i'll try and keep the story as short as possible-
we headed south saturday morning and got down to the property around 10 or so. we went out, hung 2 stands and then headed back to the house for some lunch. i hung my stand in some 20 yr old pines that had been thinned a few years ago. i was facing west and had a creek to my south. between me and the creek, it was pretty thick and nasty.
at about 5:40, i saw horns pop out from the bottom. the deer was about 75 yds in front of me (still facing west) and about at 11 o'clock. i knew he was a good buck, but really got a good look at him once he raised his head in the air, smelling for anything out of the ordinary. he looked left, then right and that is when i saw that he was pretty wide.
i had ranged a bunch of tree's in the area and there was an old logging road, that runs west to east, which borders the thick stuff and the pines i was in. if he walked down that road past my stand, i would have anywhere from a 30-40 yd shot. when he popped out from the thicket, he was standing on the logging road. he started to browse on some vegetation and was slowly working his way toward me....i thought i was having a heart attack.
the buck got to about 60 yds and turned to his left (my right) and started to make his way up the slight hill. he was taking his time and just feeding as he went. fortunately, i was standing when he came out of the bottom and now i was trying to get a hold of my bow. when he got behind some scrub oaks, i was able to turn and get more in line with which way i thought he was going to head. he disappeared again and it seemed like forever until he resurfaced.
when i got a visual of him again he was now at about 1 o'clock. he walked behind a large cedar, which was about 20 yds from me and blocked all of my movement. he was still at over 50 yds, but closing the distance, ever so slightly. ironically, the large cedar the concealed my movement, happened to have been rubbed by this fella.
when he had cleared all of the brush between us, i drew back on him. at this point, he was broadside and behind a tree that i had ranged at about 39 yds. when i drew back, i don't know if he caught movement, heard me, or what, but it startled him and moved a little farther away from and was now quartering away. not only had he increased the distance between us, but now he was looking in my direction. at this point, i put the pin on him and released.
after the shot, he turned to his left and ran into some thick pines. i couldn't tell if i had made a good shot and only saw him for about 10 yds after the shot. i waited about 15 minutes to climb down and see if i could find my arrow. if i missed, it was going to be low. i had the exact spot marked and went over to see what i could find. no arrow was found, but i did find blood right where he had been standing. i dropped my pack and laid my bow down, eased out of there and headed for the truck. i waited until dark, picked up my buddy and started texting the rest of our crew that i was going to need some help.
another guy hunting with us, shot and as it turns out, missed a good buck at 200+ yds. we looked long and hard and found nothing, so off we went to track my deer. we had given it a good hour or more, before we started tracking him. we found some good blood and about 30 yds inside the woods, we found the arrow. upon finding the arrow, we noticed that only 1 of the blades was open. i don't know if the other 2 closed when it got jarred loose, or if it was a failure of the broadhead. after about 50 more yds of following some good blood, we lost it. as we were scanning the ground up ahead of us, someone shined the light on my buck, laying about 15 yds from where we were standing.
i was so fired up and relieved to have found the deer. this was the only deer i killed all season. i had passed up many younger bucks, as well as a really nice 3.5 yr old.
