Kennym's 2013********Deer #4 Down!!!!!!

[Yellow Dog]

A overhead view of the stand location. Everything that's not trees is planted in Milo.

[FerretWYO]

I know that location well. Keep it coming.

[Yellow Dog]

As he ran I paid VERY special attention to his path of flight. Experience has taught me, when hunting from treestands, you really have to pay attention to the details. When you get your feet on the ground everything looks different. I marking the spot in my memory where I last saw him. There were a couple of small darker patch's in the Milo field and my last visual of him had him in or near the second one over 200 yards out.

[Yellow Dog]

I had to decide if I should stay in the tree and continue to wait for a doe since it was so early in the morning or if I should quietly climb down and retrieve my arrow, find first blood and slip out. I chose the second option. After about 10 minutes I lowered my gear to the ground and went to the point of impact to find my arrow. No arrow.    

[Yellow Dog]

I followed the direction of his sprint into the Milo and a couple of feet in I found it. What I saw was alarming, the arrow shaft was clean as a whistle with no blood on the shaft and blood on the fletching only with what appeared to be ground up grain stuck in the feathers. A sniff indicated a stomach hit. I was horrified to say the least. Based on the flight of the arrow and the wound I saw on the bucks side as he fled it was what I thought was a perfect hit. But we have to listen to what the arrow tells us and I had to deal with it. I immediately decided to wait at least 5 or 6 hours before taking up the trail.

[Yellow Dog]

I went about 10 yards into the Milo to see if I could find first blood. What I found was watery and some of it had more of the finely ground grain in it. More of what I didn't want to see.    :(

[Yellow Dog]

After 5 hours Steve and I are back to start the tracking job, and we knew it was going to be a tough one. The temp was 80 and climbing. We started following first blood into the field and as we went in about 50 yards it appeared to get a little thicker and darker. We could find no blood on the ground, only smeared on Milo stalks and leaves, but not a heavy blood trail, very spotty at best. At about that point we lost blood completely.

[Yellow Dog]

We made the decision to jump ahead a couple of hundred yards to the second small dark patch of Milo where I had my last visual of the buck from the tree. It proved to be a good one because we found blood right away in that location. Then we found this, sure doesn't look like a stomach hit here  

:confused:    

 

[Yellow Dog]

Looked like he just stood and bled, didn't bed down at all. With that much blood you would think his next move would be easy to follow, smearing blood in the Milo as he left the area. Wrong, nothing. We started searching the area for blood or any sign of him, or maybe he was lying near us dead? Nothing.

[Yellow Dog]

About 100 yards further there was a brush pile in the field. Steve was searching around it and called me over. He could see I was heading in his direction at a fast pace thinking maybe he'd found him, so he said he'd just found more blood. It was definitely a bed that he'd spent some time in. Matted down with a softball size smear of blood in it. Back to looking to try to find something, we'd already covered well over 400 yards.

[Yellow Dog]

We continued on searching the edges with no sign of blood or the buck. About 75 yards from the last blood Steve was checking a thick tangle of stuff near a ditch and he jumped a lone deer out of a bed. He burrowed into the thorny patch, thinking he may have bumped him, looking for another possible bloody bed. Nothing. As Steve was working his way out of the tangle, he looked over and there lay a dead buck! Found him!!!!

[Yellow Dog]

A nice big bodied 7 point.

 

 

[Gator1]

Way to persevere.... Great Team effort all the way..

     

[Yellow Dog]

You can clearly see the entrance wound in the picture. A quick autopsy in the field revealed the 150 gr two blade Magnus Stinger had sliced through the back of one lung, through the liver and through the esophagus where it enters the stomach, wiping the arrow clean and depositing the ground up grain. We would have not found this guy without Steve's hard work, perseverance on our part and a little luck. Paying special attention after the shot also was key. A Bowbolt 56" Gregg Coffey Lil Favorite, 50@30 with a 150 gr two blade Magnus Stinger tipped 5575 Goldtip got the job done.

[goingoldskool]

OUTSTANDING!!!!  What a great story!  

Congratulations!!

God Bless

Rodd

[Gator1]

Waiting for a New story on this great hunt... I'll bet later tonight there will be more coming....

     

[Sean B]

That's awesome Mike!!!  Beautiful buck, congrats!!!  Did you say that you took your Quebec bear with the same bow?

[Henry Hammer]

Shot placement looks good like you say but weird things can happen, glad you found him! Can't wait to get there in a couple weeks to hunt. There is 4 of us going and I will do my part to keep this thread going during our time there. Good luck on the rest of your hunt!!.........Henry

[Yellow Dog]

Yup Sean, the Lil Favorite is a Lil Favorite for sure. Best shooting short recurve I've found. Gregg now builds the exact same bow as the Helms Deep.

[Joeabowhunter]

Way to stick with it.  Congratulations.