IST 1/28

Man I wanted to be out there this morning. But less than 3 hours of sleep so I’ll go tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I had one of my coolest experiences yet. I hunted D’Arbonne NWR (Area 2), and it’s pretty flooded. My target area was too under water to get to, so I set up as close as I could get to it, right on a transition area and next to the flooded area. I hoped a buck would skirt the water and walk the edge of the transition.

Right at 5pm, I heard serious splashing in the water. I turned and saw a really nice 8-point running full steam through the water. He was about 150 yards away, so I watched him through the binos. Full wake and all. Didn’t see anything else but watched a bunch of ducks.

When shooting light ended, I scouted where he entered the water. Saw 2 other deer but couldn’t tell what they were. The area was clearly where deer are traveling since it flooded. I’ll try my luck Monday and Wednesday.

St. Tammany
Bow
50ish and calm
Same spot as yesterday afternoon. Had one of the 2 deer I set out to shoot this season come through yesterday afternoon. Not the biggest I’ve been hunting but a really nice 8pt. He never gave me an angle. Hoping he comes back through today.

Palmetto, LA
47° 10-15mph NW

Day 60 of 60. The pup is just as fired up as he was on day 1. Trying to outsmart what ducks are here. Good luck Baws.

Edit:
Ducks were outsmarted to end the season.

Woke up to raging sinus problems, and had to be back home for church anyway.

Not gonna lie, I'm a little bit ready for gun season to end so I can squirrel and rabbit hunt.

EBR Parish
51°
NNW 6-8 mph
Lock on near old cutover
PSE Brute Force Lite

Unfortunately, been an eventful aftenoon. Walked up on a trespasser around 2 pm while I was scouting near another set I have. He was in an old ladder stand and was already down before I got near him. He took off running when I was about 75 yds away. Then go to the other side of the property and found that my lock on has been stolen. 1/2 mile from any trail so they have to be canvasing the whole property. They have hit my buddies stuff twice in the last month on an adjacent piece. I dont have cameras but he does. They have been smart enough to figure out where cameras are at to disable them before getting the stands. He's going to need to do some strategic camera placement with dummy and high cameras. Can't stand a thief.

Jeez man. That’s infuriating. How big is your piece?

I used to hunt EBR relatively close to campus years ago. I never had a trespassing problem like we had on that piece. Our stuff would get stolen regularly.

Shot my target buck at 4:48. 29 yards. Quartered to. Saw him coming in and knew he was going to quarter to, but made my mind up that anything inside of 45 degrees and I was shooting. I hit him back. Got pretty good blood but also guts within 10 yards of shot site. Backed out and called a buddy. Got a blue lacy coming now and going back in a couple hours. Fingers crossed baws. Could be a real good night or a real bad night.

Got em. Shot him low. Story and photo to come. I’m jacked boys.

Thanks man!

This was my third encounter with him this year. The first time, I had him at 18 yards but he faced me the entire time. I had a very marginal quarter to shot when he came in, but didn't take it because it was going to rain and I figured he'd give me a better angle. He didn't. The second time, I just saw him cruising through the woods and he didn't come in range. He pretty much disappeared before Christmas and I'd all but given up on him this year. I was still getting occasional photos of him around the area I'd originally seen him, but nowhere near where I was hunting yesterday. I'd made my mind up that any decent buck was getting an arrow yesterday because I really needed another deer for the freezer. I saw a small 8pt yesterday morning but he didn't give me a shot.

Around 4:30 yesterday afternoon I caught some movement and saw a buck coming straight towards me through the woods around 100-120 yards away. It's pretty thick and light was fading a bit, so all I could tell was that he was a good deer. I got my release clipped and angled towards the trail he was on. Once he closed a bit, I realized what deer he was and immediately decided that if he gave me any angle inside 45 degrees quartering to, I was going to shoot. He eased towards me but kept looking over his shoulder and was obviously uncomfortable with something. My pin was set at 20 yards but the trail he was on was right at 30. He passed behind a big oak and I drew. Once he passed the tree, I released as soon as his nearside shoulder opened up, but he was still quartered to. I held a little low expecting him to duck because of how alert he was and the range.

I blacked out at the shot and didn't really hear the impact. The deer ran right back where he came from and just stood at about 100 yards for a few minutes. All I could see was the outline of his tail and it was tucked the entire time. I grunted at him a couple times and nothing happened. I thought I missed. Once I couldn't see him anymore, I got down and checked my arrow. Covered in blood and gut. I'm immediately thinking he's gutshot bad and that I underestimated the quarter angle. I called my buddy to get some dog help. We waited 3.5 hours to go back in. The blood really cleaned up about 10 yards from the shot site, so we started to track. Dog got on him and pushed him off of the spot he was laid up. 700 yards later we hit 2 acres of shin deep water and I thought we were toast. I started prepping myself to lose the biggest deer I'd ever released an arrow on and cursing myself for starting the track too early. We'd been kinda grid searching the water and the little islands for about 45 minutes with no sign of blood and the dogs lost the track. I wound up on the other side of the water maybe 150 yards from last blood, and I randomly come across a blood spatter on a tree.

From that point, we could've blood trailed him. He bled the entire time and eventually bled out. Turns out, the deer wasn't quartered that hard, but my shot was low. The height angle was steep thankfully, so the deer bled forever. He made a giant loop and we wound up finding him laid up right on the trail he used to run off initially, maybe 150 yards from my stand. If I would've let him lay overnight, he probably would've been dead at the first spot he laid down, ~100 yards from the stand.

Lessons learned: always let marginal shots sit overnight if the weather allows, never give up on a track if you don't, and don't hold low if your pin is already under-ranged . I've been trying to kill a mature deer with my bow in Washington/St. Tammany my entire life and I finally did it. Tough to describe the feeling. I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of different outdoor experiences in my life and this one is up there at the top.

That is a dandy! Nice going!