11-5-2011 Sat

11-5-2011 Sat
7:10 AM – 8:30 PM
Weather: S 10 G 21, clear, 55˚, 29.95 falling (1335)
Location: Coulee country near Westby, WI
Bagged: Nothing
Partners: Jay S.

Comments:

My friend Jay invited me along for a full day of bow hunting on some fantastic whitetail grounds just outside of Westby, WI. The day was forecast to be mild, but the wind was going to be a factor in today’s hunt.
Jay had a stand all picked out for me and was going to walk me into it well before shooting light. Not wanting to impede his hunt, I asked him if he could give me directions and I would walk in on my own. He enthusiastically agreed and commenced giving me a mental map so I would be able to find the stand in the darkness. Well, from past experiences I knew that describing to someone about a location in the woods and having them get there in the dark was not a slam dunk. I did find it, but had difficultly and walked past it twice.
The stand was quite high according to my standards and I was glad that I had purchased a new Gorilla fall arrest harness at the urging of Jay. Jay also had a life line that I was able to attach to for the ascent up and the descent down the tree. The last step from the last step of the tree steps to the tree stand platform was a dozy; it felt as if I was stepping off the plank on a ship.
The morning was very windy but mild for this time of year. I had very little action in the morning, I saw one doe a small buck and a pit bull. Yes, I said a pit bull. I had to look several times at the partial white beast coming through the woods before I identified it. The lack of activity and Jay’s texting me with multiple reports of bucks was making me impatient.
I had never hunted in one stand all day, and around noon I climbed down for a quick stretch and shed some unneeded clothes. I was back on my vigilant watch for less than an hour when Jay texted me and broke the news that he had just shot a decent buck. I quickly tried to seize upon the opportunity to get out of my position of pain, but Jay would have none of it. He texted back and said he did not need help and that he had already found the now deceased monarch and the landowner was coming with the UTV. Shucks, I was going to stay chained to that tree.
I had no more deer activity until about 4:45PM. I had spotted two deer chasing out in the CRP field and I figured a little match making was going on. Well several minutes later a small buck appeared sixty yards downhill of my stand. I had no intentions of shooting him as these woods are managed for mature bucks, but I thought maybe I could coax him in with a few grunts. It did not work! He went the opposite way and disappeared.
However, an unseen bigger buck appeared close to where I had seen the small buck and he was looking to get in on some hot action. It is amazing how whitetails can zero in on a noise. That buck made a straight bee line to my location. As he approached I could tell he was not super- sized, but he was an adult whitetail buck and I was going to attempt to kill him. I stopped him at about fifteen yards with a soft blah. He was perfectly broadside and I was already at full draw and this job was looking pretty easy. Then, he turned his head my way and covered three quarters of his vitals with his head and antlers. I was getting to the point where I could no longer hold the bow steady and it was decision time. I quickly decided if I held the sight just at the tip of his nose I would get a fatal hit. The release and hit went just as planned and the deer stampeded off about forty yards before stopping. At this point I thought he was going down, he acted wobbly and confused, but then he trotted off.
I texted Jay and he came about a half hour later to my stand. Before I got down I wanted to confirm the blood trail with Jay, just in case I needed to send Jay in the direction I had last seen the buck. Jay quickly told me that was not necessary and that there was an ample blood trail to follow, in fact he said it was much better than the one his buck had left hours earlier.
We easily followed the trail for two- hundred yards until darkness overcame us and the untrackablility of the CRP field on the ridge top stopped our progress. We could find no more blood, so we called in my brother Dick with two of his dogs that have been trained to blood track. Unfortunately, it was a lost cause. Neither dog could figure out where the buck had gone; one dog led us up over the hill and to the road and the other led us across the CRP and over the other side. We were never able to pick up any blood more than half way through the CRP, so we were not able to establish which way the buck had really gone.
Jay and I looked for a while in the morning, but no more blood was found. Two days after all was said and done Jay called me and said a neighbor lady had found a significant blood trail in the woods and that her husband was going to follow it. We never did hear back from them, so I am assuming the buck was not found. It is really too bad, that shot was definitely a killer shot, but I must have only gotten one lung. Jay said there is always next year. I told him I felt so bad that I do not know if I can come back.

Observations:

The whitetails appear to be in full rut!