Now if only I still had a photobucket account!!

Thursday night my wife and I left for the hunting property so we could get in 3 full days of hunting.  I couldnt think of a single better way to spend my time than chasing whitetails in southern Iowa. Well Friday morning started out with a bit of a late wake up but nothing too devastating.  As I poked my head out of the tent I was greeted by an 8 point buck crossing less than 80 yards away!!!  I called to my wife but by the time she came out the buck had retreated back where it came from.  As I tried to describe the buck to her she pointed across the field and said that the buck had returned.  This buck however was much larger than the 8 point I had seen just seconds earlier,  I did my best to hurry into a position to take advantage of my good fortune but it just didnt work out in my favor.  I watched that buck fade away with his 6 lady friends but it sure did seem like a great way to start the weekend.  

Both the wife and I saw lots of bucks throughout the day on Friday but nothing that would offer a shot that was of any size (mature 8 point and above) but it was a great day all the same.

Saturday found us up a bit earlier and in the stand close to dawn, I hadnt been on stand for more than a few moments when I gained a hunting partner.  A small doe came in favoring her front left leg and I was dreading taking another injured deer as a mercy kill.  On further inspection she did not appear to be seriously injured and I could tell this beyond a doubt because she proceeded to bed down about 16 yards from me!  Shortly after a nice 8 and a 5 point came by but the 8 offered no more than a rise in my pulse and a great memory to take with me.  Around 8:20 AM I saw my 3rd  buck of the morning coming in, an average 6 point but fun to toy with all the same.  By the time I decided to do a bit of grunting and bleating I noticed another buck coming joining the little 6 pointer.  He was much larger and much further away than his smaller buddy though.  I decided that about all I could do was put glass on this guy and see what I was gonna be hunting later in the season, as I glassed him I counted up to 10 points before I realized he was on a bee line to my stand!  I quickly put my binoculars down and grabbed my bow, the buck closed the distance in a hurry.  At 8 yards I was 3/4 of the way to full draw when something spooked him and he spun 180 degrees.  I repicked my spot and let her fly but the shot was further back than intended and I knew it was gonna be a long tracking job.  I watched the buck travel up the field with my arrow sticking out of him and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I took up the trail 4 hours later it led us to the river bottom where I saw a 6 pointer jump up and run to the neighbors property,  then my wife pointed out another buck breaking cover and heading off the property...MY BUCK!!  I knew after checking where he had laid down that he was mortally wounded but not quite ready to be tracked down.  We took up the trail the next morning with the neighbors permission to search the wood lot across the field and after a long exhaustive search we were about to give up when my wife practically skipped toward a brown patch that turned into a dead deer that turned out to be MY BUCK!!  I nearly jumped for joy I was so happy.

The bow I used this year was a black locust self bow 67 inches nock to nock drawing 77 pounds at my 25 1/2" draw, I had completed it only recently and have yet to get my order of hickory arrows so I was using a carbon aluminum composite arrow with a solid 3 blade broadhead (monotec or some such).  I never like to shoot anything but wood from my selfbows but the season would have been over by the time I got them so it was a necessary evil in this case and obviously did the job.

Im not precisely sure how to count all the points but Ive been calling it a 14 point that would have been 15 but for the broken point and others are telling me Im not counting one point I should be so it would be a 15 that would have been 16.  Either way its an awful big rack and I couldnt be more tickled.  Since I built my first self bow last year and took a buck with it and then turned around and built my second this year and took a buck with it I may have to make it a sort of ritual to build a new bow every year, Good thing I like building the bows as much as I like shooting them =).

I really do apologize for for the lack of pictures but as I said I dont have a photo bucket account any more.

Send me the pix in an email and I will post them for ya...clsurt@yahoo.com

Congrats      

Where you at in IA?  I am in Ames.  

Manlaw states that you need to post a pic of your buck!  It only takes a second to get a photobucket account.

Congrats!

Matt (fellow Iowa selfbowyer)

I live in Fort Dodge IA but I hunt down in southern IA.  Chris I sure appreciate that Ill send that pic right away.

Thanks Chris I appreciate it, sorry all you get to see is the cape and the head, with the weather the way its been I had to get this guy taken care of quickly or loose everything.

Holy Crap! That's a bruiser of a deer if I ever saw one! Congrats on a fine trophy.      

Thanks seems like a lot of people have had that same sentiment...  Holy Crap kinda covers it.

Fantastic buck!! Way to go.

Glad it all ended well.  That is a great buck.

Congrats on a great deer & thanks for sticking with the pursuit and not giving up.

Perserverance pays off

What a beauty!  Congrats on your effort and follow-through!!

Shad, that is a fine mature Iowa deer. Great work taking him with a self made self bow. We gotta get together and make some shavings this winter. Good Hunting!

Very nice buck Shad! Congratulations!

Wow!  Congratulations!  And a great story to boot.

Watts

Heck of a deer!!

Wow thats incredible!!

That is a buck of ten lifetimes. Way cool.    

Oh my!!!!!! What a buck!  Well done and way to stick with it on the recovery.

Blessed steaming fecal matter batman!!!!

That's a bruiser!!!!