Florida Bow Hunting Report #6 - Oct. 7, 2011

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Florida Bow Hunting Report #6
Monday, Oct. 7, 2011

I needed to change things up a little after hunting the kill zone stand and walking in on some deer in the dark. After climbing into the stand the wind switched and a deer ran off blowing evey breath for as far as I could hear. I thought to myself, the cat is out of the bag now. I know I had been putting a little to much pressure on this stand.

I decided to make my next hunt at the pond stand. I was in the tree before shooting light and ready for action. There was some large cloud formations to the east that held daylight off just a bit but it finally got light enough to shoot.

The morning was going pretty slow but from the stand I could see the deer had been on the corn and a good bit of it was gone.

I was just about ready to put my gear together and climb down when I caught a little movement in the edge of the chop off to my left. I put the glasses on it and surprise! A deer. Slowly a young doe and two yearlings emerged from the gallberry and palmettos.

The doe, like most with yearlings, approached the corn very cautiously. I decided I would take a shot at the doe when she got right.

I was videoing the hunt and trying to keep the camera on the deer while preparing for the shot.

As the doe reached the 5th row that adjoined the corn she suddenly got real nervous and stopped and stomped her foot. She turned and started walking away. At 33 yds she turned broadside, I put the 30yd pin on her and launched a shaft. I did not have time to make sure the camera was on her, I may have missed the footage, I don’t know yet.

Well. The shot felt pretty good but it all went bad in an instant. The impact was low and back. The doe bolted off to the north and I sank into the seat…..How did that just happen? I just managed the dreaded paunch shot.

I really had my work cut out for me now. The bad part was the 60% rain chance that was forecasted for the day. I needed time to let the deer layup before taking up the trail. Really, 8 hours minimum but I was not going to get it.

I looked at the arrow sticking in the ground and there was no sign of blood, only stomach content. That pretty much ruled out any liver involvement.

I went to the house and picked up Lacy so we would be ready to hit the trail if the weather threatened. About the time we got to town it started to rain. It appeared to be isolated and there was no way the doe would be dead at this point so we had to bide out time.

At 1:30 I felt we could not hold off any longer and we headed to take up the trail. Lacy was ready to go. I leashed her up and away we went. Without a word spoken and with it already having rained once, Lacy pulled me straight to the arrow sticking in the ground. Incredible! She was on it. We pushed thru some palmettos to the edge of the chop and turned east. From there we moved along the edge of the timber to an old atv trail. The dog turned North and tracked down the road maybe a hundred yards, made a loose, turned back and found where the deer had gone in the bushes to the east. I feel the doe would have gone down the road like this but you have to believe the dog. That is the biggest mistake most inexperienced dog handlers make.

Lacy pulled me into some pretty thick cover and eventually up under some mature palmettos to a spot where a deer had bedded. I did not see any blood or stomach content on the ground. Lacy smelled around it and found where the deer had left there and in short distance she opened on the lead which is not a good sign. That indicates the deer is up and moving.

We kept going but all of the sudden the bottom dropped out of the clouds and the rain started to pour. The trail was starting to break down and we had to give it up. We tried to make a new start but it was useless. We headed for the truck with our heads hung low.

I am still torn as to whether we were on the right deer. We could have been on one of the yearlings, I guess we’ll never know. I convinced that the bed Lacy took me two was what she tracked away from the stand site. She never indicated she had lost the track.

Once this weather breaks I will try to see if the buzzards have found her. I would like to know what happened.

I wish I had better news but for a bow hunter, it is just a matter of time before you run into this same situation. It generally does not go well. I will try to shake this off and get back in the saddle but I have to say my confidence has been shaken after two clean misses and a cripple. I sure need to make a couple good clean kills before heading for the big Illinois bow hunt the first of November.

If there is some video to see on this I will post it when I can.

Larry

Florida Bow Hunting Report #5 - Oct. 7, 2011

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Florida Bow Hunting Report #5


Monday, Oct. 3, 2011

I hunted the pond stand this morning but it was a bust. The trail cam had pitiful few pictures on it. The deer activity has really gotten slow there.



I am expecting big things this week as the moon is coming around to putting the feed times at dawn and dusk. I have always found the best hunting to be on the quarter moon phase.



I headed for Cabbage Creek this afternoon to hunt my Kill zone stand. As usual, work made my arrival later than I wanted. The conditions were right but There was no deer activity for my effort.

Tuesday, Oct. 4
Lacy, my bluetick and I had cold camped so we could make the hunt this morning before heading for work. Again we saw no deer activity.

The deer activity on the trail cam at the Kill Zone stand has been good so that was the plan for the afternoons hunt. If I could keep hunting this spot undetected It would be just a matter of time before I crossed up one of the bucks using here.

Little did I know today would be the day. However, the outcome was not to be the one I was wishing for.

I had arrived late due to having to stop for gas, ice, food, corn, etc. all at different locations. I parked the truck, told the dog to stay, grabbed my gear and took off. I must have looked like a guy that just crawled out of another mans wife’s window. I was hustling down the road trying to don all my cloths.

When I got to the stand I tied off my bow and climbed into the stand. As I was pulling my bow up I started to hear a deer pushing thru the thick palmetto flat behind me. I hurried and knocked an arrow. The deer was making so much noise I knew it had to be a buck. I’ve noticed bucks seem to make a lot more noise than does and yearlings.

Well, after 6-8 minutes the buck finally hopped over some high palmettos with a crash into the back of an old cutover about 75 yds to the west of me. It was the little 5 pt I had missed the first weekend.

He walked over to a clump of small bay trees and started whooping up on them. He had them swaying back and fourth with a fever. It looked a little funny as there was no wind and at that distance, without the binoculars you could not see the deer, only the bushes moving. He would stop periodically and smell the limbs, even nip a bite or two off some edible plant besides. Finally, he started heading my way. He turned to start down a trail and I decided I would try to let him stop on his own if possible but he walked thru the first two spots without a pause. When he reached the exact spot I had missed him before I made a low bleat that got his attention and he stopped. I was at full draw, put the 30 yd pin on him and loosed an arrow.

When the arrow arrived and the deer bolted I heard a small ping and remember thinking I did not like the sound of that. The second bad sign was the way the deer was pitching high and slow through the thick. A fatally hit deer plows, he don’t pitch or high hop. When he reached the back of the chop he stopped and looked around, twitched his tail and slowly walked back into the thick palmetto flat. I had just missed the same buck for the second time, standing in the same exact spot! What the heck is going on here!! I can’t remember the last time I clean missed two deer in one season.

I later ranged the spot again and realized it was further than I had thought. It ranged 41yds and I thought it was 39. I figured the deer was a couple yards closer than the 39 as that was to the far side. I deducted 4 yds for the 20’ stand hgt. And put the 30yd pin mid hgt…..shot right under him and apparently the ping was his foot or knee hitting the shaft when he ran. Damn the luck!

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011

I saw zero deer in the morning and the afternoon would prove to be only slightly more eventful.

The highlight for the afternoon was a rat in the palmettos below my stand. I was pretty convinced there for a minute that it might be an approaching deer. Being straight below the stand I could not course where the sound was coming from. Finally, I figured it out….just a rat.

Well, There was one other pretty interesting event. I had let Lacy out of the truck to smell around and relieve herself. I have to keep a close eye on her as you can imagine. I was getting my cloths on when I started missing her. I called…no Lacy, I called her again….no Lacy….crap! Now I’m yelling for her….no Lacy. I ran down the road towards the stand to track a sandy spot but could not make anything out. Back at the truck I cranked up and ran down the road to the high fence to glass down the straight a way…no Lacy.
I was already late before all this started and I could not waste any more time. I would have to catch the dog later. I parked the truck again and jumped out to grab my gear to leave. To my surprise, here comes Lacy down the road from the direction of my stand! My first thought was, she just tracked me to my stand looking for a blood trail. She has learned when I let her out that she can back track me to the stand and the head of a bloody deer trail. I have seen her do this countless times. Without a word said, she will pull me right to the stand without missing a step.

Lacy's butt on my trail cam!

Well, I scolded her for running off and loaded her up. The hunt was a bust. The next morning I hunted the stand again and when I was done I pulled the camera card. Guess who was on the camera in front of my stand…..Lacy! It had been over 10 hours since I left the stand, in about 12 minutes, Lacy had tracked me over a quarter mile right to the stand and the trail camera, got her picture taken, found there was no blood trail and came back to the truck! Pretty incredible. I learned a few things there. First, I had no idea I was leaving such an obvious sent trail. Second, what an incredible nose a dog (and deer) really have. You cannot over estimate it.

The smaller 7pt I've been hunting showed up about an hour after both Lacy and I had been there and it did not seem to bother him. He picked up corn for about 20 minutes before leaving. He didn't seem to be bothered by our stink. I've probably hunted it so much he thinks I belong there.

Wednesday’s hunt was not a great deal better. I saw half a deer in the morning cross the fire break up ahead of me 75 yds or so and in the afternoon I saw zip.

Thursday morning was a bust also and I did not hunt the afternoon hunt.

The season is about to slip away without me taking a deer. I did not think it was possible.

Larry

Florida Bow Hunting Report #4 - Oct. 2, 2011

Florida Bow Hunting Report #4

Oct. 2, 11, Third Weekend

I got in a few hunts during the week but they were pretty uneventful until Friday morning. I had decided to run over to the club and put in a short hunt at the kill zone. About 7:15 I noticed a deer standing in a mow on the neighbor’s property. I put the glasses on it and to my surprise it turned out to be the smaller of the two 7pt’s that have been showing up on the trail camera regularly. I thought he was going to come my way but he turned and went towards the neighbors feeder. I could hear him moving through the bushes but couldn’t see him. After a few minutes and no deer I thought he was gone. About 30 minutes later he pops out of our pine plantation into the fire brake and walk away back across the mow, the direction he originally came from. It was encouraging to finally see a decent buck and things were looking up.


Saturday, Oct. 1,11, Steve-O my Hero shoots a double!

I went back to the kill zone stand for the morning hunt hoping the 7pt would show back up. The weather had made a welcome change and it was in the 50’s this morning. Steve and I made the 5 mile journey south on our atv’s and it was a chilly ride.
Later that morning I heard Steve on his atv and I figured he must have killed to be down that early. When I came out I found him sitting at the head of the road, about to pee his pants with a deer on the back of his machine. It was a nice 6” spike. Steve said “I need some help, I shot another buck but can’t find the arrow or the deer.”


Back at Steve’s stand he recounted how he had shot the deer and we looked over the crime scene…no blood, no bolt! We moved in the direction the deer had gone and after a few minutes Steve found a little blood. We were able to piece things together and after a short 50yd trail we found a nice 3pt.


Steve’s rage tipped bolt had hit the deer high on the ribs and only penetrated about 4-5”. It was enough to just penetrate the off lung. Not very impressive performance by the “Rage Head”.

We had our work cut out for us…..not one but two deer to quarter and get on ice.

The cross bow had really changed Steve’s harvest performance. If you can believe this…..He’s up on me by three! Never before in recorded history has this happened. I have had a black cloud following me that I just can’t shake and now it’s effecting my bow season. I just hope it’s gone before I get to Illinois!
Sunday, Oct. 2,11

Big buck in the rain!

I hunted the buck block stand after see a really nice buck on the trail cam there and seeing some does show up in the daylight for the first time. You guessed it….I saw exactly zero deer!
The bear has been here regularly as well, even in the daylight.

Here’s some pic’s from the camera’s  (note that the date/time on some of these are not correct, I forgot to set it when I put the camera out.)

Larry