I finally nailed this 5 point on Sunday, November 12th. I'm pretty sure I had seen this
one in early October and thought he was a 4 pt. Anyway, I had also seen 2 other bucks in this
area by now and had missed several opportunities. Each time I was either being detected
by scent and they wouldn't come out in the open or when they did I would make a noise trying
to draw on him and he would be gone before I could get off a shot.
After drawing 3 times on a nice six point only to have him jump and run before I could get him
in my sights, I finally discovered that the rubber shrink tube on my arrow rest had a hole worn
in it. This allowed the arrow to rub on the metal when drawing and created too much noise.
After repairing this problem it was a while before I got another chance.
I was about to give up and concentrate on getting ready for the firearm season when I decided
to give it one more day and see if I could get lucky. I was sitting in my blind Sunday morning
and could hear what I thought to be a deer moving in from behind me. I held as motionless as
possible and waited. He got closer and closer for a while and I tried to very slowly turn my
head to see what it was but could not turn far enough without moving, so I just waited. Now
he sounded as if he were getting further away and I knew this opportunity was gone.
I went out again in the evening and was only there a few minutes when heard him coming again.
I wasn't very confident that he was going to come out in the open but was patient anyway.
After about 10 minutes I finally saw him out of the corner of my eye and he moved right in to
my bait pile. At first I was a little dissapointed that he was not one of the bigger bucks I
had seen earlier, but then I realized I would probably be lucky even to get a shot at him. I
patiently watched him for a few minutes and when he finally looked in the opposite direction
I drew.
I knew he didn't hear me this time because he didn't flinch. He turned his head and looked
right at me but I already had him in my sights. I didn't wait any longer and let it fly. He
dropped immediately in my bait pile and began flopping around. He managed to get up and
hobble off. I waited a few minutes and snuck off the other way to get help in tracking and
dragging him. When we found him he hadn't gone 50 yards. I missed my mark by a couple inches
but the arrow went right through his backbone and only stuck out the other side about an inch.
He may not have trophy rack, but he is a good size deer at about 150 lbs. It feels pretty good
to have all the time and effort finally pay off, but to be honest, the time and effort is the
best part for me.
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