Bow Season Report, Florida 2010-1

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Bow Report 2010: Florida

Sept. 18,19, 2010

Archery season opened this Saturday. Built arrows until 9:00 pm Friday night, got everything loaded in the truck and got in bed about 11:30pm. I drove over to hunt at the cabbage creek club Saturday morning. Hunted the kill zone stand. Nice morning, birds were active and singing and feeding well into the morning. About 9:30 I heard something pushing thru the bushes over my left shoulder. The ty-tys' are real tall there and all I could see was a top shaking. Turned out to be a 6-7" spike buck headed back to lay up for the day. He came right into the wheel house, 5 yds., picked up some corn and kept moving, off into the thick he went. I let him go thinking he was not a shooter but later that day I found out the club had changed the rule this year to 5" spikes min. from 3 pts min.

Well, I went back to the same stand that afternoon and had a nubbin buck come in. I shot a little footage of him and finally had to run him off to get down. About half way down the tree I heard a deer blow behind me that was headed my way. This stand is a buck magnet! It’s a lay-up stand and I see very few doe deer here. This spot is good for at least a buck or two every year. I’ll try to get around to some writing on what makes this particular spot so special in another post.

When I got back to camp Saturday afternoon, my ole buddy Steve had shot a real nice, tight horned 7pt at Keslemyers fence and already had him at the camp hanging by his hock. He made a great shoot and the deer fell right there and expired. It was a little strange though, the deer must have reacted to the shot and rolled over a little as the arrow had caught him mid height in the rib cage but ended up stuck thru the bottom of the spine so he got a lung and the spine. No tracking required and no follow up shot required. The deer had some decent fat on him also. Steve was sure proud of him.

We finished with the deer cleaning chore at about 10:15 pm and got ready to hit the rack. I decided I'd call my wife Tammie real quick and check in. When I looked at the phone there was a pile of missed calls from home. Huston we have a problem! I’ve been here before so when Tammie answered I immediately asked what’s wrong..... "Jessica's horse came down with colic and the vet had to put her down, I need you home in the morning as soon as your done hunting". If a dead horse in the front yard is not bad enough all the girls were a wreck! I guess this trumps hunting. I promised I’d get home early to take care of things and went to bed.

Problem 2; The tractor’s radiator is blown (and I have a dead horse to deal with)

I decided I had to go back to the “kill zone stand” come daylight. I’d hunt until 9:00 and head home to fix the tractor and bury the horse. Problem #3: I failed to factor in a poorly placed shot into the plan.

Steve and I loaded all our gear on the 4wheelers and headed out in the dark. It was actually a pretty chilly ride for bow season. The coolness gave me the feeling of a promising hunt. I climbed up to my perch and quickly got settled in. It was 6:30am and 30 minutes before decent light. I don’t usually get there quite that early so I need to thank Steve for that. As I was getting everything ready I heard a deer moving around in the old cut over bay, off to the South West. I could just make the sound out and it was to early for the birds to start so I was pretty confident it was a deer. About 6:45 I caught a little movement coming down a chop trail. I put the binoculars on him and immediately knew he was a racked buck! I really like these glasses. They are Nikon’s Monarch in 10x36. Excellent little glasses, very sharp and ideal in size. I have hunted with them for probably 4 years without issue and almost can’t stand to hunt without them.

Anyway, I was already standing and waiting on him when he showed. At 15 yds he stepped behind a short pine I had strategically left in the little clearing and I instinctively drew on him but he hung up behind the tree and I had to back down. Finally, he eased out. When he got sideways I eased the bow up and put a pin on him. Looked good, pin was lit and I could see the deer. I pulled the string and tried to line him up thru the peep. In the dim light I thought I was on the crease behind the shoulder but apparently I was mistaken. My brain was screaming shoot, shoot! I loosed the shaft and heard the arrow impact the deer. The buck lunged forward headed right at me and crashed off into the thick over my left shoulder. He plowed thru everything in his way for 45 yds and stopped. All of the sudden the thought came to me that the arrow impact had an odd sound that I had never heard before and I knew I did not like it. Except for that little issue everything was going exactly according to plan. Little did I know and this is truly what happened, I admit it…..apparently I shot the wrong end of the deer! It sounds pretty stupid as I’m writing it but that’s the truth of the matter, plain and simple. At this point I was not yet aware of this!

After about 10 minutes I decided I just had to find my arrow. Here’s where I become aware of problem #3. As soon as my eye spotted my fletching in the bushes I knew I had shot him back in the paunch. A bow hunters worst nightmare. My god I couldn’t believe it! How is that even possible I thought? How could I have blown a 14 yd shot so badly? I slipped over to where he went into the thick….nothing. You would never know a deer had ever passed there. I’ve been here before and it usually does not end good.

I pulled my boot out of my butt and climbed back into the tree to access the situation and make a plan.

Knowing this deer was going to require some time I decided the best thing to do was to leave him and go home and take care of the horse in the yard and return later with my tracking machine Lacy, my bluetick hound. I had to fight the urge to track this deer but with no blood and gut on the arrow that was just not an option. If you jump a deer in this situation and he is still strong, he will rocket out of there and chances of recovery are all but lost. If he gets to lay there a bit and his blood clots, when he's jumped and leaves there running there will be no visible sign to follow.

About 25 minutes after the shot I was still sitting quietly in the stand when I heard some noise in the bushes from where the crashing deer had stopped. I couldn’t be sure exactly what it was but I felt it was him lying down. I gathered my gear and slipped out of there as quietly as possible

Steve was in the next block about a third of a mile from me but I knew as soon as he heard my 4 wheeler crank that early, he'd know what was going on. I left him a short note at the camp, loaded up and headed for home.

I had a job with the tractor. The solder joints on the upper tank and failed and I had a heck of a time trying to get them soldered back together. Once I got it back in the tractor and got everything back in place the starter wouldn’t work. Finally, I got it going, loaded it on the flat bed and headed to the farm to get the loader bucket and finally got the horse buried.

I loaded Lacy in the truck and away we went, cautiously optimistic.

I had hyped Lacy up on the drive over so she was ready to find daddy’s deer when we got there. I put her on a long lead, packed the necessary equipment and down the trail we went. We had to cross the deer track on the way to the stand and you would have thought Lacy hit a brick wall! She immediately turned and started in the bushes where the deer had gone and I had to pull her off as I always want her to start at the head of the trail. I let her smell the arrow shaft and showed her where he was standing. It was obvious she could smell him and she started right in on the track. Down my walk trail and then a 90 to the left into the thick ty-tys’, palmettos and gallberry. In short order I was crawling on hands and knees. After a short distance there he was! Right where it sounded like he stopped. It was not a long track but it was an old one and Lacy never missed a step. Man was I proud of her. Honestly, I would have probably easily recovered him but it was another successful track and one of her oldest non-training tracks.

The deer was in a cool shady place and I believe we were able to salvage most of the meat. I took a few quick pictures and got him loaded and back to the truck. To get him on ice as soon as possible I skinned him on the ground right there and the deed was done.

I’ll post a little more on this technique later as this is something every hunter should know. Many times I have used this method along with a rubber back pack to pack a deer out and it’s the slickest thing you have ever seen. I was done and the deer was in the cooler in 15 minutes!

It was one of the best opening weekends and I couldn’t remember when Steve and I both harvested racked bucks in one weekend, pretty awesome!

If I could give anyone some advice after reflecting on this hunt, I’d say don’t rush a shot unless you really have to. Some times to be successful you have to make things happen but in this case the deer was feeding and in reality, I probably had time to wait on it to get a little lighter. The deer was fatally shot but surely not the death blow I was striving to deliver.

Funny how things work out.

Best of hunts,

Larry S.

Here's the glasses I use if you want to find out a little about them.
As I get a chance I'll put a gear list together of all the items and gadgets I use and recommend.