OK, here's the long story....
Hunted Saturday Morning. I made it out a little late. I had intended to hunt my blind on the edge of the bean field in the hopes of catching a turkey heading out to feed. I knew there is another guy that hunts the same piece of woods so rather than walking out there late and possibly affecting his hunt, I opted to hunt one of my buddies stands at the back of his property. It was already light enough to see when I headed out so I just walked slow and tried to be as quiet as I could, something quite difficult to do as most of the leaves are down and everything is very crunchy on this 23 degree morning. I didn't see any activity on the way out but I made it and got settled in.
After about an hour or so on the stand I keep hearing something behind me, I first I thought it was a squirrel or one of the two trees back there that was still raining crunchy leaves. All of a sudden I realized the cadence wasn't a squirrel, it was something bigger. I turned to look over my right shoulder and I see a nice little buck coming down the path I had walked in on. I situate myself to make a shot where I think he is going to end up but he had other plans. All of a sudden he makes a sharp left and walks right behind me. Trying to catch him on the other side, I turn so I can see the other side of the tree I am sitting against. Instead of the buck I see several does trotting out into the swamp grass field I am hunting next to. Shortly after the buck follows, never offering a shot. They mill around in the long grass for some time and them pass back behind me into the woods on my right. I do not see the buck come back with the does, not sure where he went.
Everything quits down for about another hour when I start to hear some more rustling behind me. I sounds like it's coming over the left shoulder So I turn slightly so I can see and shoot in that direction. I see one doe come in to view. She is working her way along the swamp grass but just in the woods where it is pretty clear. I watch here stop and eat a little from one of the plants down there and I keep looking for the rest of the does to come out behind her, assuming it was the same group I had seen before. By the time she has walked from behind me to the front of my stand I see that buck hot on her trail, nose down and grunting. I get the crossbow scope on him but he's moving at a pretty steady pace. He works his way around me until he is at about at 10:00 and stops in front of a large tree where I have a clear shot so I let the arrow fly. I can see the luminock in the scope and it looks like a good lung hit behind the front leg. He does not jump hard but he makes a few hops out into he swamp grass and I can hear him walking out there. I do not hear any thrashing or a fall but shortly after I can no longer hear him in the crunchy frost covered grass. I'm not sure if he went down right there or just moved out of earshot.
The next 20 minutes seemed like hours. I kept replaying it my head. I know it looked good but did I hit him far enough back given the slight quartering away angle he was at, etc. At some point I decide to look for my arrow with my binoculars. Hoping I could pick out the glowing nock. I do see the arrow, the nock is no longer glowing but the arrow is suspended between the tree the deer was in front of and a small twig. How it ended up hanging there is a mystery.
Thinking I had hit him pretty good I decided to head down and inspect the arrow.
This is the arrow as I found it.
I had pretty good blood from the there so I slowly started following the trail out in to the grass. After about 25-30 yards I found him, exactly where I had last heard him rustling.
He is a nice little 4 point but one of his tines is broken off at the tip.
The shot missed the heart but took out one of the lungs and a few arteries.
I texted one of my friends hunting in the area and asked for help dragging him out of the swamp and back up the hill to the trail. Why do they always run down hill? LOL He said he would be over as soon as they finished up their morning hunt. By the time I got him dressed out and got myself cleaned up they were there and helped me pull him out and load him into the back of the truck.
According to my scale he weighed 140#. I was hunting with my Middleton 355SS crossbow with Excalibur Diablo arrows and Grim Reaper broadheads. I had kind of swore off expandables but friends keept pushing me to try these. I'll know more when I start looking more closely at the entry/exit holes but from what I could see in the field it worked satisfactorily.
He is still hanging in the garage, as soon as I post this I'm heading out to start cutting him up.
As a side, it is another lucking year for my family. The day before I got mine my brother texted a a pic the deer he had just taken. He is hunting out in Delaware.
His son had also gotten a shot by his muzzleloader misfired. I'm bummed for him , he just got the gun for Christmas last year and I think this may have been hist first time out with it.
I am going to keep hunting but from here on out I can only shoot a 8 point (well, 4 or more on one side) or a doe. Out turkey season ends tomorrow. If I can get this one cut up and situated in time I may hunt turkey this afternoon.