To start the story, I have to go back to about the same time last year. My cousin Jason hung a last minute stand on a hunch to intercept a buck traveling from his bedding area to a corn field along a thicket. I was skeptical of this stand, but he was correct on his hunch and found himself within 5 yards of a nice 8 point. His shot sailed a little high due to the extreme angle. For the record, in my opinion, this is one of the toughest ethical shots in archery, but it was all he had and was all he was going to get. We found his arrow. There was no blood and a couple tiny chunks of flesh and streaks of fat on it. We did find a few drops of blood on his trail but that was it. We backed out and Jason spent the whole next morning and part of the afternoon looking for that deer. It has always been our belief that no matter how “mild” the hit is, we try to exhaust all avenues to either recover the deer or know he will survive the ordeal.
My uncle who helped with the recovery - thanks Junior!
My father, who helped me look for this guy the night before - thanks Dad.
Now we fast forward to this fall. We set a stand for my uncle about 5 yards off an apple tree between a swamp and a winter wheat/corn field. The stand was very “tight” with visibility at about 15 yards max. The furthest shot in that stand would be 12 yards max and that is just to the left side. This stand would be tough to get a shot off, but the sign around the apple tree definitely made us feel it was worth setting up on.
Last week I hunted a morning in this same area but in a different spot. As I was pulling off the road at my hunting spot, I saw a very nice 8 point feeding under an apple tree right beside my truck. I was asking myself (and whining a little) why I couldn’t run into him with a bow in my hand during the daytime. Little did I know my wish would come true.
This is where he lay - only 80 yards from the stand.
On October 24th, I was on my way to one of the areas we hunt and called my cousin as I usually do when he isn’t hunting with me. I was thinking of going to another area, and Jason persisted I go to the apple tree stand. We had talked about it before, but that stand was just a little too “tight” for my preferences. Though the deer were hitting this apple tree hard, there were no good places to hang a stand where you could actually see. I really didn’t have a better place to hunt and I halfheartedly agreed to hunt “the apple tree stand”. As I was walking back to the stand, I was not the most confident hunter in PA. I felt I had a good chance of seeing deer but felt luck had to be on my side to get a shot. After sitting a few hours in my stand asking myself what I am doing here, prime time rolled around. It was a beautiful evening with a light wind blowing back out to the field and at about 5:30 pm I saw him. He was about 15 yards out in the brush heading toward the apple tree. I drew my bow immediately, and he continued to the edge of the brush. At about 8 yards he stopped and looked up. He was standing at a very slight quarter and was doing the head bob... He had me pegged.
At this time I knew the gig was about up, so I found an opening to his chest, relaxed and let the arrow go. I didn’t see the hit, but felt the shot was true. He immediately bolted back into the brush crashing the whole way through the swamp. I remember listening for the final crash and thrash, but he kept going full speed until I couldn’t hear him anymore. I got down after about 15 minutes and looked for my arrow or any sign of a hit. I couldn’t find any sign, so I backed out and got help from my father. About 3 hours later we went back in with flashlights and tried to find any sign around where I shot the deer, but to no avail. I felt we should back out, and I would continue the search at first light the next morning. After a sleepless night, and doubting myself and what I had done, I met my uncle the next morning and we continued the search. We started by trying, one final time, to find the arrow or sign around the shot sight, and then started to walk trails through the swamp looking for blood. At this point, I went back to my stand and went directly to where I had last heard the buck crashing through the swamp. We walked the swamp out to open woods which broke into a creek bottom. I was looking up and down the creek and spotted his blood trail. My uncle came over and we decided I’d better go back and get my bow. I went back to get my bow and as I was returning my uncle called to me. I knew what this meant and was pumped to see my buck laying stacked up at my uncles feet not 20 yards from where I saw the blood trail (I never looked up to see him laying there). He ended up making it about 80 yards from the stand before falling.
I am much happier now with this guy in my hands!
Photo of the old wound from the year before
After looking him over, we found there was no exit hole, and the entrance was high on the rib cage due to the steep angle of the shot. I’m not sure why the arrow didn’t pass through, but I can only speculate that I hit a little brush right in front of him. This caused the lack of blood trail and was the reason we couldn’t find the arrow. The broadhead took out both lungs and we figured the buck expired quickly. This made me feel much better as I doubted myself many times throughout the night. Also we found an old wound right on top of the bucks back, perfectly in line with his vitals. There is little doubt this was the same deer my cousin hit last year. Even though we knew the buck was fine, Jason was relieved to see that he was healthy and thrived for another year.
Again thanks to my uncle, father and cousin for making this a successful hunt.
Good luck and take care
Mike Bell
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