AzRednekRabbit's buck
AGCHAWK
11/4/08 5:56pm
Hopefully Red will log on tomorrow and give us the story behind this buck. He emailed it to me and asked if I could post it.
Here it is!
Here it is!
3,159
Archery started late August this year and I hit it opening weekend. I headed to my favorite hunting spot hoping to drop a big buck or a turkey. Opening morning was mostly a bust. I did learn a very valuable lesson though. Turkeys are a lot smarter than me. Seriously, I don't know how the heck you are supposed to sneak up on em'. I swear they laughed as they ran me around in circles only to jump off a small cliff and book it down a steep hill. I never had a chance at all. They were just playin' with me. I will have my revenge though. The rest of the day there was minimal activity, only seein' a few bucks on the run. Probably due to the mass number of hunters in that area.
Day two was pretty much the same as day one except I didn't see my friends, the turkeys. My buddy however, did run across a bunch of em' and proceeded to break four arrows tryin' to shoot one. He's not the best shot in the world. It's kinda a joke in our group at his expense. Day three was looking promising from the get go. Woke up early and headed to a little blind I had been working on mid day for the prevous days just to pass time. I jumped in it about twenty or thirty minutes before light and almost immediately started seein' deer. Just woudn't get close enough for a shot though. That afternoon I decided to sit the same spot and guess who walked in. That's right, the little forkie. It wasn't his day to go home with me though. He stayed just out of range until he hit a clump of trees of course. He walked around for about twenty minutes but didn't present a shot due to the massive amount of cover he had. I think he was playin' with me too. Opening weekend ended up a bust but I wasn't done.
I gave a week before heading back up to give it another go. Drove up early Saturday morning with a buddy and hit it hard. We covered miles of ground over the day with little to look at. It was lookin' like it was gunna be another dry day on Big Bug Mesa. As it started to get dark we decided to walk back to the truck and head for home. Little did we know, we were gunna be out there a little while longer. About a quarter mile from the truck I spotter a huge herd of deer just off the road. Well, huge for here anyway. There was just the one buck that I could see but he had a mess of does with him. Musta been at least twelve or thirteen of em'. As soon as I spotted them I noticed a downed tree just off the edge of the road and I jumped behind it as fast but as smoothe as I could. It worked. I took off my boots thinking they were gunna keep working the same direction and I was goin' to have to make a little bit of a stalk. Well they came right at us. It must have taken about thirty minutes or so for him to cover just fourty or fifty yards to get in range. I had does lookin' hard cuz they knew something was up but the buck didn't seem to mind the fact that they were uneasy. Just as I thought my knees could take no more on the hard dirt he got within range. Staying ducked behind the fallen tree, I waited for him to give me his side and I drew my bow. As soon as I popped up from behind my cover I had doe eyes right on mine. What did the buck decide to do? He turned directly away. Now, I know it isn't the best shot but I had heard it works, so I did what I had to do. It was my last chance until December, my least favorite time to hunt, and I wasn't lettin him go without tryin'. So, I gave him the ol' Texas heart shot. Right up the rear. I aimed for where his right lung would be and let her fly. The rage broadhead cut a huge hole and the arrow penetrated all the way into the lung. He ran maybe fifty yards and curled up and went to sleep never to wake again.
He isn't the biggest buck but he's my first and I got him with my bow so I'm super proud of him. Hopefully they just get bigger from here on out but I'll take what I can get.