I had passed some really nice deer all year and with the last weekend of rut bowhunting drawing to and end, I was starting to second guess my earlier decisions. This is the story of how fate was on my side.
Arrowed this deer Sunday morning at 8:30 am. It was windy and the deer was behind me so I didn’t hear it till it was 50 yards away. I had to hang out the side of my tree stand to make the shot and between that and the buck fever I pulled the shot and hit him right through the guts. Way back with no chance of liver. I was instantly heart broken…. The deer ran about 70 yards after the shot and then stopped. I watched him stand in place, looking around, for 45 minutes. Then he started to take some baby steps out of sight. I could tell he was hurting but still, an hour after I shot him, he was still on his feet. I went down to the cabin and stared at the ceiling for the next 5 hours, dreading the thought of not finding the biggest deer I’ve ever had a chance to take a shot at. At 1pm it started to rain and my dad, fiancé, and I, made the decision to go look for the deer before all of the sign washed away. We found my arrow, but no blood. After about 15 minutes I finally found where he had stood in one place and there was a small pool of blood. So small that when I announced that I had “found Blood” I was hardly excited about it. With my guts in knots, my dad looks at me and says, “really? Blood! I’ve got one better, I see Deer! And he’s down!”. My dad had spotted him 60 more yards down the hill rolled over in a bed! When he said that I had such a feeling of relief and walking up on him was as big of adrenalin rush as when I let the arrow fly. He taped out at 150 2/8. Duel 26inch main beams, over 22inches of mass on both sides and ten inch+ tines. My personal best and Number one on my hit list!
