Well, this buck and I have quite a history together...it's been a very long journey, with some unforgettable ups and downs, but patience and perseverence ultimately paved the way to my best NJ buck ever!
Let's begin by first taking a step back to the Winter of 2007, a time when I was paying my dues on this property in hopes of getting permission to hunt it. A few friends of mine actively hunt the property on occassion, but due to the proximity in which they live, don't have the ability to frequent it very often. Given that I live a mere 15 minutes away, it only made sense to get me involved to help manage the property more effectively. So, to earn my way, I started off just helping out...patrolling, posting, baiting stands, and also setting out my trailcams to help gain some intel on what was around.
Well, besides a few trespassers (which has been addressed), I was fortunate enough to capture some good pics of several young bucks and a really nice 8 pointer.
Here's a few pics of him from back in December of 2007 and January of 2007...
I liked the coincidence of having pics of him from 01/10/2007!
We were unsure on whether to pass on him or not, so John decided to get a closer look one day in late January. Late season...John arriving in the morning.
The big 8 was there 30 minutes before John arrived to hunt the stand.
No one ever did get a look at that buck while hunting the late season, but ironically, as I was helping pull stands the day after the 2006/2007 season closed, a group of deer came running right by me at 25 yards...with the 8 pointer in the middle of the pack. Needless to say, he looked pretty big then and very well have been considered a shooter! ;)
As the winter progressed into Spring of 2007, I continued helping out by scouting the property and locating a few nice terrain features and potential stands...ironically, one of which led me right to this buck (more on that later)!
In the late summer of 2007, we re-posted the property and thankfully I got the go ahead to hunt the property for the upcoming season!
Now...fast forward to October 2007, already having several stands hung before the season opened and I'm well into heavy camming mode...a few small bucks on cam, but nothing worth chasing...as a matter of fact, we hadn't even hunted any of the stand locations on the farm yet.
Then this guy showed up at one of my pre-hung stand locations...my first look at him on October 7th 2007.
I had quite a few pics of him throughout that week, but entirely at night...and at several cam locations on the property.
I also opened a mock scrape when I checked one of the cams, and he (and other bucks) found it!
After some analysis, I was pretty confident he was the same 8 pointer from the year before...same brow tines, same sweeping antlers...just a bit bigger!
From spring scouting, I felt I found a nice core bedding area but wasn't sure how heavily it would be used during the bow season. Once I spotted him on my cam in that area in October, I didn't waste any time, and went right into where I had cleared a spot in the spring but not yet hung a stand. I waited for a rainy day, and midday on Sunday October 14th crept in, hung my stand and got out! Another result of my spring time scouting was that I had found several old scrapes in this area from the previous rut...one of which was within 15 yards of my stand setup. As it would turn out, that was a key to what would happen next.
October 18th...I decided it was time to give it a shot. He was in the area regularly based on the cams, and the conditions were nearly ideal for the stand.
Everything worked out about as perfectly as I could have planned...almost!
As it turned out, the buck moved back into the area the night before as evident on the trailcam pics. Of course I didn't know this until after I had hunted the stand...and my first time in that new stand was that morning. As I had talked about with a couple buddies, the only way I thought I'd get him to come in given a lack of daylight movement was to coax him with calling and/or rattling...that is IF he happened to be bedded nearby.
Well, that's exactly how it worked out...around 8:00AM I did a sequence of calls and just a few minutes later...he came right in behind me. He worked his way to my right through some cover, allowing me to get into position and walked right to and hit that scrape less than 15 yards from the stand, completely clueless to my presence. As he finished pawing the ground and licking the branch above, I spotted an opening ahead of him and once he was about to clear the brush, I drew back. Then...just as I got to full draw...the arrow came completely off the bowstring!!!
Here I was...at full draw...the buck of my dreams standing broadside less than 15 yards away from me, wide open for the shot...and the arrow is OFF the bowstring and just teetering on the front of the riser!
Simulating the same draw sequence later that afternoon, I determined the root cause was that the arrow did not come up on the rest (lack of Trophy Taker arrow guide), and given the arrow's shorter length, when the back of the broadhead hit the front of the riser (arrow resting on the riser shelf instead of up on the rest)...it basically pulled the arrow right off the bowstring.
Lesson 1 learned...use the #&$#* arrow guide!
So I had a critical decision to make with the arrow teetering on the riser. I could let down and try to grab the arrow before it fell, but with the buck broadside less than 15 yards away and wide open, he'd certainly see my movement. Or, do as I did, and use the giant oak I'm in to hide the movement of the arrow falling and let it fall behind me, while trying to slowly guide it to safe/quiet ground. Well, half of that worked out...I slowly let down, reached back behind me, tilted the bow and let the arrow fall off the riser, but as it neared the bottom, wind caught the vanes and steered it right into the base of the big oak I was in and CLANK CLANK CLANK the rest of the way! The buck immediately snapped his head up looking at the base of the tree, then at me, then at the base of the tree. At this point, I used a different oak between us to block my movement to take another arrow out slowly. He might have spotted movement or just got cautious as he turned and ran off about 25 yards blocked by some cover. I quickly knocked the second arrow only to find the fletching wasn't aligned!
Lesson 2 learned...be sure to align all fletching, not just balance broadheads with the arrows.
Dumb on my part, I actually put that arrow in the quiver the night before this hunt, since I shot a doe on the previous Saturday and needed a replacement. 2nd arrow in the quiver, never expected to need it for an "on the fly" shot like that...again, lesson learned.
Alright...so at this point, he's 25 yards out, not sure what's going on, turns around and puts his head down. So I take that opportunity to rotate the fletching as quick as I can to get it close to where it needs to be. Bad idea...he either spotted some movement or just didn't like what was going on...so he turned to run...I clipped on the release, spotted a small opening ahead of him as he bounded, drew the bow (arrow on the rest this time), when he hit the opening I grunted at him and he stopped about 30 yards, quartering away but obviously on high alert. I found the opening, tight, had to crouch down about 4-6 inches to make it happen, squeezed off the shot and let the arrow fly. I caught the tailend of the arrow's flight...right to where I was aiming and I was pretty sure I hit him good, having the 30 yard pin just above his heart and right behind the pocket near the last rib and my 20 yard pin high on the back of the lungs. At a glancing range estimation, I knew it was more than 25yds but not more than the low 30s...say 32.
He ran off hard, and I could see he had trouble with his right front leg while running. I gave him an hour, then got down and took up the trail. I had no blood or hair at the hit that I could find, so I started to follow up in the direction he ran figuring he didn't make it all that far.
After about 40 yards (which he ran in about a second and a half), I found good blood and followed it to an absolute ton of blood...literally 15-20 1 foot by 2 foot wide pools for the next 100 yards...just about every few steps...I expected to find him down any moment. Then I hit a point where it appeared he might have bedded, but it was small and just some kicked up leaves...so I continued. Another 40 yards later, and I found another similar spot but with coagulated blood in it...so I assumed that was indeed a bed and backed out and waited for my buddy to arrive.
About an hour later, we took up the trail again. We found some more blood right away, and shortly afterwards the other half of the arrow and the broadhead...entrenched with meat, tendon, and sinew...not a good sign at all. The blood trail at that point was fair, but no where near what it was before...usually an indication of a muscle hit, but with the sign on the broadhead, I had to have been somewhere in the leg or shoulder. If it was the leg, I couldn't imagine not hitting the artery and that buck going down ASAP...but the leg was so much farther down than I had thought I hit on the shot...so we leaned towards the shoulder. Eventually we bumped the buck right by my other stand and cam...and upon review of the pic, he really looked almost as healthy as could be...unbelieveable!
My buddy had to leave for work, so I followed the decreasing to non-existant bloodtrail for another 300-400 yards...really just wandering potential trails and fresh tracks and occasionally coming across a random drop of blood (thumbtack size) every 50-60 yards. I kicked him up again, and kept on him, believing at the time, given the amount of blood early on in conjunction with the bedding blood clots found that I needed to reopen the wound and push him to bleed him out. As it turned out, he clotted up and I lost blood after a long ways of tracking over the next 5-6 hours.
After reviewing the pic in more detail, my one buddy highlighted the path of how he believes the arrow traveled based on the marks on the body.
Here's a comparison photo of where we believe the broadhead ran across his rib cage and exited through the front armpit. Note, this picture was captured 3 hours after I had shot him.
It appeared as if the exit was by the front armpit, entrance appearing where the yellow lines start. If you look behind that path, you can see a vertical dark (reddish) patch, which might be from him getting poked/punctured by the jagged shaft after it broke?
If that path was correct, then I would have hit exactly where I was aiming...and given he was on high alert, it's possible he may have ducked or lunged to the side resulting in riding the side of him from center body above the heartline, and entering through the backside of his front leg and exiting the front of the armpit (noticeable dark mark there).
I'd have thought with the amount of blood early on, given the picture information, it would have been an arterial shot, but the fact that he didn't go down in 500-600 yards made me believe otherwise.
It was incredibly disheartening and dejecting not finding him...I can't even describe. He would have been my biggest NJ buck ever! After tons of analysis, we believed his front right leg was pretty messed up, but we didn't think it would be fatal. I went back the following day to check for any birds circling, but to no avail.
A lot of lessons learned from that bowhunt...ultimately, where I needed to get lucky, I got lucky...but when it came down to executing the shot, some minor things I had overlooked turned out to be major malfunctions resulting in not getting this buck that morning.
Some may wonder why I never shared that hunt, and my perspective was that it wasn't a story I wanted to share until I could bring closure to either the season or with this buck...so I opted not to tell it until now.
So, after all of that and the addition of the arrow guide on my riser shelf, on October 27th I headed to North Dakota to hunt with my buddy DJ and was able to score on a really nice droptine 9 pointer from a ground blind on November 1st. That helped rebuild my shattered confidence and re-instill faith in my equipment, but that buck from back home was still weighing heavily on my mind.
I returned to New Jersey from North Dakota on November 6th and promptly hit the woods on November 7th to check my cams and see what kind of action there was while I was away. Well, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. On the 3 properties I had cams hung on, I did not have one single shooter roaming through during the peak of the seek and chase phases! I couldn't believe it! And worst of all, still no sign of that 9 pointer I had hit back in October.
I continued to hunt some other areas, with no success and little confidence that I'd see anything I actually wanted to shoot. So I continued along over the next few weeks, that big 9 constantly on my mind...knowing I should have made that shot in October...and I'm sure as we all have done before, wishing I could rewind and replay those sequence of events just a little differently.
Then it happened...November 20th, the big 9 pointer suddenly reappeared on the other side of the property! To say I was relieved and pumped he was alive and back in the area wouldn't cut it...I was ecstatic!
Here's a few pics from back then on November 20th...note, that is just a leaf on his back. You can also see that his right leg is clearly not being used anymore as a result of the injury.
Still looks healthy, amazing how resilient these animals are.
No visible entrance or exit wound.
The sad part was indeed the shape of his leg. It was clear he lost all mobility of the right leg but otherwise seemed very healthy. Nevertheless, I vowed to spend the remainder of my season trying to pattern him down and get him. As it turned out, he sure didn't make that very easy.
I was on stand early the morning of November 23rd (Friday after Thanksgiving) and saw a good number of does, including a big, old brute of a 5 pointer. That was a great hunt, truly memorable, as I witnessed him back down two other smaller bucks and breed a doe a mere 30 yards away from my stand!
But the big 9 pointer was no one where to be seen. I kept close watch on my cams, and hunted the stand I had been getting pics of him at very sparingly...not wanting to risk over-educating him. Unfortunately his movements were entirely nocturnal for several weeks...and highly variable. He would appear one random night and be gone for two or three, then reappear and disappear again...just no discernable pattern.
Then the 2-day muzzleloader season rolled around, as my father joined me. The goal was to get him on that 5 pointer I saw during permit archery season or even a shot at that 9 pointer. I actually pushed the very perimeter of the property on the 2nd afternoon and believe I kicked the big 9 up toward my dad...but he never saw him. With 45 minutes of light left, I jumped in one of my stands and that 5 pointer wound up stepping out and was down shortly afterwards. Just a few minutes later, I heard a shot from my father's direction as he downed a doe.
Afterwards, the property got a rest until the 6-day firearm season opened the following Monday. After power scouting our other hunting spots and checking cams with the similar disappointing results, we opted to just hunt the farm that big 9 pointer was sporadically appearing at in hopes that he'd slip up and give one of us a shot. Unfortunately, he was no where to be found...no sightings and no cam pics at all that entire week. In fact, all of the buck movement on the property ceased...I didn't see a single buck all week!
Once 6-day firearm was over, and that 9 had become essentially invisible, I opted to rest the area and keep an eye on it with cams...just heading back to rebait, check pics, and patrol.
Then, just like the evasive ghost he has been, he magically reappeared once more on the morning of December 15th...leaving the scene just before first light.
But then he slipped up...and actually came in with some shooting light that very same evening! Note the skylit background.
As circumstances turned out, I wound up using my permit muzzleloader tag on that 5 pointer, thinking permit shotgun was the entire month of December! Well as you probably know, permit shotgun closed for a few weeks and then re-opened on January 5th. Ironically, the 9 pointer showed up the very first day AFTER permit shotgun closed on Friday December 14th! Well, there was no sense in beating myself up, because I probably wouldn't have been sitting there that day anyway...although...someone else would have been targeting does with the bow and had a hell of surprise (*cough* Doug *cough*)!
So as the following week progressed, I jumped in that stand on two different evenings with the bow in hopes of getting him, but to no avail...he stood me up...again...with his movements being completely nocturnal.
Here's a few pics from back then...
And then...once again, he disappeared for a few days and suddenly reappeared at another stand location.
And again, was gone for a few days, but showed up right on time for Christmas morning!
And once again in the evening! Of course, in NJ, we can't hunt Christmas...but I wouldn't have been there anyway! :)
So now, he started showing signs of slipping up again...making some daytime appearances...unfortunately I hung and prepped this particular stand specifically for use with my slug gun...a good 50 yards off the trails and bait, and although I still had a bow permit, I didn't want to risk going in and busting the spot trying to hang another stand there. So I had to be patient, and wait until the permit shotgun season re-opened.
Then just prior to permit shotgun season re-opening, a major cold front hit for two days...and you guessed it...the big boy slipped up both days and came right in with plenty of shooting light...and virtually at the SAME time...talk about a nice pattern!
January 2nd...
January 3rd...
Once the season reopened on January 5th, I was in that tree...anxious and waiting. With the cam pics showing recent early evening movement, I was pumped and confident I was going to get a crack at him that day!
But, as luck would have it, a group of does came busting in from behind me in the late afternoon, exploding into the dry, leaf covered woods in front of me...running straight back to where I believed this buck to be bedding. And as I suspected, I did not see him that evening...probably startled from his bed by those does and headed the other way.
Then a major warm front hit, temperatures soared into the 70s...it's JANUARY!!! No sense in hunting then, and I didn't want to put any pressure on him or risk getting pinned in the tree at last light, figuring he'd move well after the sun went down. So I hung tight and waited for better conditions.
Then, on Thursday, January 10th, the weather and winds shifted...temps dropped down from the mid 70 highs two days earlier to the low 30s at night. I figured with the relative 40 degree drop, that 9 pointer might just bed early that morning and slip up that very evening...coming in at last light.
So I took the afternoon off from work and climbed in my stand around 1:40PM that afternoon. Given an odd slip up the 9 pointer made at 2:00PM that previous Sunday...I figured I should be there in case he did it again!
Unfortunately, he pulled a no show for the 2:00PM movement, but other deer started milling around the stand site around 3:00PM. I had 3 yearlings come in to feed, followed shortly afterwards by a nice sized doe with a half rack buck on her tail. That half rack came in, scent checked, sniffed and chased all 4 deer right out of the area. Then around 3:15PM, a group of about 20 turkeys came in and made all kinds of racket, but it was pretty neat to watch! ;) After that it was dead quiet for nearly an hour...when around 4:30PM I heard the sound of approaching deer. I got ready, praying he was with them! 7 does trickled out of a nearby thicket, followed behind by that same half rack buck! The does worked their way out and away from the thicket, but that half rack buck hung close to the cover and fed the entire time.
About 20 minutes passed when I heard movement approaching from my front right...maybe I was making myself believe it at the time in hopes that it was him, but I swore I could hear a distinct limping cadence. I peered through the thickets out front and picked up movement about 90 yards away...confirming that convincing limping cadence was indeed HIM!
There was no mistaking it, it was him and he was coming right to me! I got into position, sitting down in my stand, left foot on the footrest, hammer back on my H&R 12 gauge, the gun shouldered and ready to bark! Now...I'm just waiting...waiting for him to work his way closer and closer towards my shooting lane! With the gun shouldered and ready, I check the scope and position relative to the shooting lane...everything is good to go!
The big 9 pointer is 40 yards away from the lane now...30 yards...my heart is beating through my chest...20 yards...I'm breathing like I just ran a marathon...10 yards...he's almost there, just a few more steps...
Then it happens...he locks up! He's literally TWO STEPS from being in the wide open...my crosshairs are on his forehead...waiting for him to clear that last tree...a tree that has his entire chest completely blocked. That half rack, hanging tight to the cover all this time, must have heard them coming...maybe thought they were does, and started working his way back over in the dry, crunchy leaves.
The big 9 pointer is at full attention, just staring in the direction of the half rack...he doesn't know what it is, and I'm not sure if he's going to calm down or bust out. Anxiety attacks me, it's such a critical time...he's inches away from my gun going off, but those inches might as well be miles because if he spooks, I'll have no shot at all. I'm in between a forced calm and an uncontrollable panic as I search for an opening in case he turns to run...I find one, just a few feet behind him, it's my only hope if he turns to go but hesitates...it will happen fast. It's seemingly been an eternity, but really 5-6 minutes of waiting with my crosshairs on the 9 pointer's head...frozen, ears forward, eyes scanning...trying to identify the source of the sound in front him.
But Lady Luck was on my side this fateful evening, as that 9 pointer identified the half rack buck as the source of the sound, flicked his tail in a calming and accepting fashion...and at that very moment, the second his tail flicked...I knew he was mine. He put his head down seconds later and took a step forward, I settled back into the crosshairs and as soon as he cleared the tree and stepped into the lane...he stopped, offering me an excellent quartering towards shot. I put it on his left shoulder and squeezed off the shot...the woods erupted at the thunderous report of the shotgun...the 9 pointer was hit hard, running straight at me...falling and expiring a mere 15 yards in front of my stand!
Excitement and relief simultaneously overwhelmed me as I sat and just absorbed every second of the long and arduous journey leading to this buck laying in front of me. I reflected back to last year's December and January cam pics, this year's October bow hunt, his reemergence in late November, and now...full cycle to this January's ultimate success...finally! I can't even put into words the gratitude and respect I have for this buck and the sense of accomplishment I felt upon finally catching up with him...the culmination of days, weeks, months of scouting, preparation, and hunting...all merging into moments of shear mental and emotional chaos...and ultimately transforming success into such a unique, irreplaceable, and everlasting memory. He is one buck I will never, ever forget, and my biggest buck ever to date!
Finally...some pics from after the hunt.
Unique 10th point.
Hole in the horn.
Well, it's been a great season, a truly unforgettable one! This 9 pointer completes a season long quest, and gave me the opportunity to close a chapter in my hunting adventures that I wasn't sure I'd ever have another chance to do. The entire experience of chasing this buck has proved to me that without trailcams I would have never known he even existed given his nocturnal nature. Springtime scouting, virtually year round camming, patience, and persistence helped me achieve such a long sought after goal of mine and to overcome all of the adversity along the way!
Now it's time to go back to the drawing board and seek out next year's buck! We're doing some intense doe management on the properties now until the end of the deer season here in NJ, then it's time for late Winter and Spring time scouting in hopes of fine tuning our current stand locations and finding some new areas to hunt as well!
Until next season...
| Equipment Used: | |
| Shotgun: | H&R 12 Gauge Tracker II Plus |
| Scope: | Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40mm |
| Slug: | Federal Premium 2-3/4" 3/4oz, 1900fps Barnes Expander |
| Trailcams: | Homebrew IR SnapShotSniper, Sony DSC-P41, Pelican 1040 |
1 comment:
Great story Matt, congrats on that great buck.
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