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Josh's Cross Country and Wrestling scheule kept him from the fall woods. I asked him if I could use his bow to hunt with. He said yes. I hunted several days with it until I encountered a buck one evening and shot it.

I took the below picture the next morning to show where he was standing and made a poor attempt at sketching where he stood.



I had plenty of time to tell myself to pick a spot and to take a good aim and then release. The arrow hit a bit high and the deer lurched forward and turned to run back on the trail he came from. About half of my 29 inch arrows was still visible as he ran off. I gave 3 loud blows on my grunt tube and he stopped for a moment and then walked off.

I knew I had hit him high but I was not too far back so I was sure I had hit him in the lungs. I decided to sit for 20 minutes but waited 45 instead since he took off with my arrow. At 4:15 I got down and collected my sponges and went to where he stood to take up the trail. There was no blood to be found but the black muddy kicked up tracks made the trail easy to follow.

After tracking about 40 yards, I spotted a shed antler in the wet leaves.



A few feet further I found my broken arrow. the first 6 inches were missing. Too bad as I hoped to get back my homemade broadhead.



The first 5 inches of the arrow broke off after passing through the buck.



After going another 20 yards I found the only blood that I would find while tracking this deer.



It was getting dark as I kept following the muddy trail along the river. It took me all the way to my other ladder stand so I decided to walk out to my truck to drop off the bow and quiver and take up a path that would lead me back to the stand but would parallel the trail that I had just followed about 40 yards closer to the field edge. As I approached my truck, I jumped a deer and my heart sank. I never got a good look at the deer because it was too dark but I still took up the trail back to my stand and if I came up empty I would come back in the morning and take up the trail again.

As I re-entered the river bottom to walk through the tall grass, I stumbled upon my buck. It was just dumb luck to walk into the woods where I did but I will take a bit of good fortune anywhere I can find it.



I learned the next morning that the trail I was following branched off and he died about 30 yards past the branch on the other trail. I looked him over and realized that he had died only a few yards from the spot my Uncle Stan used to hunt. Uncle Stan died a few weeks ago and when I put everything together in my mind, I just took a moment to sit in the grass and reflect on Uncle Stan and the fact that I had just realized my goal of harvesting a deer with all homemade gear and to do it in the same woods that Stan and I hunted so many years ago made it a pretty emotional event. Your never too old to shed a tear. I sat there pondering things and giving thanks for my good fortune.

After gutting I examined the deer to find that I had gone through both sides even though the arrow stayed with the deer. I expected to find the front half of the arrow and my homemade broadhead inside the deer but it no resides somewhere along the trail of his final steps. I had hit the top of the near lung and the upper third of the far side lung. He traveled less than 100 yards brfore it expired.

Exit side hole

[img]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/WBH_stuff/nov_8hunt/nov8buck93.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/WBH_stuff/nov_8hunt/nov8buck94.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/WBH_stuff/nov_8hunt/nov8buck95.jpg[/img]

I couldn't be more pleased with my good fortune. My goal was to take a deer with a homemade bow and arrows, with homemade broadheads and finger tab and homemade camo and I was able to realize that goal in the same woods that I was brought up in. It doesn't get any better than this. I feel very fortunate to have achieved this goal. Now Josh knows his new bow is a proven killer.