Alright, after work on friday I met with the landowner to make sure I would be able to cross a small portion of his private land. What a joy, he was a great guy and even told me where he had seen some nice bucks. I was aware of the bucks, but I played it off.
Anyway, I set up camp and was up early the next morning. I ended up blowing it in the morning, as it was difficult to slide in between a group of smaller bucks and the bigger boys. The big boy was with a sharp-eyed doe and she led my buck away in haste.
Afterwards I grabbed the pup and we shot a few grouse, but I was back to the spot by 3 pm. I sat for quite awhile waiting for some action. Finally about 6 I saw the high-hat that I have pictures of on the other thread. He was leading the way and looked to be heading for the trail I had seen him on a few days prior. I decided if given the opportunity, I would take him since he was larger than anything I had shot with my before.
Ends up he got on another trail and I missed him. There were some other bucks headed down the same trail and I noticed they were using a trail about 300 yards away. I could now see the big boys on top of the ridge about ¾ miles away. They were focused on the deer that were closest to me.
Finally the last of the smaller deer passed and I hustled over where they had crossed. I had to climb out of the ravine to get a better view of the trail and at the same time I saw the big buck at only 30 yards. I stayed low and drew when he was at 25 yards, but he froze when I drew. I could not take the shot because of the sagebrush, but I held out.
I thought about letting off, but instead I held on and thought about other things. After about a minute, he continued down the trail. At 20 yards he stopped broadside and all I could think of was this is a dead buck. The shot felt and sounded good. He ran about 20 yards and stopped to see what had happened. It was at that point I saw the blood. I was crushed, it was way too far back. I quickly nocked another arrow and sent one at 40 yards. Because of the wind the arrow hit in front of the shoulder, but it looked to be a mortal shot.
I regained myself and backed up about twenty yards and collected my back pack. I then grabbed my video camera and got a shot of the other big buck at 60 yards. He was not as wide, but had better front forks and maybe a small kicker.
After 10 minutes (too soon), I went after the buck. I knew where he went, but I followed the blood anyway. Along the way I found an arrowhead, which was pretty cool. Right after that, I saw him at fifty yards and he got out of his bed. I was kicking myself for pushing, but decided to put the fifty-yard pin on him. I had sighted in the pin last week, but I did not shoot well. At this point, I decided to take the shot since I was busted. The arrow took him right behind the shoulder and he went maybe 100 yards before he went down.
Well, that’s my story. I felt a did a great job putting the sneak on the buck, but I was disgusted with my shot placement. I also should have waited longer before I went after him. I am fairly certain he would have died in his bed if I had given him an hour. Luckily things worked out in the end.
Well I definitely did not pull off the perfect hunt, but in the end I did collect the animal even though it should not have been as much work as it was.
