I was due to help some friends from Arkansas when some last minute lawyering popped up. As a result I found myself in town Thursday afternoon without enough time to get out South. I decided to hunt the last couple of hours at a place closer to town. It's the place where I've been chasing Big 9, but it's been resting for more than a week while I pheasant and duck hunted.
With about an hour of light 3 does and 2 young bucks wandered into the middle of the field. One of the bucks was "Broken Beam" who should be a 2.5 year old 7 point. The other was a spike. They could not have cared less about the does. So much for any rutting activity right? A few minutes later I can hear nearly constant grunting. Before long a nice buck starts chasing those does around. The bucks watch on, apparently unconcerned. While he's chasing the does off I get a chance to glass him, and discover that he is not Big 9, but is a 10 point of similar class. Unfortunately he chased the third doe off and out of sight.
But a few minutes later, he came back (just watch until the video goes blank, I failed to shut it off in my panic):
[yt=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="
http://www.youtube.com/v/Y6P5_48wR2o&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="
http://www.youtube.com/v/Y6P5_48wR2o&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/yt]
I was unprepared for him to make a purposeful approach toward the 2 small bucks eating turnips in front of me. I had to quickly drop the camera and pick up the bow. Within seconds he was in range, walking from right to left. At 20 yards the smaller bucks scattered. He chased them half-heartedly for a few minutes but never really stopped moving. When he was satisfied that he'd established dominance he started chowing. He was quartering slightly toward me at 30 yards. I drew once and had to let down. I wasn't going to chance a bad angle on such a fantastic deer, especially when I figured I could find him again if needed. I watched him at approximately 30 yards for about 5 minutes. Some of the time he was behind a branch. Most of the time it was just a bad angle.
Finally, as light was fading, he turned to slightly quartering away. I drew, picked a spot, went through my pre-shot checklist (elbow out, waist bent, finger to earlobe, nose to string, check level) and let fly. The shot felt good, but sounded terrible. I heard a crunching sound I'd heard once before when I was just learning to bowhunt. The buck walked off, seemingly undisturbed. I could see lots of arrow sticking out. I was concerned. I never heard any sound from the buck or Broken Beam as they walked away. They were out of sight and into a thick but relatively small patch of woods within 15 yards.
15 minutes later Broken Beam walked out alone. I was still concerned but optimistic. When it was totally dark I slipped quietly out of the area. An hour later I picked up a good blood trail. 20 yards later, he was laying there:
The crunching sound was my broadhead smashing into the off side shoulder. My 2 bladed rage made a huge hole in both lungs and finished the large buck in only a few yards.
Other stories, pics, and videos:
http://skinnymoose.com/dailylimit/
