MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

I've been trying to kill a buck out of a treestand this year, but I think my lack of patience got the best of me.

With the fresh snow on the ground I decided to hike back behind a gate and see what was moving this morning. Found where a doe and fawn had crossed from some timber into a recent clearcut. I turned down an old skid road and about 100 yds later bumped right into a big buck, which turned and disappeared around some timber.

The buck didn't seem to be in panic mode, so I knocked an arrow and circled around a slight ridge to see if I could ambush him if he stopped. Moving at a snails pace I spotted a deer below me feeding in some brush. As I raised my binocs I could see it was a small spike. Moments later I could see another deer feeding below the spike and about 50 yds down the hill from my position. The spike either smelled or sensed me being there and began looking my direction and walked into the open for a better view. Finally the other deer raised it's head and watched the spike in alert mode and I could see it was a good buck.

The spike couldn't decide what to do as my snow camo broke up my outline and had him confused. After several minutes of watching the spike, the bigger buck walked up the hill toward the spike and stopped to rake his antlers on the lower branches of a fir tree. Then the bigger buck continued up the hill and as he passed behind a large tree I tightened up my bow string. Several steps later the buck cleared the tree and entered a shooting lane broadside, but was at the limit(24 yds) of my shooting range. The buck was unaware of me and my confidence was high as my eyes burned a hole tight behind his front leg...suddenly my yellow fletches disappeared through the bucks chest cavity.

The buck turned and ran back to my left, but stopped after 40 yds, staggered and went down. I slowly began breathing again!

After cleaning up the blood with snow I dragged the buck to a opening for pics...


He's a 3x4 without any eyeguards...


Guess the treestand kill will have to wait another year...


He was smelling pretty rutty, and his neck was still swollen. I saw half a dozen or more rubs since I'd been back in there the first weekend of late archery.

The bow is a Blacktail Elite VL 60# @ 29" 125 gr 3-blade Wensel Woodsman broadheads on Douglas Fir arrows

Sounds like some quality stalking you put in on him, good job not getting blown! Great Blacktail, congrats. I'm still anxious to go on my first blacktail hunt (no, nothing planned yet :(

Good pics and story though

Tree Killer, CONGRATS on an absolutely BEAUTIFUL Blackie! And with a long bow too...AWESOME!

I've said it here before and I'll say it again. I live in a state (WA) with Whitetail, Mule deer, and Blacktail and I think that these PACNORWEST timber ghosts are by far the most beautiful of the three! I've harvested a Blacktail before but it was in Cali...and they just don't have the same "look" to em that these Blackies up here have. I REALLY need to get off my rear one of these days, skip my Whitetail and Muley hunts, and try to harvest one of our Blacktail myself.

The color on him is AWESOME!

CONGRATS again!

What a great looking deer. I've never seen one other than in pictures. When I read the story and got to the "24 yard max " part, I started to wonder. When I seen the pics of you with the long bow I was truly impressed. Congradulations and thank you for sharing.

Awesome blacktail.....with an even better "recurve" bow. Norm Johnson builds a great recurve, IMO. I remember when he built bows with Jim Brackenbury years ago. I have a Brackenbury built by Jim before he passed. Sweet bow. Congrats on a fine blacktail with your stickbow.

Fantastic job, thanks for the great pics and story.

Great job! I'm always impressed with a guy that can kill a deer with one of those recurves. I woudn't hunt with one just because I'm afraid I couldn't get close enough. I killed my first deer from probably 43 yards with my MIssion, and in the immortal words of Steve Irwin, "That's a real bueaty" (Austrailain accent inserted).

Very nice. Got to love those colors in the cape. Beautiful animals.

Thanks guys, glad you appreciate the buck AND the bow!

I usually can get bucks into MY range by rattling, but it hadn't worked too well this year. Being in the right place at the right time works for me though!

BOHNTR wrote:Awesome blacktail.....with an even better "recurve" bow. Norm Johnson builds a great recurve, IMO. I remember when he built bows with Jim Brackenbury years ago. I have a Brackenbury built by Jim before he passed. Sweet bow. Congrats on a fine blacktail with your stickbow.

BOHNTR...I have an original Brackenbury Drifter I bought in 1986, I hunted with that bow for 20 years until I bought this bow from Norm for my 50th birthday. As much as I like my old Drifter, the Blacktail is a far superior weapon, in my hands anyway! I'm left-eye dominant and right-handed, so I have to keep my lethal range to a little over 20 yards to asure a quick kill.

I will be doing my first archery blacktail hunt next fall in oregon. I would love to shoot one like that. That is a sweet looking buck. Congratulations!