October was full of adventure. From the day my backpack with all of my belongings, along with my quiver of arrows, up to the day I shot my biggest buck ever.
Let me start by telling you all how the deal went down. It was the first cold morning we had in a few weeks and I knew that the deer would be moving. The first week of bow season, I was seeing anywhere from 3 to 5 does a day, especially early morning in this one particular area. I had a good shot on one of them, and was tracking her when I had to drop off and go report a crime, my backpack had been taken. Later, my son helped me on the tracking job, but no luck finding her.
I had no luck at all during muzzle loader season. My son was the meat provider that week with a nice big doe.
The wind decided to blow for several days, making bow hunting even harder. Finally, on October 29th,, everything came together. The temp was 37 with a windchill of 33. Perfect to get those big boys stirring. I had seeing a lot of buck sign off toward the Buffalo River past the border with Gene Rush. In fact, I had been snorted at during the muzzle loader season by, I am assuming, a buck. There was a fresh scrape in the area, and he was not far from that spot hiding in the brush. No shot opportunity offered itself then. So, back to the morning of the 29th. I had decided to head that direction about daylight and get setup somewhere and wait for him to come check his scrape. At about 8:00 I heard some rusting off about 30 yards, and knew it had to be a deer. Finally, antlers and a nice buck appeared in some short, waist high underbrush. I guess he knew something was up because about the time he cleared the brush, he bolted back a few yards. I knew I had to try to convince him that everything was cool so I got my deer grunt and gave 3 soft blows from a young buck. He started back out the same way, but at the same spot, he snorted, then bounced back a few yards again. I gave 3 more soft blows, and he decided to change his path and walked beside me at about 15 yards. Only shot he offered was a neck shot. I know this can be a risky one, especially with a bow, but having made a shot like this before on a 5 point, I was confident that I could make it. I let the cross bolt fly, and wham, hit. After gathering my wits, and calming down, I walked to where he had been standing, and within 3 yards found the first drops of blood. As I followed, the trail got better, and I knew with out a doubt, the hit was good. I tracked him for about a 70 yards, never loosing the trail, down into the bottom of the ravine. I knew he a was a good buck, but didn't know how good til I got to him. He is my 5th crossbow kill, and also my biggest.
I knew the work had just begun, and after an hour and a half drag, I was worn out. Oh, and by the way, my arrow was still in the deer.....
Not to bad for a public land buck!
