Between work kids activities and living 5 hrs from my honey holes. This season was going to be scheduled hunts. One of my favorite times to hunt the rut is the beginning of November and from the looks of it the temps and weather, it was going to be perfect.
Decided to come down and hunt Maryland for For the first time and go in blind to all the spots. It was a bit exciting not knowing what was going to be there being that I haven’t put a camera anywhere of my spots.
The first sit was evening hunt and the only thing I saw was one mature eight-pointer but just wasn’t big enough and he was a little bit out of my range. Left him alone hoping that he would walk by a buddy of mine.
The second day it rained all day and I didn’t bring a tree umbrella but, it was a perfect rain that didn’t get me soaked so I just sat all day and hunted moving midday to another spot. The rain was supposed to stop around four in the afternoon and I was lounging in a tree thinking to myself I haven’t seen anything. Went to grab some water and right behind me was a doe with a nice mature whitetail that probably scored around 130. They were at 40 yards for about an hour and I kept on contemplating if I wanted to shoot or not and decided not to. That ate at me that night and I decided to go back to that area where I saw the 130 the next morning.
For my last sit, it was a morning hunt and it started very slow the first thing I saw was five big coyotes walking down a creek bottom altogether, tried calling to them and they didn’t budge. Right, when the sun was rising over the treetops I finally saw some action and I saw the buck that I was after at about 60 yards rubbing a tree, and then I saw him take off to my left, chasing a doe. For the next 20 minutes, I saw a couple of bucks around 2 to 3 years old pushing does around me. It was almost time for me to head out because I had to go home when I caught movement to my right. It was what I thought was the buck that I saw the other day. he was in a thicket pushing a doe around and she was coming right to me. Got ready with the sun to my back the doe was coming right to me with the buck right behind her, she then cut up the hill to my left and he was right behind her. I yelled “hey” at him and he stopped, pulled back, and let one fly. Normally I can see that arrow fly in slow motion to where I’ve shot but, for some reason this time lost track of where the arrow was flying. After the shot, I heard it hit but I had no idea where I hit the deer and I also saw a branch moving about 15 yards in front of me. I saw the buck with the doe about 60 yards in front of me in a Thicket. the buck was wagging his tail like crazy panting but I could not see a hole and the next thing he lays down.
At this time I knew I hit him but, I had no idea where I shot him at all for the next 10 minutes he was laying down, and then he got up stumbling and disappeared. I said a prayer and gave it about an hour and I got down to look for my arrow and could not find it... Now I know I’m in a bind because I’m supposed to be heading home because I have to pick my kids up from the bus in the afternoon. I end up walking to where I last saw the buck and the doe was still there and I got up. I grab an arrow and knock it and when I looked at the arrow there was blood all over the arrow. I looked down and there’s blood everywhere to the point a color blind person could see it . I saw where he laid down and there was blood all over that area. I decided to loop around to where I last saw him and there he was Laying 20 yards from where I last saw him. From utter disbelief for not knowing where I shot the deer to just being happy that I found the buck and I can still get home at a decent time. When I walked up to the buck I still could not find a hole until I saw that I shot him in the esophagus... I was using a very sharp single beveled two-bladed Broadhead and it made a nice cut and I was very very lucky. 1 inch to the left I would’ve missed him. the buck turned out to be a different one, he had five on one side and a messed up 4 points on the other. Still a great mature buck, just not the one that I thought it was. That’s what you get when you hunt real thick areas. For only four sits for the season so far, I was happy with him
~Paul~
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Don’t mind a little luck
