Thanksgiving Bowhunting Memories

One last day at work this week. Looking forward to the four day weekend. Back home this would have been a weekend of bowhunting whitetails. This is normally a good weekend because the deer have had a few days to calm down after the first shotgun season and there are still bucks out cruising for does. One thing I hope I never lose is my memory of all my previous hunts. They are part of what makes bowhunting so fantastic, any hunting for that matter.

One of the biggest bucks I ever shot at was during this weekend several years ago. When I quietly approached the stand in the dark, I could hear a deer walking around in the cut corn field. The stand was about 50 yards inside the treeline and I was approaching from within the woods since I expected deer to be in the field feeding. Once in the stand, I could still here the deer but assumed it was a doe until it got light enough I could see a buck. I started grunting at him and he came in from up wind on a string. I was at full draw with the buck at 12 yards but needed one more step. Just as I convinced myself I could slide an arrow through the hole I had he turned and walked back to the field. I grunted him in two more times in the next 15 minutes. He kept going farther and farther behind me into the woods but would come back to the grunt call each time. My fear was he would eventually get down wind.

He eventually got behind me about 100 yards and I started grunting really loud at him and he came back for the third time, but this time he took a route closer to me and gave me a perfect broadside shot. I had stepped off the very spot he was standing and knew it was exactly 27 yards, but I went into auto pilot and placed the 20 yard pin only 1/3 of the way up and slid the arrow right under him. I was hoping I was mistaken and continued to hope he would fall. No chance. To my amazement, I was able to call him in again to about 40 yards but I couldn't get a shot and he headed out across the corn field to never be seen again. Since amost every buck I have ever missed was missed low, I have gotten over some of the autopilot mode of aiming 1/3 of the way up unless the buck is really close. I have had better luck aiming 1/2 way up.

He was a warrior of a buck and appeared to have lost his right eye earlier that year. If it wasn't lost it was hurt pretty bad. He also had a busted point or two on a really good frame. He had a really heavy typical 8 point frame that was at a minimum 20" wide. He was a perfect picture of a mature rutting whitetail.