Let me caveat this by saying I am 52 years old and my desire for things in life have changed....we found out I was Low T recently and am working to get it fixed...its not the end of the world, but there have been many days where I didnt want to get off of the couch....not suicidal, but zero interest in things that I chased after earlier in life....I stopped going to the gym because I truly didn't see the point. So if the above statement seems to hit home, go see the doc, there is a fix and its not those expensive pills you see in TV ads.
I played golf on Friday because I worried that sprinkles would turn into something worse....looking back Friday was probably the best time to hunt this weekend.....70 degrees.
My original plan was to go to Ridgetop where I have a stand that is set up for suburban hunting, but the trail camera didnt have any pics last week and the landowner hadn't seen the one buck I was looking for.
Saturday afternoon I debated about going out....as the temp seemed to be increasing with every hour and topped out at 92 degrees. I decided I would go at 5pm, hoping to be in the stand by 6pm. I know that sounds late, but trail camera pics showed deer movement at sunset....and I have no desire to sit and sweat.
I loaded up my car with my gear. I got to the farm and put on my HECS under/over garment on, sprayed down my boots real good. As always I had far more gear than I needed......but probably the most important thing that got left home was bug dope.....that was critical when trying to gut my deer out. As I hiked in I thought to myself....this is crazy!
I got to my stand, pulled my trail camera card, climbed the tree to see a young buck 200yds out feeding in the beans?? He didn't hear/see me, he was focused on eating. I set up my ozonics and tied my safety harness around the tree. I immediately sat and shot distances with my rangefinder. I watched the young buck eat towards the tree line and bedding in the shade. What was interesting was all you could see was head/antlers when he was in the beans.
I glassed as much as possible and kept my cell phone put away. When the sun went down it felt like someone turned on the AC. It actually felt good out, like the sit in the heat would be worth it. I stood up and was checking something out when I happen to look back behind me and there was a giant 8 looking right up at me.....what are the odds, they never use that trail! He looked at me for a minute, spun and went back into the woods. That is when I truly saw how wide he was, way outside his ears. Life happens, right?!
I sat back down figuring I would see other deer......when all of a sudden that big 8 comes out to my right to feed, so I stood up and grabbed my bow, pulled out my rangefinder and shot him, 35yds. As I was moving my HHA sight, he left the field, he knew something was up. He came out with a buck we call 1/2 rack, he has 4 on one side and nothing on the other.
I hung my bow back up.....not giving up hope. About 10 minutes later a deer (10pt) comes bursting into the beans about 70 yds away, comes to a stop and starts to eat....I would have to guess that the big 8 pushed him out? The young buck from 200yds was now on his feet, feeding my way in the beans on the same trail as the 10pt and another young buck that was with the 10pt was visible in the field. The 10pt kept looking at the younger buck on his trail and began slowly making his way towards me. I looked at him thru the binos and felt he was at least 3.5yr old and was happy with how big his rack is.....I must admit that velvet absolutely made him look bigger.....but I believe if he was hard horned that I still would have shot him.
When he got to 40yds he was in my comfort zone for an ethical shot. I shot him one more time with the rangefinder. I picked up my Elite Ritual and drew black my Carbon Express Maxima Red arrow. It was tipped with a NAP kill zone expandable. I put my pin in the kill zone and let it fly, follow thru felt great and as soon as I heard the thwack....the buck fell over??? He thrashed for a bit, but I couldnt see him for a second shot. I climbed down and walk thru the beans to within 5yds....I didn't know it at the time, but I had hit him high, but when I looked at the hole, it wasn't near the backbone/spinal chord, it was below and the arrow would have angled down into the chest.
With that said I shot him again at 5yds and walked away to allow him to die in peace. I called my wife and told her to send my son and my daughters boyfriend out with the deer cart. I then collected all my gear and went back to him to begin gutting him. He was covered in horse flies....until they saw me and started biting me....hence why bringing some bug dope would have been helpful. It didn't take long to gut him. Unfortunately he was big enough that I had to wait on my bows to move him, I couldn't drag him by myself.
It didn't take long for the boys to get there. We loaded him up and moved him to the 1st fence to get him over it. It took all 3 of us to lift him up 3 feet and put him over. We then put him back on the cart and started to transport him back to the truck. I had strapped his body to the cart in order to keep him in place. It was taking two of us to move him via the cart, which didn't seem right. After 300yds I stopped our movement and put the light on the cart......in my hurry, I had put the strap thru one of the tires, thereby negating the use of the tire??? I quickly adjusted the strap and guess what, it took 15 minutes to move him the last 500yds.....my boys were leaving me in the dust!
I got back to the car and the first thing I did was try to check him in via the app that is downloaded to my phone. Each time I tried it told me that the website was down? I called a friend to see what to do, I didn't want to have a deer with out the harvest report number. I then googled TWRA harvest report and back doored my way into the system.
My daughter and I went to wally world to get 20lbs of ice, I ended up doing this twice before I got him to the butcher. I took him to a butcher out past Adams TN. He felt the body and he said I had done a good job cooling him off. Should have the meat back by tomorrow.
Currently the head/antlers are in the freezer. I will strip the velvet off tonight after work, then take the head to the taxidermist and get a european mount done on him. Keeps the wife happy, cheaper and doesn't take up as much space on the wall.
Now I will sit and wait until the end of September and see if I can't connect with that massive 8pt!
