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Horse Prairie Ranch | Email: bdvanc@aol.com
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2004
Deer Hunt - A Bowhunt In Progress
The 1st Ever Bowhunting.net
Deerhunt
 To
This Hunt's Home Page
 Daylight
broke as I climbed #16, the same stand I hunted
last year. Seconds later, bingo, I saw a nice buck walking through
the trees. It walked by to my left and stopped by some brush 80 yards away.
Quietly, I took my camera
out of it's case and hung the case's strap on a peg and slowly pulled my
bow up. A second buck, with a high rack, came out of the brush by the buck.
Crash!!!
They locked horns and a heated
fight fight was on. In the twisting and shoving the first buck lost his
rear footing and the high racked buck smashed him flat on the ground and
promptly began goring him brutally with it's antlers. Somehow the downed
buck scrambled to it's feet and immediately fled -- full speed.
The winner walked over to
a trail leading to my stand, stood there awhile ... and walked toward me.
There was no way of knowing it, but something real neat was going to happen
today.
As the buck circled around
behind me I had my camera ready. This buck had a nice rack with long tines
that came close together and I wanted a picture, and if it co-operated
I wanted to put my tag on it too. But it disappeared into the trees behind
me.
As I waited to see what the
buck would do I saw 3 other younger bucks in the area.
The high racked buck came
back and walked into the small clearing directly in from of my ladder stand.
I zoomed in a little and took a picture, and another. My camera was not
focusing properly, the pictures in the LCD display were blurry!
 I
switched modes and tried more pics. Still blurry. Something was wrong with
the camera. I zoomed back, took more, and got one that seemed to be ok.
But I paid a big price, ol' high rack walked on by and out of the area.
A black buck came from the
left and stopped in front of me, watching the area, and then went back
the way it came. Everything was happening fast, I needed to take the battery
out of my camera but couldn't risk the chance of making noise and drawing
the attention of something.
Surprise, I saw the high
racked buck walked out of the trees on right and stopped in the open, 20
yards away. I let my camera hang around my neck and and carefully took
my bow off the bow holder. So far the buck didn't know I was on the planet.
Now, I needed to get an arrow out.
I use the Fine-Line Hunter
bowquiver and it was a real help at this point. The nocks seat in the quiver's
nock bar. Although this is different from most bowquivers, it is cool,
because it cuts down on movement and noise when you get an arrow. And since
you take it out by the nock it's quicker to load. So I slipped the arrow
out, nocked it, and put it on the rest.
A wider but shorter tined
buck appeared to our left. The high racked buck took a few steps toward
it and stopped, but some limbs on my tree were blocking a shot. Both bucks
stood there a long time. My heart seemed to be beating half speed as I
waited.
High rack stepped into the
clear, 15 yards or less. I drew, hoping that the new buck wouldn't see
me. It didn't.
My buck took a couple of
steps as I put my pin where it should go and shot.
High rack bolted and ran
50 yards and stopped abruptly. The other buck ran behind him stopped facing
him. They stood that way as the seconds ticked by. I expected high rack
to fall in his tracks.
He didn't. He walked into
the woods to the left with the other buck behind him.
I pulled the battery out
of my camera for five minutes and put it back. The camera focused right
again. Half and hour later a wild boar grunted in the woods to my left.
It stopped almost under me and I took it's picture, it was focused. I slipped
out an arrow and the hog moved into another space in the limbs and leaves.
I shot. It ran behind me and I heard it crash and burn.
At 8:45 I got down. The hog
was an easy find, 45 yards away. I took a pic and went to look for my buck.
 
As expected, my arrow looked
good. But I couldn't find any blood. So I started walking grid style, searching
for the buck. At 9:30 Bill Carpenter came to get me. I showed him where
I shot the buck and, right away, he found blood on a rock. We decided to
pick up everyone and come back.
It was slow going but the
Duck, Bill Carpenter and Boyd Burbank followed the trail 150 yards. Meanwhile
Dave Cole, Bill and I searched the area ahead. We got into an area with
rocks and boulders, through the trees half of them looked like a dead deer.
We had no luck.
Eventually we all met back
up. We had to return to camp so everyone could eat and get ready for the
afternoon hunt.
Bill Carpenter turned to
me and said, "I'm sure your buck is dead. While you hunt this afternoon
I will look for your buck."
I told him. "No ... we're
gonna both look."
We put the hunters out and
came back. Bill Carpenter pointed out the direction he thought we should
go and we started our new search. Half an hour before dark I came out at
a windmill. My cell phone had a signal and I called Bill. He was in the
woods, almost back to the truck. He had no luck either, and he said to
stay put he would drive to me.
Bill put his phone back in
his pocket, took 3 steps ... and saw my buck.
He picked me up and we went
to the buck. He was 80 yards from our last blood.
I honestly think Bill had
a bigger smile on his face than I did as we each grabbed an antler to drag
the buck up the hill to the truck.
Bill Carpenter is 76, a gentleman
by any account, a real cowboy, and a guy that believes that if you don't
give up you can get what you want. I believe that too, Bill. And it paid
off for us today.
My buck and wild boar
were taken using a BowTech
Patriot VLT, Innerloc
EXP Expandable broadhead, Scent
Killer spray and deodorant, venom
Peep Sight, the Shoot Out arrow rest from Golden
Key Futura , Fine-Line
Hunter bowquiver, the Primos .44 Caliper release from Jim
Fletcher Archery. Arrows were Easton
C2 carbons, yellow Gateway
Feathers and yellow Zebra wraps from EZE-Eye
Arrow Wraps, all fletched with the Arizona EZ-Fletch for carbons.
Wild
Horse Prairie Ranch | Email: bdvanc@aol.com
| Call: 254-749-6119
| Fax: 254-546-2709
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