flyingspearnv
Active Member
- Messages
- 150
Hello All,
Had a great trip with my dad and my son last weekend, saw lots of deer, a few good bucks, three mountain goats, and an albino 3 point buck and possibly his mom or sister.
Stuck a nice buck 5:30pm on second day after a 1 hour stand off when the buck was feeding to us and decided to bed at 75 yards staring right at my 11 year old son and I with no cover. Amazingly enough, he never busted us, he got up relieved himself and started feeding straight to us once again. Drew once settled in only to have him turn straight away just as I was about to squeeze, let down. He continued to feed straight to us and turned broadside uphill put his head down to feed, drew settled and let her fly. The sound of the arrow hitting was unbelievably loud, my son got it on film, audio only as the buck was behing a boulder from his view, he went straight down about 50 yards and started to get wobbly, thought it was over. Gathered himself and trotted sidehill over a little ridge out of sight about 150 yards away. He stopped once prior to going over the ridge and I could see I had hit him in the shoulder blade and the arrow had only penetrated about 8-10 inches, my heart sank and I knew I was in for a long recovery. We hiked back to our backpacks and planned on giving him plenty of time, however it started to rain just 30 minutes after the shot. We grabbed our packs and started the trailing, not much blood, couple 4 inch dia spots where he'd stopped in that first 150 yards, after that nickle and dime drops every 10-20 yards and sometimes further. We trailed him over 2 miles straight sidehill to the ridge at the next basin it was now after 7pm. He had never laid down and we had never laid eyes on him nor do I think we had bumped him, he was moving along quite well leaping over rocks, logs, and rock ledges, but was always going either sidehill or down. Decided to come back in the morning and pick up where we left off.
We were back on the trail at 8 am and now had the help of my dad and another bowhunter we had met just the day prior who was generous enough to give up a day of hunting to help us, despite me telling him thanks but don't use up your energy on us, great guy to say the least. About two hundred yards into the trailing we found 16" of the back of the arrow snapped off, all but the tip of the broke off end was clean, no blood confirming what I saw right after the hit. The four of us trailed him for another two plus miles thru four steep creek bottoms clear down and across the entire basin he had dropped into. There were times we lost the trail so we'd spread out and one of us would somehow pick up sign sometimes hundreds of yards beyond, it seemed he was drying up or the wound was healing, we still had never seen a spot where he had laid down nor did his tracks show any weakness in his ability to get around. At 4:30pm we lost the trail and we never could turn up any sign again. Gave up at dark and hiked back out. He had traveled well over four miles. 5:30am next morning we were in a spot to glass the entire area where we had last found sign and down the drainage, nothing. I believe he never stopped traveling through that first night and was now two basins south of where I'd shot him. I am hoping he will survive. The what if's are killing me, I have harvested around 30 mule deer since my first buck in the rubys at 13 years old and have never lost an animal I've shot, it is not a good feeling. At the same time it was one of the best hunts I've had as I am so proud of my son with the way he handled everything. He and I did three 12-14 hour six mile 2,000-3,000 vertical feet (up) days in a row, when we'd get back to camp each night he would whip up some quick dinner for my dad and I and we'd crawl into our sleeping bags and talk about the day. His ability to glass up animals and describe their location is uncanny. His tracking abilities were awesome especially the first night when the blood was fresh, (unfortunately he struggled the next morning when it was dry and brown as he's partially color blind.) We got some great video of some of the most beautiful country in north america along with some great bucks, especially the albino buck and relatives. We made a new friend who hopefully will have a little luck and harvest a great buck that he is after, he deserves it to say the least.
Good Luck to All!
Spear
Will try and figure out how to post a vid of the albino.
High Spirits in the High Country!
300 Yards from the top-what the heck may as well take a peak and see what's on the other side of the Rubys!
Had a great trip with my dad and my son last weekend, saw lots of deer, a few good bucks, three mountain goats, and an albino 3 point buck and possibly his mom or sister.
Stuck a nice buck 5:30pm on second day after a 1 hour stand off when the buck was feeding to us and decided to bed at 75 yards staring right at my 11 year old son and I with no cover. Amazingly enough, he never busted us, he got up relieved himself and started feeding straight to us once again. Drew once settled in only to have him turn straight away just as I was about to squeeze, let down. He continued to feed straight to us and turned broadside uphill put his head down to feed, drew settled and let her fly. The sound of the arrow hitting was unbelievably loud, my son got it on film, audio only as the buck was behing a boulder from his view, he went straight down about 50 yards and started to get wobbly, thought it was over. Gathered himself and trotted sidehill over a little ridge out of sight about 150 yards away. He stopped once prior to going over the ridge and I could see I had hit him in the shoulder blade and the arrow had only penetrated about 8-10 inches, my heart sank and I knew I was in for a long recovery. We hiked back to our backpacks and planned on giving him plenty of time, however it started to rain just 30 minutes after the shot. We grabbed our packs and started the trailing, not much blood, couple 4 inch dia spots where he'd stopped in that first 150 yards, after that nickle and dime drops every 10-20 yards and sometimes further. We trailed him over 2 miles straight sidehill to the ridge at the next basin it was now after 7pm. He had never laid down and we had never laid eyes on him nor do I think we had bumped him, he was moving along quite well leaping over rocks, logs, and rock ledges, but was always going either sidehill or down. Decided to come back in the morning and pick up where we left off.
We were back on the trail at 8 am and now had the help of my dad and another bowhunter we had met just the day prior who was generous enough to give up a day of hunting to help us, despite me telling him thanks but don't use up your energy on us, great guy to say the least. About two hundred yards into the trailing we found 16" of the back of the arrow snapped off, all but the tip of the broke off end was clean, no blood confirming what I saw right after the hit. The four of us trailed him for another two plus miles thru four steep creek bottoms clear down and across the entire basin he had dropped into. There were times we lost the trail so we'd spread out and one of us would somehow pick up sign sometimes hundreds of yards beyond, it seemed he was drying up or the wound was healing, we still had never seen a spot where he had laid down nor did his tracks show any weakness in his ability to get around. At 4:30pm we lost the trail and we never could turn up any sign again. Gave up at dark and hiked back out. He had traveled well over four miles. 5:30am next morning we were in a spot to glass the entire area where we had last found sign and down the drainage, nothing. I believe he never stopped traveling through that first night and was now two basins south of where I'd shot him. I am hoping he will survive. The what if's are killing me, I have harvested around 30 mule deer since my first buck in the rubys at 13 years old and have never lost an animal I've shot, it is not a good feeling. At the same time it was one of the best hunts I've had as I am so proud of my son with the way he handled everything. He and I did three 12-14 hour six mile 2,000-3,000 vertical feet (up) days in a row, when we'd get back to camp each night he would whip up some quick dinner for my dad and I and we'd crawl into our sleeping bags and talk about the day. His ability to glass up animals and describe their location is uncanny. His tracking abilities were awesome especially the first night when the blood was fresh, (unfortunately he struggled the next morning when it was dry and brown as he's partially color blind.) We got some great video of some of the most beautiful country in north america along with some great bucks, especially the albino buck and relatives. We made a new friend who hopefully will have a little luck and harvest a great buck that he is after, he deserves it to say the least.
Good Luck to All!
Spear
Will try and figure out how to post a vid of the albino.
High Spirits in the High Country!
300 Yards from the top-what the heck may as well take a peak and see what's on the other side of the Rubys!
