pasinthrough
Senior Member
This is going to be long, but please indulge me as I don’t post this long stuff very often.
For starters, I am so very blessed in my life to have made so many friends and opportunities throughout my life. I have been lucky enough to take 90 big game animals as of daylight on 10-31-14, but number 91, I probably will never top.
91 came in a blur and if it were not for the other 90, I seriously doubt I would have been able to take this buck. I use all the experience I have every time I go in the woods. I am a firm believer that young hunters should shoot as many critters as possible to gain the experience killing before setting their sights on only trophy animals. With experience comes confidence and confidence equals photo opportunities, at least in my experience.
We have a nice elevation funnel we hunt where there is a steep hill behind the stand and a small terrace from the base of the stand out for about 15 yards. On this terrace, there are 3 major trails that are bare dirt and they run east/west. Frank suggested I hunt that stand Friday morning so I arrived about an hour before light and got into position without bumping anything on the way. I walked down to the trail that ran 8 yards in front of the stand and sprayed some estrus and a little BFO on the trail and on the opposite side, hoping to get a buck to turn his head away from me if he came down the trail. I sat for the next 3:45 not seeing a deer and was about to give up. I texted Frank and told him it was a bust and his reply was to hang in until 10:30. Most of the morning I had been standing due to how thick the privit was around the stand. I sat down about 10 til 10. At straight up 10am, I hear a footstep and catch a glimpse of a deer 15 yards to my left moving on the dirt path. I stood, turned to grab my bow when I saw it was a big bodied buck. I turned back, hooked my release on the loop and when my eyes shifted to my shooting lane, the bucks nose entered as he was on a steady walk. I have no conscious recollection of the bow drawing, but do remember the peep was at my eye and the sight picture was a familiar one with sight pin and target pretty much in line. I thought about stopping the buck and also thought he might stop at my scent station, but when the shot felt right, I let it go. This entire event happened in 10-12 seconds and those seconds felt like micro seconds. As with shooting most walking deer, my shot was back more that I wanted. As the deer ran off, I could see a red spot appear at the entry spot about 4x6 inches and I watched the deer make a small loop and disappear over a small ridge about 100 yards away. I followed a decent blood trail to where I last saw him and through a consult with Frank, decided to back out a full 8 hours.
During the day, I called several folks to seek advice. All were very helpful and although it was very tough, waiting was the right move. Scott Lopez offered to bring his dog Zeva as my young pup has had no experience baying one yet. My intention was to let Zoey track from the hit site to where I lost blood and see if she could give us a better direction on where he went. We returned at 6 pm and started. Zoey followed the bucks trail to a T and then another 75-100 yards after until we were in a dry pond site where there were two patches of blood. From there, Frank and I felt the buck had gone over the earthen wall used to hold back the water. (The word for that will be flagged on this forum) We went across and down behind the pond. As Zoey worked, she became more excited. Frank and I split up about 40 yards and I worked Zoey around a little more. As I came back towards Frank, he turned to me and smiled. I know I looked at him weird, but then I looked behind him. What I saw was my buck about 50 yards away, lying flat out and not moving.
We all three went to the deer and quite honestly, I’ve never been more shocked than I was right then. Although I knew the buck I shot was a big one, I never dreamed he was the size of deer I was looking at right then. Frank said I took a few steps back with a slightly confused look on my face. I was dumbfounded. We spent the next hour sending photos out to friends and family and getting that beast out of the woods. We run 5-6 cameras on this property and have never seen him before. Frank talked to a hunter down the road a couple of miles who said he has photos from 3 or 4 years and I’m anxious to see them. We think he is around 6 or 7 years old and his gross green score is just over 160 with his live weight being 190#. I’ll update the rack score after the 60 day drying time and with an official score sheet. Deer down south like this one just don’t come along nearly often enough. This buck was killed in Aiken County, South Carolina, free range and with only archery gear. I’ve had a rough couple of years where I did not capitalize on my opportunities. A buck like this makes you forget all the other mishaps through the years.
Our success relies heavily on making the right decisions at the right time. Had I chose another stand, not stayed long enough, went after the buck too quickly, not had a tracking dog, not practiced enough, etc, etc, etc. Completely different outcome. I owe a lot of people thanks for giving advice both archery related and life lessons. You are NEVER at a point where you can’t learn something from someone! We may not always agree, but take the time to hear folks out as you never know where the next piece of valuable information will come from…
For starters, I am so very blessed in my life to have made so many friends and opportunities throughout my life. I have been lucky enough to take 90 big game animals as of daylight on 10-31-14, but number 91, I probably will never top.
91 came in a blur and if it were not for the other 90, I seriously doubt I would have been able to take this buck. I use all the experience I have every time I go in the woods. I am a firm believer that young hunters should shoot as many critters as possible to gain the experience killing before setting their sights on only trophy animals. With experience comes confidence and confidence equals photo opportunities, at least in my experience.
We have a nice elevation funnel we hunt where there is a steep hill behind the stand and a small terrace from the base of the stand out for about 15 yards. On this terrace, there are 3 major trails that are bare dirt and they run east/west. Frank suggested I hunt that stand Friday morning so I arrived about an hour before light and got into position without bumping anything on the way. I walked down to the trail that ran 8 yards in front of the stand and sprayed some estrus and a little BFO on the trail and on the opposite side, hoping to get a buck to turn his head away from me if he came down the trail. I sat for the next 3:45 not seeing a deer and was about to give up. I texted Frank and told him it was a bust and his reply was to hang in until 10:30. Most of the morning I had been standing due to how thick the privit was around the stand. I sat down about 10 til 10. At straight up 10am, I hear a footstep and catch a glimpse of a deer 15 yards to my left moving on the dirt path. I stood, turned to grab my bow when I saw it was a big bodied buck. I turned back, hooked my release on the loop and when my eyes shifted to my shooting lane, the bucks nose entered as he was on a steady walk. I have no conscious recollection of the bow drawing, but do remember the peep was at my eye and the sight picture was a familiar one with sight pin and target pretty much in line. I thought about stopping the buck and also thought he might stop at my scent station, but when the shot felt right, I let it go. This entire event happened in 10-12 seconds and those seconds felt like micro seconds. As with shooting most walking deer, my shot was back more that I wanted. As the deer ran off, I could see a red spot appear at the entry spot about 4x6 inches and I watched the deer make a small loop and disappear over a small ridge about 100 yards away. I followed a decent blood trail to where I last saw him and through a consult with Frank, decided to back out a full 8 hours.
During the day, I called several folks to seek advice. All were very helpful and although it was very tough, waiting was the right move. Scott Lopez offered to bring his dog Zeva as my young pup has had no experience baying one yet. My intention was to let Zoey track from the hit site to where I lost blood and see if she could give us a better direction on where he went. We returned at 6 pm and started. Zoey followed the bucks trail to a T and then another 75-100 yards after until we were in a dry pond site where there were two patches of blood. From there, Frank and I felt the buck had gone over the earthen wall used to hold back the water. (The word for that will be flagged on this forum) We went across and down behind the pond. As Zoey worked, she became more excited. Frank and I split up about 40 yards and I worked Zoey around a little more. As I came back towards Frank, he turned to me and smiled. I know I looked at him weird, but then I looked behind him. What I saw was my buck about 50 yards away, lying flat out and not moving.
We all three went to the deer and quite honestly, I’ve never been more shocked than I was right then. Although I knew the buck I shot was a big one, I never dreamed he was the size of deer I was looking at right then. Frank said I took a few steps back with a slightly confused look on my face. I was dumbfounded. We spent the next hour sending photos out to friends and family and getting that beast out of the woods. We run 5-6 cameras on this property and have never seen him before. Frank talked to a hunter down the road a couple of miles who said he has photos from 3 or 4 years and I’m anxious to see them. We think he is around 6 or 7 years old and his gross green score is just over 160 with his live weight being 190#. I’ll update the rack score after the 60 day drying time and with an official score sheet. Deer down south like this one just don’t come along nearly often enough. This buck was killed in Aiken County, South Carolina, free range and with only archery gear. I’ve had a rough couple of years where I did not capitalize on my opportunities. A buck like this makes you forget all the other mishaps through the years.
Our success relies heavily on making the right decisions at the right time. Had I chose another stand, not stayed long enough, went after the buck too quickly, not had a tracking dog, not practiced enough, etc, etc, etc. Completely different outcome. I owe a lot of people thanks for giving advice both archery related and life lessons. You are NEVER at a point where you can’t learn something from someone! We may not always agree, but take the time to hear folks out as you never know where the next piece of valuable information will come from…
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Any chance I can borrow your horse shoe. I don't care if it is from South Carolina. 
