Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
Day 2 of my 2 week vacation, long drive there and time change f’d me up a little, so it was just cracking light walking to my stand.
I’m halfway through my ninja straddle between strands of an electric fence and the thick brush to my right (hardwoods on the left) explodes, I see a bunch of flags
I get through the fence and tiptoe 10 yards to a spot I can see over the brush to try and see what they are, I hear a grunt so I slip a few steps over to the tree my camera is on for cover. I hear a snort wheeze about 50 yards away so there’s still hope, but I can’t move. I hear a couple grunts in different directions at the same time and another snort wheeze from the same buck, so I know there’s 3 bucks in front of me. They are all plowing through the thick stuff chasing different doe I presume, I can’t see any of them just see the top of the brush moving.
One of the further bucks on the right starts heading straight at me, crashing brush hot on a doe. They come up to 15 yards and stand there, the buck starts making a rub, more grunts and chasing from the other bucks, another snort wheeze from one of them, my heart is in my throat! The buck in front of me moves around enough I can see it’s not a shooter, young 7 point with good mass and webbed between tines, but not a shooter.
The other 2 bucks are going crazy crashing through the brush within 100 yards from me doing circles. I’m looking for them and a doe pops up right in front of me and skirts the hardwoods and stays 5 yards inside, but I saw 2 small spots she went that I can shoot, now, I thought she was the doe with the small webbed 7 point in front of me. I got my crossbow ready anyway for the practice round, and a buck 20 yards behind her roars (blow hard on your grunt call for 10 seconds for a roar). He pops out of the brush in her steps and I see it’s not the small 7 but the spread is outside his ears, so I’m rushed to click off the safety and prep for a shot. I see the head, then the chest, he slides through into the first hole and even though he’s facing straight at me, I put the crosshairs on the boiler room through the brisket and let it rip.
He jumps to the left like nothing happened and he’s right back on the doe. I thought for sure I hit brush I didn’t see, and missed him. I grab the string with my hands and rip it back, slap in another arrow and get ready. The other 2 bucks are off in the distance grunting and crashing brush, but in a few minutes are in the distance and heading away. This all happened in about 30 minutes of straight adrenaline rush. I stood there for almost an hour to gather myself enough to go look at the crime scene.
I see blood, bright red and bubbly. I find my bolt but it only got 8” of penetration so I backed out and gave it another hour before tracking. I go 100 yards through the thick nasty and the track takes me back out of the brush and into the hardwoods, right past my treestand
blood is spraying and looks good so I press on. 100 yards more and I find a bloody bed, my tingle is telling me to back out but it’s been 2 1/2 hours, out of the bed the track turns and heads towards a small island of hardwoods where I can mark it and pick up the trail later. He was just 10 yards into the hardwoods and stiff as a board. The camera I stood next to took over 100 pictures of my arm, and in my frenzy to reload.. I loaded my discharge bolt with a target broadhead
What a friggin RUSH thought!! A day I will never forget as long as I live.
Not sure how well you can see the blood trail and treestand in the first picture but I’ll try it.
Older grey face with white circles around the eyes, didn’t get much for pictures and I hunt alone so always crappy pictures.
No brow tines so only a 7 point but thick bases and long sweeping main beams. Shot was 6” high but hit square the windpipe. Pressure is off
I’m halfway through my ninja straddle between strands of an electric fence and the thick brush to my right (hardwoods on the left) explodes, I see a bunch of flags
I get through the fence and tiptoe 10 yards to a spot I can see over the brush to try and see what they are, I hear a grunt so I slip a few steps over to the tree my camera is on for cover. I hear a snort wheeze about 50 yards away so there’s still hope, but I can’t move. I hear a couple grunts in different directions at the same time and another snort wheeze from the same buck, so I know there’s 3 bucks in front of me. They are all plowing through the thick stuff chasing different doe I presume, I can’t see any of them just see the top of the brush moving. One of the further bucks on the right starts heading straight at me, crashing brush hot on a doe. They come up to 15 yards and stand there, the buck starts making a rub, more grunts and chasing from the other bucks, another snort wheeze from one of them, my heart is in my throat! The buck in front of me moves around enough I can see it’s not a shooter, young 7 point with good mass and webbed between tines, but not a shooter.
The other 2 bucks are going crazy crashing through the brush within 100 yards from me doing circles. I’m looking for them and a doe pops up right in front of me and skirts the hardwoods and stays 5 yards inside, but I saw 2 small spots she went that I can shoot, now, I thought she was the doe with the small webbed 7 point in front of me. I got my crossbow ready anyway for the practice round, and a buck 20 yards behind her roars (blow hard on your grunt call for 10 seconds for a roar). He pops out of the brush in her steps and I see it’s not the small 7 but the spread is outside his ears, so I’m rushed to click off the safety and prep for a shot. I see the head, then the chest, he slides through into the first hole and even though he’s facing straight at me, I put the crosshairs on the boiler room through the brisket and let it rip.
He jumps to the left like nothing happened and he’s right back on the doe. I thought for sure I hit brush I didn’t see, and missed him. I grab the string with my hands and rip it back, slap in another arrow and get ready. The other 2 bucks are off in the distance grunting and crashing brush, but in a few minutes are in the distance and heading away. This all happened in about 30 minutes of straight adrenaline rush. I stood there for almost an hour to gather myself enough to go look at the crime scene.
I see blood, bright red and bubbly. I find my bolt but it only got 8” of penetration so I backed out and gave it another hour before tracking. I go 100 yards through the thick nasty and the track takes me back out of the brush and into the hardwoods, right past my treestand
blood is spraying and looks good so I press on. 100 yards more and I find a bloody bed, my tingle is telling me to back out but it’s been 2 1/2 hours, out of the bed the track turns and heads towards a small island of hardwoods where I can mark it and pick up the trail later. He was just 10 yards into the hardwoods and stiff as a board. The camera I stood next to took over 100 pictures of my arm, and in my frenzy to reload.. I loaded my discharge bolt with a target broadhead What a friggin RUSH thought!! A day I will never forget as long as I live.
Not sure how well you can see the blood trail and treestand in the first picture but I’ll try it.
Older grey face with white circles around the eyes, didn’t get much for pictures and I hunt alone so always crappy pictures.
No brow tines so only a 7 point but thick bases and long sweeping main beams. Shot was 6” high but hit square the windpipe. Pressure is off
