all the twigs and brush..... With no other options and not wanting to jump him again I said a quick prayer that somehow my arrow would find its way through all the branches and put this poor guy out of his misery.......
Fortunately my arrow found its mark and went right through both lungs!! He jumped up for the last time and went about 15 yards before piling up and I began one long and exhausting drag back to the truck!
I tracked this guy close to 3/4 of a mile before finally getting the chance to finish him off.....I sure wish I would have made a better first shot and avoided all the hassle and especially putting this guy through the pain of a gut shot, but unfortunately sometimes things don't go exactly as planned. I'm just glad in the end I was able to get another arrow in him instead of loosing him for good!!
