I did it! First deer - 6pt buck

[mazzgolf]

Well, it finally happened! Over 3 years of hard work, perseverance, and probably a little lunacy thrown in, I finally harvested my first deer - a 6pt buck no less!   Happened this morning.

 

Big shout out to Wallew (for calling me back immediately and getting me numbers for the dog trackers ... I really need a smartphone), Matty (for giving me some tips), and Arthur Garey and his dog extraordinaire Dennis for finding my deer!

 

I'm gonna write a book here - just so I can remember this in the future.  Sorry in advance for the length. Feel free to go on to the next thread.

 

After years of using a climber and blind and lock-on, throwing out bait, blah blah blah, I decided, screw it, I'm going in at 5:30am and just taking my bow and a tri-pod chair and sitting next to some down trees and brush and facing a trail entering a waterhole and see what happens. Damn if a buck didn't walk 15 yards in front of me at 6:45am! I thought I heard something walking on the edge of the waterhole, so I drew my bow and out comes a 6-pointer and stared right at me. After what seemed like minutes (probably more like 10 seconds) engaged in this staring contest, rather than wait to get busted, I took the shot.

 

And then this is when my education begins.  Suffice it to say, I took an ill-advised shot and paid the price for it. Dear was quarter-to and when I let the arrow fly, the deer turned and I hit it much too far forward in the neck. It took off and I'm watching this deer with my lighted nock/arrow still stuck in him as he runs through this waterhole to the other side and disappears. At this point is when I go, "uh oh, I think that's bad." 

 

I go back to the truck to put everything away and begin tracking after 30 minutes. No blood where I shot it. I had to go to the other side of the waterhole and found massive amounts of blood. I think, hmmm, that's good, he should be around here somewhere close. Uhhhh, no. I start tracking, finding an easy blood trail that I kid you not takes me easily 300 yards from where I shot it. I marked all the places where I found blood on my GPS, and when I got home I figured it out - the deer went 380 yards!!! I will never, ever take another shot like that again - I'm letting it walk next time. I don't want to go through this again.

 

So I'm tracking, easy blood trail, and end up going through some crazy thick stuff, but then, I notice, wait a minute! I was just here! The blood trail went in a circle! I'm totally at a loss now; no idea what to do. How do you track a deer that is going in a circle? Well, after about an hour, I realized I'm in over my head. I really don't want to lose this deer, so I get a number for a dog tracker (again, thanks Wallew!). My crappy phone's battery starts dying on me and need to hurry. I call the dog tracker - Arthur Garey was very responsive and in under an hour and a half of my initial call to him, he gets Dennis the deer tracking machine on the case. Now, Dennis is a very tiny 14 year old dog - don't let the size and age fool you. This dog knew what he was doing. I can't remember how long it took us, 30 minutes? 60? I wasn't keeping track. But this dog found my deer in a spot I would NEVER have found had I tracked it on my own. This deer bedded down under a thick bush where you could barely even see it - still don't know how the dog found it.

 

OK, great. Found the deer. Now what? We're 380 yards from where I shot it (and then another 100 or so to the truck)!! Through thick stuff. Across a waterhole. Oh. My. God.  Arthur helped me get the deer out of the thick stuff into a small clearing - we dragged it maybe 75 yards, but I can't drag it all the way back. By this time I had tracked on my own for an hour, tracked with the dog for probably another hour, dragged the deer a mere 75 yards that probably took us 30 or 45 minutes (did I mention it was in THICK stuff?). I was on empty. My leg muscles wouldn't work. I'm too old and out of shape for this. So I tell Arthur let's just go back to the vehicles, I'll mark the deer on my GPS, and I'll call a friend that will help me finish the drag later. We get back to the truck and I literally almost passed out. Thanks, Arthur, if you are out there, for the bottle of water - life saver!

 

Well, I drive home half out of it wondering how the !@$% am I getting this deer out of there - I still had at least 300 yards to go (some thick stuff left to go, but thankfully, mostly just trails and open clearings the rest of the way). Call my buddy from church for help - he's older than me with a bum shoulder, sounds like a plan!  Well, like a true warrior he never wavered, "Come pick me up!" So I get him, drive back over, and walk 300 yards to the deer, gut it (yes, I was so dead tired when we found the deer I couldn't even take the time to gut it then), and slowly drag it 20, 30 yards at a time, taking breaks in between. (BTW: how the !@#$ do you people drag 300+ pound bears?). I'm starting to think this is a young man's game.

 

Finally get it to the truck, and it was at this point when I could finally let it sink in what I actually accomplished. Until I got the deer on the bed of the truck, I just wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it. That tracking and drag was just brutal. I never want to have to do that again. Just a bad shot that I should never have really taken, and I paid the price for it. Never again.

 

Dropped my buddy off at his house with a big thank-you (I think I owe him a Cabelas gift card or something) and headed to Hartman's Deer Processing to drop off my first deer. I open the door to the shop and the first thing I noticed was how clean everything was. Impressed. A young woman was working in the shop - I walked in and said, "Hi. Can I drop my deer off? This is my first one and I have no idea what I'm doing."   She was very friendly and helpful. She went over all their offerings and I must have picked half the menu. She went over their tag system and how you get the meat back from your own deer and that they even cut the skull-cap no charge if you want it. We'll see how the final product is, but my initial impression was very positive, both with the service and menu choices.

 

That's my story. I didn't have the time or energy to take a lot of pictures, but here is one - if I look funny, it's because I'm about to pass out.

 

This is one of those mysterious Wharton Forest bucks I kept hearing about, but started to think they didn't really exist. Oh, and that's Dennis, too 

 

 

 

[Swamprat]

Congrats on the harvest. Hartman's is top-notch. You probably dealt with his daughter.

You'll sleep good tonight.

How much penetration did ya get? I had a similar shot but with an xbow and the bolt traveled the entire body of the deer. Mine dropped within 40 yards.

Congrats again.

 

Nick

[LPJR]

Congrats mazzgolf on your 1st deer! And a buck, how cool! Never apologize about how long a story you post, that is what this site is all about. It seems like you learned quite a few things during the recovery process which is cool. 

 

Pretty safe to say that most of us on here are still learning about deer and bowhunting. I feel the day we stop learning is the day we hang up the bow for good.  

 

Nice job!     

[tcook8296]

Congrats on your 1st buck. 

Ive been there and done that with quartering to shots and most end up with deer not being recovered. Lessons learned

Thsts awesome the dog found it and you had a friend to help drag. Although he probably blocked your # after that one lol. 

[Buck154]

Congrats  . Those dogs are amazing at what they do

[Bully]

Congratulations!!!  

Great story.  I harvested my first last year and my second just 6 weeks ago.  It's been two of the most unique experiences for me that I can imagine.  You did good.  

[smoking gun]

Congrats and cool story.heres a helpful tip I swear by for future reference if you don't see or hear him crash give him some time.by the sound of your story it sounded like you kept jumping him.good luck man and thanks for the story it was cool read

Edited November 15, 2017 by smoking gun

[Nanuk]

Congrats Man !!!! That’s a great story and a lesson that will long burn in your memory ... I know because we all have one.

[SxSshooter]

Congrats!

[Thunderchicken]

Congrats!! Great job! Nice write up!

[Rusty]

That is so great mazzgolf, congratulations a great deer, it was well earned.  Now that the ice has been broken I'm sure this will be the first of many.    

[rocky]

Congrats. The first one was my hardest, it took me 5 years.

[Cedars]

Congrats! Nice buck! I am also in the "took a long time for the first one club"

[Lunatic]

Nice job, congrats on your first deer

[BHC]

Congratulations