There are few better feelings in life than when a plan comes together to accomplish a difficult goal. That’s what I love about archery hunting – it’s a tough game and success is unlikely. Victory is so much sweeter when it’s hard-won.
One of my goals is to shoot a buck of my desired age class. I have a process to accomplish that goal that focuses around ensuring the target buck is in the spot I want to hunt. I have to be efficient with my time since I do not have much of it to spare in the woods. I do not have access to hunt high-quality deer habitat.
That’s why putting down a public land buck of this caliber gets me fired up.
After the previous week’s joke show hunting and 70+ degree November days, there was a brief cold front moving through on Tuesday of the past week. I had a good buck who had showed up on camera multiple times in the previous days, including within the last 24 hours. A good north wind was in the forecast, and my work calendar happened to have a few open hours that morning. Couple that with turning the clocks back and buying me an extra hour in the woods, I requested the morning off of work. It seemed my time would be better spent in a tree.
The Hunt
I settled into my tree before first light and watched the last sliver of the lunar eclipse complete from my saddle. The first hour or so of twilight showed little action as night gave way to morning. Then, as can so often happen with the rut, the woods seemed to detonate with action.
Two does came sprinting through like thoroughbreds 75 yards to my right. I knew that sort of running could only mean one thing – they were being chased. As these does cleared the woods, through a small pine thicket and out into a goldenrod field behind me, I turned to see the buck I was after hot on their tails. He plunged into the pine thicket as the does made a circle around the goldenrod field and bounded past my stand 20 yards away. Assuming the buck would do the same, I prepared myself to shoot the path the does just followed.
But the buck did not leave the pine thicket.
I kept twisting around, sure I had missed him. I heard deep grunting from the pines and knew he was in there still. A few minutes go by with no action, and I strained to find any sight of him in the pines. Glancing out into the goldenrods, I spot him 80 yards out in the field walking straight away from me. I rattled and grunted, to which he stopped and turned in my direction. He was interested but not wholly committed for a fight. It’s enough to keep him out in the field.
I see him work this way and that across the field. He started scent checking different small patches of pines. Another little buck moved into the other side of the goldenrod field, wary of the big eight pointer but still interested enough in the action to remain. The eight point moved back toward the original pine thicket, this time about 50 yards away. He disappeared into the green amongst the landscape of brown, and I prepared for him to appear on the other side for a 30 yard shot.
No such luck as he stayed in the thicket. This whole show repeats itself for an hour. He cruises and scent checks all over this goldenrod field scattered with small pine stands. I see him multiple times now in a pine thicket to my left, as close as 35 yards, cruising through with his head down walking away from me.
This roller coaster started to take a toll on my focus. Having an adrenaline dump and readying my crossbow every ten minutes for an hour is exhausting. I heard the telltale cruising sound of tcht, tcht, tcht steps coming my direction from my left. I saw flashes of brown and antlers heading my way down the trail to my left. Honestly, at that point, I was skeptical that he would actually make it to me. As he made it to within 50 yards with his head down and still heading my way, I put my scope on him and followed him as he continued his trek. Maybe it would happen after all.
The Shot
I had ranged a specific window at 28 yards and knew once he cleared a certain limb that I would have a shot. Everything happened fast, and he luckily stopped in the window, slightly quartering to me. My tree was up on a small hogback and I was over 20 feet in the tree, so the angle was fairly steep. Thankfully, after having learned from previous failures, I had my fixed blade broadhead on my arrow for rutted up bucks on a quartering-to shot. I put my 30 yard pin slightly low on his vitals to compensate for the angle and a potential string jump and let the arrow fly.
I thought I heard the coveted ‘thwack’ but it was hard to be sure. The buck bolted away from me into the pine thicket. I heard crashing through the dead pine limbs and then an audible ‘thump’. Wait, did he fall, or was my mind making me hear things that I wanted to hear? I didn’t even know if I hit him, let alone dare enough to hope that he fell that close after a quartering-to shot.
The arrow…I needed to find the arrow. I grabbed my binos and frantically searched the shot area. There, a lighted nock sticking out of the ground! But did it have blood? Either I missed entirely or it was a clean pass through. It was sticking out of some grass and I strained to find the one white fletch…and it was red! Clean pass through.
After making a couple of calls to my wife and hunting buddy from the stand, I decided to climb down 30 minutes after the shot to retrieve my arrow. My hunting buddy advised I back out unless I saw a white belly nearby. I climbed down and packed up my gear. I then quietly made my way to my arrow. The blood on the arrow and near the impact looked good. I looked into the pine thicket, hoping against hope to see…a white belly laying 30 yards away!
I could not believe it. He had died within seconds of the shot. I took a minute to admire the deer and the whole situation. A dandy public land buck was down. While gutting him, I noticed a double lung and arterial hit with the heart still intact. Couldn’t ask for much more than that. I got him gutted and loaded into the truck, just in time to get on the phone for my first meeting of the day.
This hunt demonstrated exactly how a Basic Hunter can and should have success. There are several Basic Hunter factors that led to success on this hunt, upon which I will expand in upcoming posts. It’s always important to understand why something occurred, both positively and negatively. As I reflect on the hunt, here’s what I hope you can take away and use in your neck of the woods.
Success Factors
           I’m not a saddle hunter, I’m a Basic Hunter
           I’m not a public land hunter, I’m a Basic Hunter
           I’m not a rut hunter, I’m a Basic Hunter
           I’m not a crossbow hunter, I’m a Basic Hunter
           The Lunar Eclipse – yes, I’m going there
Very nice. Congratulations!