I have a Red Arrow

[goingoldskool]

I managed to get to the stand yesterday afternoon after a nice 1.5 mile hike in......  enjoying the Almighty's colors and smells.  

At 5 pm I heard some trees rustling and quickly looked to my left and see a deer about 80 yards out.  I see that it's a buck, but before I can get my binos on him, he is obstructed by some bushes and smaller trees.

This stand is in an old pasture that is grown up with an east/west creek and ditches that run to the north.  I put a stand in a split hickory tree that just 'felt' right.  The stand is about 12 ft up from the base of the tree, but out at the edge of the pasture, it is only 8 or so ft up.  

Anyway, this buck is really going at a sapling over on the other side of my little clearing.  I tried calling to him, but he seemed to pay little to no attention to me.  As I waited to see what his next move was, I was greatly surprised to see him start heading west, towards me, albeit, to my north 60 yards.

I figured that I would wait and see if he would follow the edge of the woods around towards me.  After dismantling another sapling, here he came!!!

He stopped at 15 yards and proceeded to take advantage of yet another sapling....  after watching him work this tree over for 7-10 minutes, all the while looking in my direction, he suddenly quit it and started on up the hill to my shooting lane.

I slowly drew and mouth grunted at him to stop him.  He took two extra steps and had his front leg, neck and head behind one of the hickory's drooping branches.....  I knew I did NOT want to be close to the limb, and aimed slightly behind the leg/limb combo.

As I released, I remember that the shot went off soooo quietly that it surprised me a little. The shot looked good for the most part, just slightly back from the optimum location.

He turned tail back to the east and I watched him head back down towards the creek.  I stood back and thanked God for the opportunity just to be out hunting and seeing that fine deer.  After a couple minutes of giving thanks, I sent a text to one of my bear hunting buddies to see if he would be able to lend a hand tracking.

He told me that he'd be there in an hour, so I made my way back to the house to get all necessary tracking gear.  He made it over and we headed out, picked up the blood trail and started tracking.  At the 60-75 yard mark, I started getting a little worried, as we could hear deer moving all around us.  He asked me if I wanted to back out and try in the morning, but after a failed attempt a couple years ago, I was not ready to go that route (coyotes found my doe before I did).  We pushed onward.

At the 150 yard mark, he must have broke something loose and really started gushing blood.  In 20 or so yards he must have dropped a pint of blood!  We knew he could last much longer like that and he was headed slightly uphill into another pasture.

Halfway up the pasture, heading towards another tree line, he gave up.

This is my finest buck taken by any means of archery gear and my 2nd with trad gear.
The autopsy revealed that i got the back of one lung and center punched the liver.

Thanks for reading along, good luck, shoot straight and God Bless!

God is Good!

[Biathlonman]

Nice.

[wislnwings]

Congrats on a beautiful buck.

[awbowman]

Very nice deer.  Congrats

[Nuctech]

Great deer and story congrats!
Gabe

[VA Elite]

great read and a very nice buck. don't you just love the suspense of a blood trail? although I know it can be nerve racking if it goes too far, but sometimes I just never want that feeling of "he's gotta be down close, I just know he can't hold it much longer" ....

[CoachBGriff]

Heck of a story! And heck of a deer!

If I shoot one this year, I'm calling ya up!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Dandy, Congrats!

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

Great deer , Congrats sir.....

,,,Sam,,,

[Warden609]

       

[Homey88]

Wow! Great buck and awesome story! Good job!

[woodchucker]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!  

[Wannabe1]

That sure is a beaut! Congrats and thanks for sharing.      

[D. Key]

Very nice. Congrats.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Thats getting it done!  Nice Buck.

[Cwilder]

Great reason for a red arrow. Congrats

[J. Cook]

Great buck!  Congrats!

[Sockrsblur]

Beautiful buck! Nice job!

[silent sniper]

Great looking mature buck!!!

[BrushWolf]

That's a dandy for sure. Great job.