Well, it all came together but not in short order. This hunt was quite an experience. I got off early enough to get on the stand. I hunted the Red River, which is one of my favorite places to hunt. I hunted this stand last weekend and five does came in along the big bluff overlooking the river. The pre-rut is on so I hoped that the doe activity would bring the buck around. I’d seen several hot scrapes but I’ve had trouble in seasons past on the property with the bucks only coming in at night.
At 5:00 p.m. an 8-pointer came in. He got by me at about 40 yards then circled and came back at about 50 yards on the opposite side of me. I got my camera out to take some pictures of him when he stopped and began acting strange. At first I thought he smelled me but I was up really high and his behavior was odd – skidish and almost like he was scared of something. At that moment I heard something behind me coming hard. I turned to see a really big buck with his head right on the ground and a wild look in his eyes. He was going to pass my tree at about 20 yards, but he was running. I got ready to draw in hopes that he was stop. He was 20 yards out and sure enough he slowed to a fast walk. I lined the shot up and was ready to release when he busted out again. I released and hit him mid-body but back.
I watched him disappear, eased down and went home. I had shot him at 5:36 p.m. I was using my new osage selfbow. I got a piece of the osage that Denny Sturgis and Gary Davis cut when they made Gary’s video. I planned to make it a 3D bow. It’s 40# at 27” I was shooting spruce arrows. I named this bow Artemis, which is the Greek God of the Hunt – it proved to be true.
At 9:30 p.m. me, my kids, Pappy, Woody, John, my neighbor Michael and his kids and a couple of friends went back and began the track. We cut blood right away and it began. We had fairly good blood but the buck never bedded down. We tracked the buck for about a mile with pretty good blood but he never bedded. At 11:30 p.m. we felt like we must be pushing him so we decided to back out. I was sick at my stomach.
This morning Logan, my youngest son, and I headed back. It was a foggy morning. I prayed that we’d find him but I wasn’t overly hopeful. Coyotes are bad here and we’d heard them last night. Logan and I went to where we stopped last night and continued. Logan tracked great. We were on an island so I knew that he was at the end of it or that he’d cross back over. We had good blood for about a quarter of a mile then he either had to go down a bank and cross or he was there. We searched hard then decided to cross the water and look on the other side. We found blood on the other side of the water. We climbed a steep bank and had great blood. After about another quarter mile I found where he had bedded and there was a lot of blood. I told Logan that if we had blood after he bedded then we’d be good but if none then he got the bleeding to stop.
We saw good blood right out of the bed and about 20 yards later I saw something move. There he was and still alive. I put Logan down to watch him and I ran back to the truck to get my bow. When I got back he decided to run for it but I got a good arrow in him. He was down right away. Artemis had done the trick and my biggest selfbow buck was down. 175# dressed. An 8 pointer with two broken tines. Did an even bigger buck kick his butt? What a dream come true.
