I thought “at least I’m not the only person who has to use marking tape to find his own stand” but you just had to let me down!
My project over the off-season to cut a direct path to my stand!
My project over the off-season to cut a direct path to my stand!
That ribbon was actually hung as I was removing the doe so I could come back and search for my crossbow bolt that had gone thru and into the ground somewhere close. Found it after searching with a leaf rake.
Here's the video of last year's crossbow kill
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Nice shot! I took my new crossbow friday, new years eve and new years day. Didn't see any deer in my area, public land. Probably go next 2 weekends to get a doe for the freezer, but does not looking promising
You never know. I sat in that tree stand 4 separate times for 3 hours each without seeing a single doe or buck. This last time she showed about 30 minutes before sundown
Had my target buck patterned.... early last week i set up in a blind perfect wind, and passed two decent bucks with 10 min of light left, and KNOW the target buck runs with them.. I could hear him in the thick woods but didnt appear before legal light ended. the smaller decent bucks kept going back the trail they came in on and sounded like some light scuffling with the possible target buck.
Friday decided to go at him again with a east wind. wind wouldn't work in the blind so decided to just sit off the trail on the ground, not very concealed so know needed to be very lucky, still, and may get a shot if i am totally prepared..
On schedule with about 10 minutes of light left target bucks buddy one showed, didn't see me and here comes buddy two, a little bigger 8 point but not the target buck... Heart was beating as i could hear buck 3 coming, being 99% sure he was the target buck i was ready with cross bow on sticks, and the trail was ranged at 38 yards.
He steps out with 4 minutes of light left, so it was really pretty dark as i was in thick woods. Heard the arrow make impact but felt i may have rushed the shot slightly, but didn';t high kick but turned around in a dead run.
Went back to the vehicle got flashlights and drove down to the spot i shot him. immediately found arrow, not blood soaked, but obviously a pass thru, and broadhead had deployed as it should have. found drops of blood leading into the thick but not a lot. took an hour to track 50 yards, and kept losing sign so i decided to come back in the A.m. picked up where i lost blood and found a 2' diameter of blood and felt good. tracked tiny droplets for another 200 yards to a fence, to where now i needed to get permission. got permission and followed blood over a fence into a pasture with 2' high brown grass. could only find blood into the grass for about 10 yards then nothing...... just sick about it.... total of about 300 yards as a crow flies, but he did some zig zagging. so easily 350yds.
May go back today or tomorrow and look for vultures and crows, and see if i get very lucky, but not feeling real good about it.
Friday decided to go at him again with a east wind. wind wouldn't work in the blind so decided to just sit off the trail on the ground, not very concealed so know needed to be very lucky, still, and may get a shot if i am totally prepared..
On schedule with about 10 minutes of light left target bucks buddy one showed, didn't see me and here comes buddy two, a little bigger 8 point but not the target buck... Heart was beating as i could hear buck 3 coming, being 99% sure he was the target buck i was ready with cross bow on sticks, and the trail was ranged at 38 yards.
He steps out with 4 minutes of light left, so it was really pretty dark as i was in thick woods. Heard the arrow make impact but felt i may have rushed the shot slightly, but didn';t high kick but turned around in a dead run.
Went back to the vehicle got flashlights and drove down to the spot i shot him. immediately found arrow, not blood soaked, but obviously a pass thru, and broadhead had deployed as it should have. found drops of blood leading into the thick but not a lot. took an hour to track 50 yards, and kept losing sign so i decided to come back in the A.m. picked up where i lost blood and found a 2' diameter of blood and felt good. tracked tiny droplets for another 200 yards to a fence, to where now i needed to get permission. got permission and followed blood over a fence into a pasture with 2' high brown grass. could only find blood into the grass for about 10 yards then nothing...... just sick about it.... total of about 300 yards as a crow flies, but he did some zig zagging. so easily 350yds.
May go back today or tomorrow and look for vultures and crows, and see if i get very lucky, but not feeling real good about it.
I’m fairly new to large game hunting. Luckily my only 2 kills did not travel far after being hit. But I was wondering. I know it’s illegal to deer hunt with my thermal scope but is it legal to use it to help locate a downed animal? I probably just need to up my tracking skills. I have a “blood light” too but not a lot of opportunity to see if that is a help either.
Of the deer ive shot over the years, i have had some 75-100 yard tracks but that is about it... this year my daughters buck went a long long ways after a bad rifle shot, and then this buck i shot with my bow...
sucks, going to look for any signs of death today.
sucks, going to look for any signs of death today.
dont give up a lot of time they will make a big circle.
tynyphil’s videos have stoked my desire to buy a crossbow. In his two amazing kill shots, zero tracking was needed with the crossbow, and I presume very little was needed with the Ruger. I know an “n” of 2 means nothing in that regard. Also wondering if the Ruger was suppressed or the “cat-spit” sound was just a function of the camera’s audio. I’ve never tried video with my single Reconyx camera, so am unsure if it even records audio. All 7 of the deer kills I/my eldest son have made with a 6.5 CR (MB) were bang-flop to 10 yards. I’m betting most well placed crossbow shots from 50 yards or less would not lead to the need to track off my quarter in McIntosh county. For me, the main draw of a crossbow is the 3.5 month season which would allow hunt date flexibility for an out-of-state land owner with a 1000 mile drive.
Woah, 1000 miles! Need someone to help with the land…promise I won’t shoot all the big ones before you show up.
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