Ben's semi-live 2025 hunt thread

[TheBenHoyle]

Not quite 12 hours later...



It doesn't look like much, a little blood on the arrow and some hair on the snow, but I'll tell you what, if you can't be good you better be lucky.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I'm pretty tired, but I have a busy day tomorrow (have to butcher a deer) so I'll post the recap before I go to bed and not leave anyone hanging.

I got out to the grain bins where I could park and walk in to some river bottom ag fields backed by a complex of sloughs and riparian woods. It was about 1:30 already and I had just a vague idea of what I wanted to do. But there was snow everywhere so I opted for my snow camo and headed out.

There is a small section of the ag field that is squarish and secluded and just as I was getting a glimpse of it, I saw that there was at least one deer and the far side field edge. I opted to bail off into the slough and work my way around to the adjacent edge of the square before popping up to see if the deer were still there.

I could tell that there were 4 of them, but I couldn't tell if they were bucks or does because they were in some tall grass at the field edge.

I spent a lot of time trying to find a tree I liked to climb and eventually settled on a maple with a really strange oval-shaped trunk. But it was straight and had clear shooting lanes into the field and into the slough.

Before I could even get in a tree, a little spiky buck and his big brother (maybe 6 point) came walking right along the field edge. I was thinking about letting the spike pass and trying to get the slightly bigger buck but the spike got to about 6 yards and decided I looked wrong. He bolted and his brother followed. Honestly, that encounter made the 3 hour round trip drive worth it.

But it didn't stop there. I got up the tree and was enjoying the many viewpoints I had when I saw a doe headed my way from that adjacent field edge. She went down into the slough and walked right up to my tree, she was being chased by another buck, but he was a forky and never got very close. I got to full draw on the doe and realized I had snow jammed in my peep sight. I tried to blow it out, but that was enough commotion for her to look up and then run away. Honestly, that encounter would have been worth the drive...

But it didn't stop there either. All in all, I probably saw 20 deer tonight. Some of them might have been repeats, but they were all around me at one point.

I'll cut to the chase, right at sunset, about 5-6 bucks came into the field from the corner opposite where I was, they were all milling about and so I made some doe bleats and I'll be darned if the biggest one didn't make a beeline over to me. He was basically right where the first spike buck had been a couple hours earlier, 6 yards from the base of my tree. But this time I was up in the tree and the buck was looking down into the slough behind me for the doe.

I put my pin on him and pulled the trigger and the arrow went and he ran out into the field. He kinda hunched up for a couple moments and then he circled back with his buddies. I could see he was limping but he din't look like he was going to crash. I watched him come down the embankment into the slough and he stood in one spot for a long time. I was hoping he was going to keel over. But then he went bounding off with the others and I didn't know what to think.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I waited a few minutes until all of those bucks cleared out and then I got down and packed up my platform and sticks. I went to find the arrow and was not terribly impressed.

I walked in his tracks and I could see he was definitely bleeding, but I couldn't figure out if it was going to be lethal. It was full dark now and it was snowing so I decided to VERY SLOWLY track him, half expecting to find the blood trail just vanish. But it was pretty consistent, so I kept going.

About 150 yards along I found a bed with a lot of blood in it and I figured he had been bumped by me tracking. I was strongly considering backing out and trying to come back the next afternoon. But I was conflicted. That was another 3 hours of driving and there's snow falling and I have a job interview Tuesday morning. SO many factors kept me rooted to the spot with indecision.

And with me not moving I now hear rustling of branches not far away. I keep listening and it definitely sounds like branches being hit by antlers. I scan in that direction and I see a dark shape near the ground. It looks like a deer that is trying to get up but can't.

I must have stood still for 20 minutes waiting to hear more noise and then I decided to SLOWLY walk toward the shape thinking that maybe I can get close enough to put an arrow in the buck if it is still alive.



And this is what I eventually walked up to. My buck, recently expired.
I took a moment to be grateful and then I pulled him out and looked for the entry wound. And then I took another moment to be even more grateful. I shot this buck through the meat of the front leg just to the back side of the shoulder blade. It only went through the front leg. But it must have cut a vein or an artery... Unbelievable. I'm still not sure why my arrow didn't go where I intended, but I am so grateful that it somehow did it's job...


Not the biggest buck in the world, but I couldn't be happier. Definitely worth the drive. This is the first season where I have taken more than one deer and I think that more than likely I will be done for the season. I'd like to get out after some waterfowl, but I am at the whims of other people for an invite. But if this is the end of my season, I couldn't have written a better ending.