Silent observer

[longbowdave1]

Loosed an arrow at first light.

 

[longbowdave1]

Story to follow. kilt with the warf bow from ground blind.

 

[longbowdave1]

 

[JB in GA]

Man that’s great... ?

 

[longbowdave1]

I sat down in my ground blind that I had built, and readied for the mornings hunt. At first light the buck came walking in front of me at 15 yards paralleling the wood line I was hiding in.As he passed my blind, instincts took over, and the arrow was burning in his side with a loud hollow sounding thump. He bolted upon impact, and ran to the northern woodline. I felt real good about the shot. But still waited a few hours to track him.i found no arrow at the site of the shot, so figured it was still in his side. No blood until he hit the woodline 75 yards away. Then it appeared to be blowing out hit mouth, but spray every 10 feet. I felt more confident in finding him then. Another 50 yards and he was piled up. Very emotional to see him laying there, with a blood soaked arrow in his chest. I was actually shooting slightly uphill at him. The arrow took out both lungs and had penetrated the far side. I believe when he went down he pushed the arrow back out aways. I stuck to my plan, and used no scent, calls, or gimmicks. Patiently waited for my chance all week. He was a big bodied deer, at least he sure felt heavy dragging him out and wheeling him back to camp.

It was a long road to recovery to be able to hunt with the trad bows again. Several years, almost gave up hope. Thank you Lord for giving me the strength to come back. To get with the Warf bow was a double bonus.

I've got two doe tags yet, back at it tonight. Oh, I did see a bigger 8 point, and a smaller 6 point this morning. All be for 7am.

 

[longbowdave1]

Saw a real nice buck out in the field just before dark. One more hunt in the morning, then it's time to break camp and head home. I'd love to have a crack at a doe in the morning. Hope all of you have had a good weekend of hunting as well.

 

[JB in GA]

Nice play-by-play...
I went the climbing stand route yesterday, saw three in the morning and got rained out in the afternoon. During the on and off light rain I had a doe get right by me from left to right; I couldn’t hear well at all from the rain. Later heard/saw a small buck grunting up two does about 60-70 yards away. Oh well, it’s hunting not killing, ha ha.

 

[longbowdave1]

Nice play-by-play...
I went the climbing stand route yesterday, saw three in the morning and got rained out in the afternoon. During the on and off light rain I had a doe get right by me from left to right; I couldn’t hear well at all from the rain. Later heard/saw a small buck grunting up two does about 60-70 yards away. Oh well, it’s hunting not killing, ha ha.
View attachment 1048708

Sounds fun. Hope you connect soon.

 

[longbowdave1]

Yesterday afternoon, I headed back to my blind and saw a bald eagle come soaring out of the woodline, he was dining on the gut pile. Saw a lone doe last night. This morning was warm and very windy. Saw a young buck chasing a doe in the field. He was just relentless following her, looked like two fighter pilots in a dog fight. All in all, a great week of bowhunting ! Good luck to you.

 

[bowhunterdavid]

Congrats Mr. Dave, proud for you!!

 

[splatek]

Good luck on your hunt's. Patience is the best weapon in your arsenal during the rut. A deer can come your way any time if day from any direction. Just about the time I'm getting impatient, a deer is right on top me from nowhere. Also bucks chasing can come crashing through like a freight train. Be ready at all times. Plan your hunt, and hunt your plan.

Thanks again for this advice. Was able to sneak out to a property in the hills yesterday. Worked my way in the dark and found a good tree with cover right on the edge of an old pine/cedar thicket (~15-20 years old; the trees were about 4-6' in diameter). Saw two does and one small buck all of which were out of recurve range. When I called it for the day, i walked out of the spot right tight to the thicket and I found a huge trail opening with an old (last year) rub that was the size of my fist leading into it. I backtracked that along a current, fresh rub line, but on much smaller trees. Then I continued and found what looked like it could be a good buck bedding area right at the base of this thicket.

I don't know, in principle it looks like a perfect area for deer, but knowing the deer density of the NoGA mountains... It could just be a pipe dream. HA! Going to keep getting after it and hopefully I will have some more success this season.

 

[longbowdave1]

Thanks again for this advice. Was able to sneak out to a property in the hills yesterday. Worked my way in the dark and found a good tree with cover right on the edge of an old pine/cedar thicket (~15-20 years old; the trees were about 4-6' in diameter). Saw two does and one small buck all of which were out of recurve range. When I called it for the day, i walked out of the spot right tight to the thicket and I found a huge trail opening with an old (last year) rub that was the size of my fist leading into it. I backtracked that along a current, fresh rub line, but on much smaller trees. Then I continued and found what looked like it could be a good buck bedding area right at the base of this thicket.

I don't know, in principle it looks like a perfect area for deer, but knowing the deer density of the NoGA mountains... It could just be a pipe dream. HA! Going to keep getting after it and hopefully I will have some more success this season.

Best of luck to you. If I can do it, anyone can. Lol

 

[antharper]

What a week , congrats Dave on a beautiful buck ! Well earned

 

[longbowdave1]

What a week , congrats Dave on a beautiful buck ! Well earned

Thanks Ant. It was a fun week, some 3 really nice bucks. It's a true test of patience hunting an entire week. No better feeling than tracking your deer and seeing him piled up.

 

[longbowdave1]

My brother took this picture of me in the blind. The deer never had a clue I was in there. Besides a brush pile in front of me, I built a weaved wall of branches in a vertical fashion behind me to hide my outline.

 

[longbowdave1]

Last week I put in every hour that I could, maybe only missed 1 or 2 hours of day light each day. That beat me up pretty good, I always give it 110% on my week long hunt. Well, on the ride home I could feel something coming on. By mid day Sunday, I had flu like symptoms. Knocked me down, called in sick a couple days. Now I'm waiting on covid test results. I'm hoping there negative, so I can get back out there and fill a doe tag or two. Bowhunting is isolation isn't it? Always something........

 

[JB in GA]

Sorry to hear you got sick. I hope that your test is negative, but it seems in our area of GA at least, the folks that test positive now have not been near as sick as folks that got it back in March/April.