TIKKA TIGER
12-12-2009, 09:10 AM
This is how my 2009 late bow season went. First of all, I can’t say enough about how helpful the owner was at Back Country Sports in Summerland, B.C. When my new Bowtech Admiral arrived at his shop on Nov. 27th, he worked late helping me set up and tune the bow. The next day I sighted in the Admiral for my hunting arrows from 20 to 60 yards. Everything was looking good and the bow was dialed in. On Nov. 29th I went to a spot where I had previously seen some smaller mule deer bucks and does. I was driving along and spotted a white rump patch in some heavy sagebrush. I pulled over to the side of the road and grabbed my binoculars and saw it was a doe. Then I caught a small movement about 10 yards to the right of where the doe was feeding. It was a small 2 pt. buck. I decided to try and take the buck if he never bolted when I got out of my truck. I grabbed my Nikon rangefinder and my new Bowtech Admiral and nocked an arrow and quietly climbed out of my truck. The buck kept feeding and paid a lot of attention to the doe as I snuck in on him. I was now within 22 yards of the buck, but he was well hidden in the tall sagebrush and never presented a good shot. Then the buck took a few steps towards the doe and stopped. There was a small window in the sagebrush where I felt I could slip an arrow through and into his vitals. I estimated him to be at about 25 yards now. I put the 20 yard pin about mid-way up the vitals and released an arrow and it hit the buck in the left shoulder with a loud “SMACK”. The buck ran about 30 yards and expired. :mrgreen: I field dressed the deer, dragged him about 80 yards to the truck and took him home. This picture is where the buck was standing in the sagebrush and the area marked in red is where his vitals were exposed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/CopyofBuckStandingBehindSage.jpg
Here's the small 2 pt. buck I harvested with my Admiral.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/dcp_1095.jpg
Having my mule deer now, I wanted to get a whitetail buck. I had from Dec. 5th to Dec. 10th off work to try and harvest one. I tried still-hunting Dec. 5th and 6th in one of my favorite whitetail areas. I saw some does, but unfortunately they saw me first so it was the white flag I saw waving “BYE”. On Dec. 7th I decided to hang up one of my tree-stands. I was busy that morning and never got up there until about noon. With 2” of snow on the ground, I looked for deer tracks on some of some game trails that converged and found a nice tree for my setup. I got my stand in place and was hunting from above by 3:00 pm. I used my rangefinder and marked some key spots from 20 to 40 yards out from my stand. I was ready to go and just needed a deer to show itself. About 3:30 pm I caught a slight movement to my left. It was a small whitetail buck angling towards me and he was feeding his way down one of the game trails. This picture is where the buck was walking from the upper right to the bottom left as seen from my stand. The area marked in red is where his vitals were exposed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/ViewFromTreestand.jpg
I slowly reached for my bow and the buck was almost past the last of the shooting lanes I had. He was near one of the 30-yard markers I ranged earlier. I drew my bow and quickly decided to shoot for 25 yards and released the arrow. There was a loud “SMACK” as the arrow went through the buck’s rib area, but just back from the vitals. The buck ran and I grunted at him and he stopped. He was hurting and decided to bed down. I could see him through the trees and ranged him at 45 yards but there were too many branches to take another shot. After about 6 or 7 minutes the buck got up and started walking away from me. I tried grunting again and he kept moving away. Darkness was approaching, so I climbed down from the stand and slowly followed him. I debated whether to just let him bed down and leave, but I was curious to see if there was a good blood trail. The snow was very noisy and he must have heard me as I jumped him out of his bed two more times and he bounded off. There was blood present in his beds but not a lot and after awhile I lost the blood trail altogether. There were a lot of deer tracks going everywhere so it was difficult to follow his tracks. I decided to give up as it was almost dark and I had to get back to the truck. I had my gps and entered the co-ordinates and saved the route the buck had taken until the blood sign disappeared. I lost him :( and figured I would come back the next morning and continue the search. That night I downloaded my gps onto “Google Earth,” my favorite hunting tool by the way. I saw that there was another road only about 200 yards from where I last saw the buck. I had a sleepless night, as I was sick thinking about the buck. :cry: I resumed my search the next day. I drove in on the lower road I found on “Google Earth” and used my gps until I was directly below from where I was the previous night. I hiked up until I found the last of the blood trail. I slowly and methodically walked the area looking for any clues. Finally I found a small speck of blood about 75 yards and 90 degrees off the game trail to my right. Then I found another small drop of blood and soon I found a bed with a blood spot the size of my fist. Then 3 more beds about 10 yards apart between each bed with more and more blood present in each bed. I knew the buck had to be close by and looked over my right shoulder and there he was, not 20 yards from me. :-D This is the buck how I found him in his last bed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/dcp_1117.jpg
I was so excited I found him and that he was still in one piece. I figured the coyotes would have been on him that night. I quickly field dressed him and dragged him down the hill 200 yards to my truck. I can’t tell you how happy I was to locate that deer. What a nice drive home. The next day I went back and removed my stand and I’m tagged out. I harvested both bucks with my new Bowtech Admiral, nice way to break it in. I would also like to thank jd, my hunting buddy for introducing me to Google Earth and assisting me with this story. One more pic. :mrgreen:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/dcp_1116.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/CopyofBuckStandingBehindSage.jpg
Here's the small 2 pt. buck I harvested with my Admiral.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/dcp_1095.jpg
Having my mule deer now, I wanted to get a whitetail buck. I had from Dec. 5th to Dec. 10th off work to try and harvest one. I tried still-hunting Dec. 5th and 6th in one of my favorite whitetail areas. I saw some does, but unfortunately they saw me first so it was the white flag I saw waving “BYE”. On Dec. 7th I decided to hang up one of my tree-stands. I was busy that morning and never got up there until about noon. With 2” of snow on the ground, I looked for deer tracks on some of some game trails that converged and found a nice tree for my setup. I got my stand in place and was hunting from above by 3:00 pm. I used my rangefinder and marked some key spots from 20 to 40 yards out from my stand. I was ready to go and just needed a deer to show itself. About 3:30 pm I caught a slight movement to my left. It was a small whitetail buck angling towards me and he was feeding his way down one of the game trails. This picture is where the buck was walking from the upper right to the bottom left as seen from my stand. The area marked in red is where his vitals were exposed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/ViewFromTreestand.jpg
I slowly reached for my bow and the buck was almost past the last of the shooting lanes I had. He was near one of the 30-yard markers I ranged earlier. I drew my bow and quickly decided to shoot for 25 yards and released the arrow. There was a loud “SMACK” as the arrow went through the buck’s rib area, but just back from the vitals. The buck ran and I grunted at him and he stopped. He was hurting and decided to bed down. I could see him through the trees and ranged him at 45 yards but there were too many branches to take another shot. After about 6 or 7 minutes the buck got up and started walking away from me. I tried grunting again and he kept moving away. Darkness was approaching, so I climbed down from the stand and slowly followed him. I debated whether to just let him bed down and leave, but I was curious to see if there was a good blood trail. The snow was very noisy and he must have heard me as I jumped him out of his bed two more times and he bounded off. There was blood present in his beds but not a lot and after awhile I lost the blood trail altogether. There were a lot of deer tracks going everywhere so it was difficult to follow his tracks. I decided to give up as it was almost dark and I had to get back to the truck. I had my gps and entered the co-ordinates and saved the route the buck had taken until the blood sign disappeared. I lost him :( and figured I would come back the next morning and continue the search. That night I downloaded my gps onto “Google Earth,” my favorite hunting tool by the way. I saw that there was another road only about 200 yards from where I last saw the buck. I had a sleepless night, as I was sick thinking about the buck. :cry: I resumed my search the next day. I drove in on the lower road I found on “Google Earth” and used my gps until I was directly below from where I was the previous night. I hiked up until I found the last of the blood trail. I slowly and methodically walked the area looking for any clues. Finally I found a small speck of blood about 75 yards and 90 degrees off the game trail to my right. Then I found another small drop of blood and soon I found a bed with a blood spot the size of my fist. Then 3 more beds about 10 yards apart between each bed with more and more blood present in each bed. I knew the buck had to be close by and looked over my right shoulder and there he was, not 20 yards from me. :-D This is the buck how I found him in his last bed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/dcp_1117.jpg
I was so excited I found him and that he was still in one piece. I figured the coyotes would have been on him that night. I quickly field dressed him and dragged him down the hill 200 yards to my truck. I can’t tell you how happy I was to locate that deer. What a nice drive home. The next day I went back and removed my stand and I’m tagged out. I harvested both bucks with my new Bowtech Admiral, nice way to break it in. I would also like to thank jd, my hunting buddy for introducing me to Google Earth and assisting me with this story. One more pic. :mrgreen:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/eyebowhunt/dcp_1116.jpg