The Backyard Buck. · Bowhunting

The Backyard Buck.

Hello all. On Nov 26th I accomplished my goal of getting my first buck with traditional gear. Having previously taken a couple of does in years past, this season any legal buck was going to meet my goal of harvesting a buck with my longbow . Hunting a new permission this year I quickly learned it was abundant with deer and having several close encounters with does and smaller bucks earlier in the year I pushed a little deeper into the property with better cover the the late season with some nearby rubs. The stand I setup is a mere 5 minute walk from my door, essentially hunting in my backyard. I had added some carrots to the area and had seen this small buck frequenting them at all times of the day and night on camera. With about 20 minutes of legal light left I caught some movement coming my way at about 80 yards. He worked his way right to the carrots and didn't provide me a perfect shot for about 5 minutes, but that really gave me the time to get myself settled in and focused where I wanted to land my arrow. Stepping forward again I knew I had my opportunity and drew back and let my arrow fly. Everything felt and looked great. Complete pass through with my wood arrow sticking into the dirt. The buck went to about 50 yards into the opening in front of me and spent several moments confused about what just had happened before taking off again out of sight. I climbed down to examine the arrow and confirmed to myself what I thought, this deer was probably not going to be far away. A quick call to my friend Peter to join me on the recovery we found good blood where I had seen him standing after the shot but quickly figured out that his buck was primarily bleeding out in the cavity and there wasn't much on the ground, but what we did find confirmed the lung hit. Taking it slow we followed it steadily leap frogging each other until we came to a wider opening and I decided to just take a look around with my flashlight and there was my buck next to a juniper bush, he had not gone very far at all since I last saw him and likely had expired very quickly after I lost sight of him. By 6:30 pm the buck was hanging in the garage and I couldn't be happier. With an additional doe tag in my pocket still I hope to take one more deer this year but my season has been a huge success.

Buck was taken with my Saratoga Venari Longbow, Sitka Spruce arrows made by St Lawrence Traditional Archery and tipped with 190gr Meathead broad heads.

Thanks for reading !

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