Well my season has been less than spectacular this year. I've had to hunt a small over pressured lease pretty much all season. My favorite place on public land has been flooded out pretty much all year and I only got to hunt it a couple of times and I missed the rut. When it floods they close the access rd and there isn't anywhere close to launch a boat.
So yesterday I decided to launch at the nearest ramp and made the 27.11 mile (each way) drive by river to check things out. I found good sign on the little bit of ground that remains unflooded. I hung a stand on a finger of dry ground with a cross wind that will be good for the wind direction this weekend and hunted the evening. I had a coyote come by at about 25 yrds with about a 200-225 lb boar following him. Craziest thing I've seen. He was literally 60 yrds behind him following him everywhere he went.
Anyways, I'm gonna launch about 4:30-5 in the am and make the 27.11 mile drive and be in my stand before daylight. Plan is to hunt till about 2:00 and then head home. Lord willing I will have something riding on the front of my boat on the return journey!!
Tomorrow is the last day of our general season!
Good hunting to you sir. That is working hard for one.
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Best wishes
Thank y'all.
Gary, I wish we had the 2 week late season like they do out in West Texas.
Our late season here is muzzle loader only. :banghead:
I hope your dedication pays off. Good luck!
Good luck Randy!!!!
Bisch
Good luck!
Good luck Randy!
Good luck, hope you come out heavy! Be safe on the boat ride.
Good luck man!!!
Good luck! I already gave up on deer for the season. Public land isn't kind to most Texas hunters.
Good luck, Randy! While we have another 9 days for our Archery Season left, I will only be off work for 1 or 2 of them. Doesn't look great on connecting for me here at home (though I will try). TBH, my highest hopes are for our trip to Boeuf. Either way, it'll be good to get out in the woods again.
Get out there and Get them Critters!
Best of luck Randy.
:archer2:
good luck on your adventure, take pictures. :thumbsup:
Good luck.
Good luck and be safe!
Jeremy
Well I will be loaded heavy on the return trip!! Man do I have a crazy story to tell!!
Fantastic! Can't wait to hear all about it! some pic's of this adventure would put the icing on the cake!
Quote from: Crittergetter on January 06, 2019, 08:54:09 AM
Well I will be loaded heavy on the return trip!! Man do I have a crazy story to tell!!
Crazy stories are my favorite kind! Can't wait to hear this one!!!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
:campfire:
it's going to be this afternoon before I can add the story. But the short of it is I made a bad shot on a good 8 point this morning. I've got a string tracker in him and gonna let him lay as long as possible. And I've got a doe down in sight. But there a lot more to the story
Teaser pic (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190106/d1396826ee26be5450cac92c1df9ae1c.jpg)
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Looks like ya got some work to do to keep you occupied while waiting :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Congrats and good luck
Hope ya get the buck dude.
Congrats on the doe.
Way to go on the doe. I hope you can recover the buck. Got my fingers crossed for ya!!!!
Bisch
Way to go Randy! Can't wait to hear the rest of the story!
:coffee: :campfire: on the edge of my seat here Randy!!
Looking forward to the story... :campfire: Strong work & congratulations :clapper:
Congrats Randy. I'm late to the game but look forward to your stories
oh boy! :clapper: :thumbsup: :campfire:
Way2go Randy! In for the rest of he story!
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Well guys. It look like it's gonna be a long night!!!!
I'll start where this journey started on Friday.
With all the flooding I've only hunted this public land a couple of times this year. When it floods the road usually floods and they close the road so I don't have access to my normal launching point. So the nearest place to launch is 27.11 miles by river (each way) to get to where I hunt. So I decided to drive in Friday afternoon and check things out. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190106/2b7d0bd6f34a80b3f45226093e76acdd.jpg)
I found good sign and hung a stand that would be good for the forecasted winds this weekend and hunted the afternoon. Had a coyote and a big boar come by just out of range.
I made the drive back in the dark. I decided I would only make the drive 1 more time with season ending and decided to wait till today and give it one more shot for the closing day.
I launched about 5:00 this morning and made my way to my spot around 6:10. It was nice already having a stand in place. I was set up within a matter of minutes.
Morning soon came (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190106/dc73128c038dcceeda8ffcfeb0c7f70d.jpg)
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Quote from: Crittergetter on January 05, 2019, 10:06:39 PM
Thank y'all.
Gary, I wish we had the 2 week late season like they do out in West Texas.
Our late season here is muzzle loader only. :banghead:
Yeah but it's only good for doe and spike shooting. I guess I could shoot a spike but it's been a few years since I have.
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About 7:15 I hear some splashing and see 4 does coming down the same trail (now under water) the hog and yote was on on Friday. They passed just out of range. I decided I would give them a couple minutes and I was going to climb down and stand in the water by a tree closer to the trail just in case more deer passed using the same trail.
About that time I hear more splashing coming from more behind me and turn to see a good buck approaching. He is on a path to pass by at around 15 yrds. As he gets closer he swings a little wide and at the very edge of my comfort range. I was debating on wether to let him walk or not when he stops broadside and looks back at more deer approaching. Instinct took over and before I know it the arrow was on its way. Elevation was perfect but was going to be a tad back when suddenly he lunges froward and the arrow passed through mid body a little back of center.
That is the WORST feeling ever!!
I sit down and literally feel sick to my stomach as the line to my string tracker slowly slides out. I can tell he is walking away and know he will lay down soon if not pushed.
Suddenly I hear more deer coming and they cross behind me. I was really going to just let them pass when a big doe stops broadside at about 8 yrds and I can't take it! So I make a perfect heart shot and she only goes about 20 yrds. I can hear the blood pouring out of her into the water and then she falls over in the water!
I sit down and think what the heck just happened!! (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190106/60838775365a259c899d825708d29dca.jpg)
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About 30 seconds go by when suddenly coyote appears from the brush and walks up to my doe to sniff her. I nock another arrow and try to get a shot in him but he knows something isn't right and he slips away without presenting a shot.
So I sit back down and contemplate what all just happened. I know I'm not going anywhere soon so just sit there enjoying the morning and thanking God for his blessings and praying for a quick ending for this buck!
Nothing else to do except enjoy a couple cups of coffee. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/987ece074b7902c05dec21165a84826f.jpg)
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Then I hear something approaching from my left and see a group of hogs. They are way out of range when they pass down wind the smell my doe and head straight to her!!
Ah heck no!!!! So I nock an arrow again and get ready!
They stay in the brush and come back several times trying to decide what to do before they eventually leave. I assume they must have smelled me since they were down wind.
So I sit back down and enjoy some more coffee!!
I made a few calls and txt and convince my brother in law to go get my dog and meet me at the closest bridge around 1:00. He had to park at the barricade and walk about a half mile to get to the bridge. I meet him and we head back to my spot. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/0f4e5daa91a66e07f0f55107943d9691.jpg)In the hour or so I was gone something had eaten the entire gut pile from my doe!! I assume it was the hogs!
I decided to follow the string to where the buck had gotten out of the water and look for blood. At that point I find a good dark blood trail.
My hopes are high and I'm pretty sure I must have gotten something besides just gut. Maybe kidney or pancreas or something!
I slowly track and have my bil stay behind with the dog and follow at a distance.
After about 200 yrds I loose the trail and decided to let the dog work a little. He immediately takes off in the direction I've been going and he is going crazy and keeps air scenting as well as tracking. I know we have to be close by the way he's acting and I feel confident the deer is dead.
Well I was wrong!!! [emoji35][emoji35][emoji35]
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Congratulations on the doe! Truly hope it works out on the buck :pray:
Awesome so far :campfire:This is getting good....I'm at work so I've got all night. Keep it coming :goldtooth:
About another 50 yrds or so I hear something take off and crash through the water and go back in dry ground. I knew instantly what happened.
I went ahead and tracked to where the bed was just to confirm. Sure enough, a bed with dry blood and fresh blood leaving. I mark the spot with reflector tape and with my gps and back out. Going back in the morning. My hope is he went to water and the coyotes and hogs don't get to him but I know the odds are likely I will only find a Caracas in the morning.
A couple of things I want to point out.
I PUSHED THIS DEER!! I knew I should wait as long as possible but I let the fear of coyotes and hogs getting to him over ride my better judgment.
I only waited about 6 hours and should have waited a minimum of 8 and 12 or more would have been better!
This is my first gut shot deer but I still knew better!!
Wait as long as you can and then wait some more!!!!
I also leaned a lot from my buddy Micheal Arnette in my conversations with him. A gut shot back of center is better than a center punch. The small intestines are more vascular and you have a chance of hitting the kidneys or pancreas.
Either way, no matter what wait at least 8 hours!! If you can wait 12 even better! And of course any longer than that is better!!!!
You cannot control what Mother Nature does, you ca only control your actions!! Don't let the fear of coyotes or anything else convince you to trail to early!!
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So now I'm gonna toss and turn all night, and possibly throw up a few times till I get to go back in the morning.
Any prayers for a full recovery y'all can send up would be much appreciated!!
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Pretty sure this is the buck I shot (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/a5adc9a1e2f8a64cf888018adba8fa9e.jpg)
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Here's a few more pics I took (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/7bbf1bf00d329f07fc2bc4cf3ae4e3c3.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/c5652d3b5248983209bf7fda40972aa9.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/fd2149582ffc3a22c14564523a5a9fd3.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/9ef1b7cd3acf53eda654d2e2f15fb41e.jpg)
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Man that's tough. I would have done the same thing. Hopefully you just pushed him further from the coyotes that will be on your doe's gut pile. :pray: :pray: Take 2 benedryl and get some sleep :thumbsup:
great adventure! :thumbsup: good luck in the morn. and congratts! :clapper: you were in the right spot at the right time! :thumbsup:
You made a heck of a good shot on the doe. Hope you get the buck. He looks like a nice one.
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Randy, I'll be praying and wishing you the best tomorrow.
Good luck bro!!
Good luck Randy!
That's a dandy buck, good luck tomorrow Randy!
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Good luck bud!!!
Pretty nice boss ya have. Letting ya take tomorrow off to go track deer. :biglaugh:
Hope you can find him in the morning Randy!!!!! Don't beat yourself up too bad. Like I told you earlier, hindsight is 20/20!
Bisch
Good Providence Randy, we're all pulling for you :campfire:
May God Bless your efforts :pray:
Randy you must be on the Sabine River above Logansport. Good luck on finding him.
Good luck ...
,,Sam,,
Good luck, I once found a gut shot buck still alive after 20 hours and was able to get a finishing arrow in him. Hopefully your string tracker is still in him, that can help. Just go slow and use binos ... really hope the return boat ride is with a buck in the boat
Found him. Not the outcome I was hopeful for but at least I have some closure.
I'll add the story of "recovery" later today.
My buddy Darren drove an hour and a half to meet me and help look.
Well heck.
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Always a somber feeling but it happens eventually if we hunt long enough. I've said it before and it bears repeating, Randy is the hardest working and most persistent hunter I know.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/830b998929c74ef4b6aefd1632d59468.jpg)
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So sorry, Randy.
Well you know he's dead and he got eaten so now you have that rack to help you remember the day, the choices and lessons learned and the friends who were their to help.
I lost one the last day of season three first year on this lease, 2014. Last spring the lease owner found it while turkey hunting. That rack will always be there to remind me.
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Been there , sorry bud..
,,Sam,,
Well damn!! Hate that, but you persisted and found him. Great job on that! :thumbsup:
Well, it sucks that it turned out that way, but at least you got the horns. In the grand scheme of things, nothing goes to waste! It just didn't go to what you had intended it to!!!!
Bisch
Good job sticking with it. Closure is good eventhough it wasn't the outcome you wanted and worked so hard for..
Indeed, not the result you hoped for but you did see this through to conclusion... None of us are perfect and many things are outside of our control. There is a delicate balance at times of when to pursue an animal and ultimately we have to use our best judgement with the resources, knowledge, experience, and time we have...
There are no guarantees that waiting longer on the initial pursuit wouldn't have ended up with similar outcome considering the predators in the area. I commend you for using a "string tracker" in that kind of watery swamp area. Very tricky to trail in that environment.
We've all had tough decisions like this to make, and sometimes the outcome is not as we'd prefer. Apart from sleeping in the woods at the last known blood/bump for hours on end waiting for morning or the yipping of predators this will always be a possibility. Except for perfect shots, perfect blood trails, deer always falling in sight, etc., etc... Back to the No One OR life not being perfect.........
Hold your head-up, learn what you can to make future decisions the best they can be, and appreciate the blessing of the encounter and finding the animal/closure. That's a great buck and looking forward to the rest of the story! :campfire:
Quote from: GCook on January 07, 2019, 12:11:38 PM
Well you know he's dead and he got eaten so now you have that rack to help you remember the day, the choices and lessons learned and the friends who were their to help.
Well said. I'm sorry that the bellies that were filled weren't your family's. Maybe you can get back in there and get one of the hogs that stole him away from ya....
Fine buck so sorry this happened. Happened to me one time. A very sick feeling for sure.
sorry to see this, BUT it has happened to all of us sooner or later. Most of the time sooner.
The final chapter...
My buddy Darren made an hour and a half drive and met me at the boat ramp at 7:30 this morning. With high hopes we made the hour boat drive to get to my spot. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/cb170693b9980e86e214fe9b47d29955.jpg)Upon arriving we started the track from point where I had jumped the buck yesterday. My dog worked the trail just like I expected till we found another bed About 300 yards from where I had jumped him. But it puzzled me that there was no blood in the bed. I kept letting the dog work and we found a few drops of what appeared to be fresh blood! This confirmed my suspicion's that the deer had lived through at least most of the night. We continue to track and we saw buzzards in a tree along the edge of the water. We visually checked as the dog kept working past this point. We kept working for several hundred yards until we had to turn back because of flooding.
Darren had mentioned that my dog appeared to act differently after we passed the point where the buzzards were. I simply hadn't noticed because I was being drug through the thicket and he was working into the wind so I let him keep going. So we turn around and head back to that point to do another thorough search.
And sure enough my dog finds him on the edge of the drainage. I am assuming he missed him the first time because of all the sent that was scattered in the area from the hogs and coyote's that had been feeding on my buck. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/af59694f539712fac65afcfc693ef775.jpg)
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It was a sickening feeling finding him this way and knowing that he had suffered through most of the night.
So at that point I did the only thing I could do and tag his head and head home knowing I had made a few mistakes but thankful for some closure(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/08df07c51062503036e2b7bd4107464f.jpg)
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He was not the deer I thought he was. Ended up being a nine point because the tip of his main beam on the right side was broken off. I am thankful to at least recover the rack. I guess that is better than nothing at all.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/10aad07a326f0697932267c855db0ae2.jpg)
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A few pics of the return trip (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/1f84adff9cf1350edb4916c196aba4bc.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/b43dfdc8c2cd59f7f9aeea9bcbdba571.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/2f1a00dd9ebd801e5b51abd3be555763.jpg)
I really really really want to look into seeing what the logistics are of having one of these floating cabins on the river. That would be an awesome place to camp and hunt and fish from throughout the year(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/51001e33b626a21db9263ff6e5f3e5e1.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190107/0aae9c58e52ef57c01df6fc6765a98be.jpg).
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Thank you all for the moral support. I hope that everyone else can learn from my mistakes and hopefully help someone else in their recovery if they ever find themselves in the same situation.
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Well $**+. Losing any deer sucks. At least you know the final outcome.
Sorry about the outcome Randy. I applaud your diligence and am glad you have closure. Thanks for sharing.
like everyone else said...it happens..we do our best, congratts! :thumbsup:
GREAT story none the less!!!
Lots of lessons for us to note. You did your best at the moment...and you got the meat off the doe you lost with the buck.
Congrats and thanks for sharing!
Sorry to hear about the buck. Good for you on going back in with your pup and getting closure. I'm sure the boat ride was not exactly short!
Not the outcome you wanted Randy, but you had a real eventful hunt and made a great effort at recovery. Thanks for sharing your adventure. Like we've unfortunately said a few times over the years at our Northern Michigan Bow Camp, "The coyotes will send you a Christmas card".
:archer:
Good luck. Here in WV we have a 4 day season starting Thursday called Mountaineer Heritage where you can only hunt with recurve, longbow or percussion cap muzzleloader. No scope. I'm going to hit it hard for the last 4 days.
Sorry you lost the buck meat but was great to see Darren came to help you! Awesome hunt and two great guys!
You are a true Hunter Randy!
Thank you everyone for the kind words.
Someone asked me earlier about my equipment and I never thought to post that here. So here it is...
Primal Tech 3 piece , 62"- 50#@28". Full length fmj 500's with 75 grain inserts and 150 grain German Kenetic bh. 545 grain total arrow weight.
Complete pass through on both animals.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190111/cab1663542407f3de2fd3f4b8fb517c2.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190111/de5b1ae5eba1952d3e6a09efef9a2ef1.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190111/a46e28508db27e036f83484eda692a9b.jpg)
Sweet bow there, Randy...
thanks for sharing your specs, Randy. I was wondering about them! :saywhat: :saywhat: :saywhat: