Prayers for you and your family.

Thanks for taking us along on this hunt!

So there I am sitting in the stand and it's pretty quiet. I was really just enjoying my time. Squirrels were keeping me company and a nuthatch decided to land on my bowstring. My plan was to climb down at 11:00, go back to the cabin, clean pack and hit the road by noon for the 3 hour trek home.  I would have stayed all day but with my wife out of town, I needed to care for the farm and go to bed early due to work commitments on Thursday.

Around 7:45, I see a doe run out of the cornfield. By her body language, I could tell she had a suitor.  I stood with my bow even though she was still 60 yards out. 

Turns out I was correct. The little 3 point with the wonky horn came out hot on her trail.  They eventually ran past me at 20 yards. I didn't even try to slow them down.

I stayed at the ready knowing more bucks could cross the path or often times in that area, the hot doe comes back through and gains deer on her trail.

After 30 minutes I decided to sit back down, my hands were cold, it was about 28 degrees and the wind still stout in my face.

I had not been sitting long and a basket rack buck was coming up the valley behind me. My hands were not even warm yet. He makes his way down wind and stands there for a while before changing course.

 

I was able to take a seat. 

My little brother texts me at 8:30 saying he hit a 10 point. He said the shot was back as the deer whirled when he released. He was pretty sure it still angled forward through the liver and offside lung but it happened so fast he wasnt sure.

Even though he shoots a compound I still call him my brother. I did my best to keep his thoughts in a positive place and instructed him to take note of everything. Last spot deer was seen yadda yadda.

About 9, another doe appears, came out of the food plot and headed into the corn.

Before going further, I am not a trophy hunter by any means. But with that being said, I refuse to burn my tag on the first day on a smaller buck. Id rather risk not shooting a deer than risk ending my season early. I usually can only eat 1-2 deer a year.  At this point in the season I will take the next good opportunity.

Shortly after the doe departs, I saw a decent 2.5 year old buck running straight toward me. 

This buck makes to about 30 yards but turns back toward where the does traveled. I quickly gruntedcat him to try and get him to come back.  Guess what? A deer was standing 15 yards behind me and jumped when I grunted. The buck in the field didn't care and he followed the path of the doe.

Now I have a basket rack 6 point with heavy beams behind me but onto me.  He doesn't see me and is walking around trying to find me. Eventually he moved off and I am unable to tell him otherwise

At this point it's 9:45 and I received word my dad has shot 2x this morning. The first shot was over the back of a 6 point and the second he said looked good behind the shoulder of a 6 point. He saw some other nicer bucks but wants to get his first with a trad bow.

The one he hit didn't have great penetration and no lower exit. He watched the deer go 100 +/- yards before losing sight.

[attachment=1]

Now it's time for me to get out of the stand with 2 deer hit, there's going to be work to do and me arrowing a 3rd will complicate things.

After the initial shot, we decided to give both deer time. I will bounce around here a bit on the chronology of events. 

We waited 6 hours from my dad's shot before taking the trail. I was a bit worried as he said the deer just walked off out of sight for some distance. Acted like it never knew it was hit.  He said it was a perfect shot right behind the shoulder at 13 yards. He was in a 15 foot ladder stand. The arrow had dark red blood on it and fell out after about 50 yards. I was thinking maybe it was liver due to how dark the blood was and perhaps his recollectionis skewed due to the excitement and speed of which these situations take place.

My little brother and I tracked it for roughly 200 yards. The blood was sparse due to no lower exit wound.   the process took about 1.5 hours but we lost blood. We marked the direction of travel and decided to let it be a little longer. The deer did not bed down up to this point.

We were not terribly far from my little brother's shot. So we decided to look for blood and see what we could see.  The blood looked promising being bright red, with bubbles and quite profuse.  We tracked his deer about 300 yards and the blood stopped.  After a small radius search I picked it up again. The deer made a 90 degree turn and was Headed west.  We marked the trail and it was time I needed to hit the road. 

My dad and brother went back the next morning. My brother's deer went over 800 yards and never laid down. The blood trail was good the whole way but eventually crossed onto a property we did not get permission to be on. A grid search for my father's deer came up empty. I am saddened for the deer and my dad and brother.

So to wrap this up as you can tell I did not get a shot but had a lot of action.

Grandma Always was curious after I went hunting and always asked me "did you catch anything". After 10 years of trying to explain when I hunt, I kill I don't catch, I finally gave up trying. 

But Nanna, I can tell you, on this vacation, "no, I didn't catch anything" but I had a great time. 

Here I sent off a tribute arrow for her. She will be dearly missed.

[attachment=1]

Thank you for following along on my trip.

  Thanks for taking us along.
Joe

Great adventure thanks for taking us along.

Thanks for sharing your trip, sorry it playout exactly the way we would all like it to but seems like a great trip anyways.