This past weekend Cayce and I opened up our home to a group of old friends and some new ones. It was an incredible time and included a hunt that will rank near the top of experiences for me for a lot of reasons.
We stayed up way too late Friday night and got up way too early Saturday morning. Got everyone in the woods and in their spots and then I headed down into an area I hadn't been this year. I was about half way to where I had intended to hunt and in the pitch black dark via headlamp I could see this particular hollow was destroyed with deer sign. No sense walking farther than you have to so I picked a tree and saddled on up. Now it takes a special kind of stupid to bring a bow to a gun hunt. Yet here we all sit on the second day of rifle season bows in hand. At 0800 I hear feet shuffling through the leaves and look to my 7 o'clock position and see a decent buck, head up and coming up out of the bottom towards me. With his head up I can't move. He passes at 12 yards through a chip shot opening and there I sit with no bow in hand and have to let him pass through it. He gets through that window and behind a dogwood and drops his head and starts feeding. Time to move. Bow in hand, camera on, deer in frame. He's still at 12-15 yards but behind trees now but is steady feeding to a point blank shot position. He needs one to two more steps and right as he's about to hit that gap it's like somebody horse collars him and turns him around and back behind the limbs and small trees he goes.
He feeds out to 35, turns and is heading towards another hole in the woods I can get an arrow through. Range the tree he's going to pass by and get 31 yards. He's in front so I figure I'll shoot him for a short 30. He hits that hole moving left to right, stops broadside, 30 yard pin on his brisket behind the elbow, T'd up, elbow high, pull through the shot and send it. The green nockturnal is headed for money when all of a sudden it's like somebody slapped my arrow away from him with a loud "CRACK!!!", arrow takes a 90 degree right turn, buries into the ditch bank and the deer takes off like he's been shot out of a cannon back into the thick creek bottom.
What the heck just happened?! I initially thought I shot high and hit the tree but hitting a soft beech tree shouldn't sound like that and the arrow would bury into that soft thing. Was there a limb in front I didn't see? Binos up, nope. No limbs or saplings. I'm sitting up there confused, mad, pouting and pull out my readers (cuz I'm old and can't see the screen) and roll back and look at the footage. The only info I got from the footage is that I did not shoot high. It was dead on the money and just took a hard right. I'm hanging there in my saddle just dumbfounded and look up and see a deer standing on the other side of the ditch. Got the binos up and it's him and hes limping. Ooookay. Now this is getting weird. I look at his right leg and he's got a cut on his elbow. So I hit him. Best I can figure is he pulled his leg, I hit bone and it glanced off. At this point he's bearing weight on it and looks pretty healthy and I figure worst case scenario he and I both have a good story we live to tell. He moves up the hill and out of sight and I figure that's that.
And hour or so goes by. A few more deer straggle through, a coyote, kabillion squirrels and some ornery tweety birds. Look up and about 30 yards from where I last saw that buck I see a deer standing there. Glasses up and it's him. He's back. Again. Only this time he ain't looking so good. Head is down and now he's carrying that leg. He's about 70-80 yards out and just standing there. Now I'm really confused. Why would a leg hit have this deer looking like he's on death's door? He starts to move slowly from my left to right and crosses over to my side of the ditch. He's on a line that will put him in a shooting lane about 40-45 yards out. I do not take shots at deer over 30 yards but I have a 40 yard pin for just such occasions and know how to use it. At this point my job and responsibility is to get another arrow in this deer. I don't have time to mess with the camera. I get drawn and am prepared to stop him when he hits that lane. Right when he hits it it's like he hit a brick wall like God himself puts a hand on him and stops dead still and broadside. I settle the 40 dead center of his chest behind the shoulder, T'd up, pull through the shot and off she goes. CRAAACK!!! He takes off like a scalded dog, chest to the ground and tail pumping. My nock didn't lite up, it's an old one that has been through a few deer, so I'm not exactly sure where he's hit but he's hit. I'm listening to him run and hear what I'm pretty sure is him crashing. But I'm about half deaf and squirrels are going crazy everywhere so I can't be sure. It's 0930 and I give him an hour. Text the group and we make a plan to meet up and take up the track. More eyes the better.
We get to the point of impact, Simple finds first blood and we take up the track. And it's an easy one. 75'ish yards later and there he lays. Now for the autopsy and to see what the heck happened here. My first shot did indeed hit his elbow. On the video you can see him pull his right elbow back when you hear the bow released. The arrow hit him on the front edge of his elbow, starts turning hard right. Broadhead enters his chest, clips the front of the right lung and exits his brisket. Now here's where it gets weirder'r. We see the exit of the second shot low behind his left shoulder but can't see where it went in. Finally Benman looks and on his right elbow there are two holes less than 1/4" apart. Second shot was right on top of the first. Only this time it went behind the joint and cut his heart in half.
We found where he bedded down on the other side of that ditch just out of sight. That's where he was for over an hour after he came back. Why he came back instead of staying in that creek bottom I'll never know. But I'm glad he did.
Great weekend with some incredible folks and a true living legend in the bowhunting world, Monty Browning was with us through it all. Getting to spend time with, share food, stories and track a deer with him will go down as a highlight of my hunting career, if you want to call it that. He's an incredible person. Pics below. Video to come.
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Here's a short clip of the first shot. I'll share the full hunt video once I get everything uploaded and edited.
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