My early season trad velvet buck

[Bigburner]

I’ve been wanting to do a little write up about how this whole kill went down. I’ve been trying to find the time but life has been transitioning for me at a rapid pace so I’m going to do my best here to remember all the details.
I guess I’ll start with a little background. Last year I committed myself to hunting strictly with trad equipment. I’ve always shot trad since the time I was a young kid. my first kill at age 12 was with an old bear Kodiak Mag that belonged to my dad. He had gotten out of hunting by that time, so I pretty much grew up a self-taught hunter. I had gotten a compound shortly after that, after begging my parents, so I dedicated a ton of time just with a bow in my hand and never really hunted with anything else from that time on. So fast forward 32 years and having taken a considerable amount of deer using modern equipment I just wasn’t feeling it anymore, so I had to simplify to reach a higher plane and find a new challenge to focus on but still within the confines of what I really love to do. So, for me priorities just got lazer focused on dialing in equipment and set ups and playing out scenarios in my head and putting my self in the best spots and situations. Well I saw a lot of bucks last year but the public I was hunting had antler restrictions and the does weren’t even playing nice for me. Ironically, I had friend go on vacation last year and offer up a slug gun. So, I decided to give it a whirl try to kill my first gun deer. I was successful on my first sit on really nice buck outside of a bedding area on the Monday after the weekend shotgun opener. I felt some satisfaction based on the fact that the place I was hunting gets absolutely pounded that weekend and lots of pre-season and in season scouting and conditions put me in the spot. But gun hunting isn’t for me. It was very unsatisfying.
So, this past winter like usual consisted of checking spots and scouting some new spots and finding some places that connected the dots on one particular state forest tract I like to hunt. One thing I’m dealing with around here is big woods on super flat ground. Its not an easy place to hunt. Dare the hardest place I’ve ever hunted deer. I found one bedding area that really stuck out and it was in really close proximately to some ag fields that rotate in beans and corn. I marked several spots on my GPS and I always get detailed in the mapping realm. So, I mark all the rubs and scrapes, doe beds, buck beds, trails and kill trees. When I get back from scouting, I lay everything out on a map and really look over how all those features connect and why they make sense. I had planned on getting into this spot with more of a westerly wind direction, but I noticed nothing had been coming out in the bean fields to the west in the afternoons anymore. I figured something had changed and if anything was coming out it was happening later, and this bedding area made the most sense. But I had a feeling I was going to have to push into it deep and make a lot of decisions on the fly based on what I saw getting back to where I wanted to be. We had a little cold front come through but the wind was NE so I had to backdoor my planned entry and find a setup when I got in there virtually blind with exception of my preseason scouting. So, this was my second hunt of the season first sit in that spot ever and we have a September first opener. I loaded up the bike and rode as far as I could until I had to hike pretty deep into the spot. One thing that stuck out on my GPS was a point that I put in the and labeled “beat down trail” . I headed in very slowly and followed a general direction towards that trail and picked up on some trails that were being used daily. Lots of doe and fawn tracks and a nice one that stuck out in particular. I had gotten to this gap in a green briar hedge that formed a transition and pinched down into this opening. I knew I was getting close to where I needed to be. I found the trail I had marked once I passed through the opening and it was destroyed. We have a super thick organic root mat before you ever hit bare dirt and the trail was so compressed down with tracks that it had worn a groove in the ground. I really started to slow down and look around for kill trees and dropping milk weed to get an idea of how things were moving around back there. The wind was relatively steady and good but on gusts it would swirl back in this hole. This spot had a fire run through it back in 98’ and the spot was nothing but small sweet gums and maples growing as multi leader stems and a few individual trees that were just big enough to get a couple sticks high. Otherwise it was a green briar thicket on the south east edge of the bedding area with trails cutting through the otherwise impassable. I walked paralleling the main trail on the down wind side scratching my head wondering what tree was going to work. Nothing looked good but I knew I couldn’t push it any further. I was an easy 75 yards from the nearest bed I marked. Two things I new for sure is that I needed to be facing the direction that the deer would be coming from and that the only shot I had was on my right side. So I knew I was going to have to be in a position where I could see far enough up the trail so I would have enough time to stand and turn to my weak side and get my right shoulder up against the tree to not only get a shot but to try and make as small of a profile as I could. I settled on about an 8” diameter sweet gum and only got two sticks high. So, no more than 10’ high. I had a maple branch behind me and that was my only back cover. I Really felt like I was sticking out like a sore thumb, but I was 15 yards from the main trail, and I knew if anything Id have a great shot angle. I had one 5-6’ wide hole to shot to with a deadfall angling between two multi stemmed maple trees. I figured the tree right before the hole would block the deer’s view while it gave me time to draw.
So, the wait began, and it wasn’t super long before I spotted a fawn coming down a trail to my left and then looking toward the main trail I saw a massive red colored doe headed into my lane. The wind was doing weird stuff and she hung up behind that the tree before my shooting lane and turned on a dime and got back away about 20 yards and was super perplexed. She couldn’t figure out her situation or what was back there and 2 more does were coming up her rear. She decided she didn’t feel good about her situation so she turned without alarm and headed back into the bedding area with everyone else in tow. I figured her to be the matriarchal doe and she hadn’t blew and at this point. I knew was either going to see what I hoped to see or nothing. Around 6:50 another younger doe popped out around 40 yards out and the same wind situation happened. I just kept dropping milk weed and often times it was getting just enough angle to be slightly off wind from anything coming down the trail. It was cloudy that evening and my eyes were starting to adjust to the lack of light. I had looked to check the time and it read 7:32 it wasn’t a second after I put my phone away I saw the velvet rack coming right down the trail with not a care in the world. I stood and grabbed my bow and got turned watching his body language hoping that wind wasn’t going to do anything screwy. His tail was flickering and he just kept coming. He stopped right behind the maples in front of my hole and licked his back. I drew and hit anchor and just starred to the point where I was burning a hole in his heart. Saying to myself over and over “pick a spot”. I’m not a snap shooter so I held really steady and just kept building back tension and he stepped out and that arrow without even thinking set flight and I watched it perfectly arch into the pocket. I heard a solid crack, and he took off with the arrow in him. I saw the lit knock for about 50-60 yards with what seemed like pretty good penetration. I spent a few moments just pumping adrenalin knowing that I potentially completed what I had set out to do. A trad kill, but on a great buck in perfect velvet. It was like I found a unicorn. I far exceeded my expectations.

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So looking at the map.
blue flags are rubs
X's are scrapes
red pins are sets and the lowest red pin is my kill set
the yellow circle is the bedding area
the green circle is the trail point (beat down trail)
the tree stand icon is a ladder stand that was left in the woods
and the buck symbol was where I marked him dead.

I got down a little while later and at this point it was dark. I walked over to the hit sight and instantly found blood. I decided to push on a little further and was looking at the color and consistency and it was really starting to look like a heart shot. You get that watery kind of light viscosity. So I kept on and I saw my knock not 60-70 yards away. And I thought maybe he was down right there. So what had happened was the arrow had penetrated the offside and he worked it all the way through and after that, the blood trail just was unreal. I’m shooting a 200 gr. VPA terminator and about a 550 gr total weight arrow out of a 50# bow and things were looking up. So, based on what I was seeing and the way that deer reacted I had a feeling he was gong to be a little further away. Every heart shot I’ve put on a deer had resulted in usually a straight b-line for about 100-150 yards. Well the blood just kept on and not another 50 yards he was laying there stone dead. I was stoked for about 5 minutes. Because I was way back. I tagged him and marked his location a hauled out of there to my bike, rode back to the truck got my sled and all my field dressing stuff. I got a hold of my buddy and he made it out there by about 9:30 and the recovery went really well. I ended up being out of the woods by about 12 midnight.
It was really gratifying the day after when I had the time to appreciate what had happened. All the work that had been put in and here it was. My goal. 32 years between trad kills and just a best scenario I could have hoped for. I joined this site in 2014 and have been fully engaged in this style of hunting since. I never got frustrated with it just more motivated and started seeing the nuisances develop and I’m still a student of it every day. The devils in the details and every time you get in those woods or marsh, you’re filling your slide tray. And the picture starts to draw itself and its fun as . I’m thankful for the supportive community here on the beast and all the great folks and advise and hard won experience that everyone is willing to put out there. It’s a really great thing. So that’s it in a nut shell and thanks for being patience with the long read. I still have one more buck tag in my pocket……

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[PK_]

Yasssss

[PK_]

Man what a great write up. Glad you took the time. I really appreciate the details on the thought process behind picking a tree and stand orientation. I feel so many guys just don’t take enough time or put enough thought into it.

I didn’t know you guys had a sept 1 opener. Man do I love to travel and hunt new states that open that early...

Oh and heck of a deer m8. Good job.

[Jackson Marsh]

Congrats on one heck of a buck

Great story, great trad kill......good luck with your last buck tag.

[muddy]

Congrats

[john1984]

Sweet buck man

[greenhorndave]

Man what a great write up. Glad you took the time. I really appreciate the details on the thought process behind picking a tree and stand orientation. I feel so many guys just don’t take enough time or put enough thought into it.

I didn’t know you guys had a sept 1 opener. Man do I love to travel and hunt new states that open that early...

Oh and heck of a deer m8. Good job.

+1

[stash59]

[Zonk54]

Nice velvet buck!

[Lockdown]

Great buck! Great story. Loved all the details... congrats!

What’s on the agenda the rest of the season?

[Wlog]

Super happy for you man! Great buck and write up.

[Bigburner]

Great buck! Great story. Loved all the details... congrats!

What’s on the agenda the rest of the season?

Not real sure yet. It’s so hot and dry here right now that Water is a commodity. All the water holes I had cams on dried up So I’m going to pull those and see who else might be in the area. I need to get into some spot and see if the scrape and rub lines started to open up but there is one deer in particular I really would really like to get on. I’m going to really try and get a plan together before the rut.

[backstraps]

Awesome job in your scouting, planning, and execution

I enjoyed the read and like the thoroughness of the story.

Thanks for taking the time to share the details
Congratulations on a dandy buck and accomplishing your goal!!

[Buckshot20]

Absolutely fantastic write up and kill

[headgear]

Great buck and story!