This hunt was a couple of years in the making and one that I never expected would happen since I didn't expect to ever hunt with a bow again. The last time I hunted with a bow was in 2000 when I took a 2-1/2 yo 7 point. After that life became to busy, time and money was too short and I never got back out with the compound bow. Then a few years ago, I lost part of the vision in my right eye. I have been learning to shoot rifles and shotguns left-handed but I wasn't ready to tackle shooting a compound bow left-handed.
Then NYS changed the rules this year and allowed cross bow hunting for the last two weeks of the archery season. So, I researched bows, dealers, and broadheads and outfitted myself with a Parker crossbow and mechanical broadheads. With some practice I became confident with the equipment.
In the fall of 2012 I started building the framework the trailer blind shown below.
I finished it in the spring of 2013. I hardly used last year and was hoping it would someday "pay for itself". It has a lot of detailed amendities like padded window sills, padded shelves, a hunting chair on rubber castors, etc. Everything was designed to be quiet.
In the summer of 2013 I plowed up, limed (1,800 lbs), fertilized and seeded the food plot shown below with forage oats. This plot is near the top of a hill in my prime hunting area. Although the deer were using this food plot heavy last fall, the wind during the first few days of gun season was so strong last year that the deer abandoned the hilltops and I ended filling my tags in the valley stands I had.
In the spring of this year I frost seeded it with clover. The field runs north/south on a farily steep incline. On the right side is a gully. Deer like to travel across the top of the ridge above the food plot.
After I had purchased the cross bow, I moved the trailer blind to a position off the north end of the foodplot on the ridge that deer like to travel.
November 1st was the first day of cross bow hunting but the wind was strong and from the north so I hunted from my swamp stand for both Saturday and Sunday. I passed on the same little four point buck four times.
Election day was a holiday for me so I hunted first from my new tree stand that Rol_P helped me put up and then switched to the trailer stand when the wind turned south. I saw a bucka at the end of the day but he were down at the south end of the clover field tends scraps down there and didn't come up before it got dark and I left the blind.
Saturday morning the wind was light but from the south so I headed back up to the trailer blind. I started seeing deer as soon as it got light. First was a little doe, and then a little buck. They disappeared for a while and then came back out. The buck headed off over a ridge to the west and the doe came straight up the food plot and passed to my left not 20 yards away.
I remember thinking to myself how the blind, the food plot, and the wind were all perfect for the morning hunt. Now, I thought, if a "shooter" buck shows himself it will all be on me to execute the shot from a ground level blind without alerting the deer.
I first saw this buck tending a scrape under an apple tree 170 yards away. I studied him in the binoculars are realized he was the buck with the weird antlers that I had seen on the trail camera. I had picked him as a cull buck to shoot if I got the chance. His photos from this summer are shown in a posting called "Weird Antlers" below.
He then came over and tended a buck scrape at the south east corner of the food plot. Then he started grazing on the clover. It seemed as though he was grazing in my direction and I realized that I might get a shooting opportunity. That is when the nerves kicked in and and the heart started pounding. I realized I had to somehow figure out if he was going to pass to my left or to my right. Afterall, I didn't want a head on shot with the bow. After the buck signaled his commitment one way or the other, I would have to move my bow to the proper position to get a broadside shot. I would have to make the move without alerting him.
After what seemed like an eternity, he had worked his way up to about 35 yards from me. It appeared he was going to go to my right. Then he stopped and turned broadside to look back down the food plot. At this point he was facing to my left. I had a 35 yard standing broadside shot but I passed on it. I figured he was going to keep coming.
After a long gaze down the field the buck turned again and grazed toward the corner of the field to my right. By this time my nerves had calmed down and I was "all business" as I focused preparing for the shot. I took the opportunities of when he had his head down to reposition the bow to enable a broadside shot at 20 yards when he reached the north west corner of the food plot. I decided not to use a grunt call to stop his movement. He was moving slow enough I would try to shoot without alerting him with a call.
I peered through the scope and his body filled the field of view. I placed the cross hair on his shoulder. When I saw his right leg/shoulder move forward, I pulled the trigger. Through the scope I saw the fledge of the arrow hit him directly behind the shoulder. He tucked tail and ran off through some heavy brush.
I waited an hour and then went looking. I found where the arrow hit him with hair and blood. I followed a path though the brush and saw him laying in one of my tractor trails no more than 35 yards from where he was hit.
Athough this buck is no trophy, it was a perfect hunt for me. The trailer blind worked, the food plot worked, I picked the right blind for the wind direction, I properly executed the shot, and I shot a deer I had wanted to cull from the gene pool. Two years of preparation paid off. That is a perfect hunt in my book.
Then NYS changed the rules this year and allowed cross bow hunting for the last two weeks of the archery season. So, I researched bows, dealers, and broadheads and outfitted myself with a Parker crossbow and mechanical broadheads. With some practice I became confident with the equipment.
In the fall of 2012 I started building the framework the trailer blind shown below.
I finished it in the spring of 2013. I hardly used last year and was hoping it would someday "pay for itself". It has a lot of detailed amendities like padded window sills, padded shelves, a hunting chair on rubber castors, etc. Everything was designed to be quiet.
In the summer of 2013 I plowed up, limed (1,800 lbs), fertilized and seeded the food plot shown below with forage oats. This plot is near the top of a hill in my prime hunting area. Although the deer were using this food plot heavy last fall, the wind during the first few days of gun season was so strong last year that the deer abandoned the hilltops and I ended filling my tags in the valley stands I had.
In the spring of this year I frost seeded it with clover. The field runs north/south on a farily steep incline. On the right side is a gully. Deer like to travel across the top of the ridge above the food plot.
After I had purchased the cross bow, I moved the trailer blind to a position off the north end of the foodplot on the ridge that deer like to travel.
November 1st was the first day of cross bow hunting but the wind was strong and from the north so I hunted from my swamp stand for both Saturday and Sunday. I passed on the same little four point buck four times.
Election day was a holiday for me so I hunted first from my new tree stand that Rol_P helped me put up and then switched to the trailer stand when the wind turned south. I saw a bucka at the end of the day but he were down at the south end of the clover field tends scraps down there and didn't come up before it got dark and I left the blind.
Saturday morning the wind was light but from the south so I headed back up to the trailer blind. I started seeing deer as soon as it got light. First was a little doe, and then a little buck. They disappeared for a while and then came back out. The buck headed off over a ridge to the west and the doe came straight up the food plot and passed to my left not 20 yards away.
I remember thinking to myself how the blind, the food plot, and the wind were all perfect for the morning hunt. Now, I thought, if a "shooter" buck shows himself it will all be on me to execute the shot from a ground level blind without alerting the deer.
I first saw this buck tending a scrape under an apple tree 170 yards away. I studied him in the binoculars are realized he was the buck with the weird antlers that I had seen on the trail camera. I had picked him as a cull buck to shoot if I got the chance. His photos from this summer are shown in a posting called "Weird Antlers" below.
He then came over and tended a buck scrape at the south east corner of the food plot. Then he started grazing on the clover. It seemed as though he was grazing in my direction and I realized that I might get a shooting opportunity. That is when the nerves kicked in and and the heart started pounding. I realized I had to somehow figure out if he was going to pass to my left or to my right. Afterall, I didn't want a head on shot with the bow. After the buck signaled his commitment one way or the other, I would have to move my bow to the proper position to get a broadside shot. I would have to make the move without alerting him.
After what seemed like an eternity, he had worked his way up to about 35 yards from me. It appeared he was going to go to my right. Then he stopped and turned broadside to look back down the food plot. At this point he was facing to my left. I had a 35 yard standing broadside shot but I passed on it. I figured he was going to keep coming.
After a long gaze down the field the buck turned again and grazed toward the corner of the field to my right. By this time my nerves had calmed down and I was "all business" as I focused preparing for the shot. I took the opportunities of when he had his head down to reposition the bow to enable a broadside shot at 20 yards when he reached the north west corner of the food plot. I decided not to use a grunt call to stop his movement. He was moving slow enough I would try to shoot without alerting him with a call.
I peered through the scope and his body filled the field of view. I placed the cross hair on his shoulder. When I saw his right leg/shoulder move forward, I pulled the trigger. Through the scope I saw the fledge of the arrow hit him directly behind the shoulder. He tucked tail and ran off through some heavy brush.
I waited an hour and then went looking. I found where the arrow hit him with hair and blood. I followed a path though the brush and saw him laying in one of my tractor trails no more than 35 yards from where he was hit.
Athough this buck is no trophy, it was a perfect hunt for me. The trailer blind worked, the food plot worked, I picked the right blind for the wind direction, I properly executed the shot, and I shot a deer I had wanted to cull from the gene pool. Two years of preparation paid off. That is a perfect hunt in my book.
