2017, first time at bat with a bow for deer. I called with a Grunt on the Primos Uproar and Holy sh*t!... after a bit I hear and notice the tops his antlers working his way up a gullie my sit spot overlooks.
While in the gullie... he passes behind this massive oak, which I use as my queue to drawback... but then... he goes and takes his sweet-@$$ time coming out of the gullie... and my shoulder isn't the greatest since it ripped before and had to have artho on it. Once out of the gullie enough stops at 25yds.
Me being a n00b with bow at the time, and it being a close distance, and the excitedness of the situation, and my shoulder was killin' me.... I put the 20yd pin on him and let one go.
Musta went just under him. So ya know.. had to play the freeze game. Eventually he lowers his head back down. So I nock another. So then.. like a dummy.. and also probably from being amped up by the situation I'm like, "Ok, must need to do the 30yd pin then." let one go. Whooshes over his back... sails across the bend in the gullie and impales itself into a dead tree trunk over on the other side.
I freeze of course. He quickly gets a bad read on the situation and decides he needs to bounce up outta there. He starts to go back the direction he came-in from. There are 2 openings I could potentially put a shot on him at so when he goes behind that massive oak, I rise to my feet (3D leafy head to toe) and was able to take a few step and was beginning to reach for a 3rd arrow.... when oddly... he decides that he wants to investigate what the heck it was that might have been spitting arrows at him. So mid-retreat he decides to abruptly turn in on one of those two openings! Oh shoot! So now I'm standing there... playing the freeze-game as I like to call it... face-to-face... at 7yds...with this nice 3x3 the first 3x3 I'd ever gotten to see in the wild since I began in 2014, which was an awesome specimen for D15 zone. And I can't... do.. anything. Moments later he turns around as if to head back to the gullie, but then just as quickly, turns and looks over his shoulder, now with his butt pointing at me, so I have no shot! Me still playing the freeze-game.
As I'm watching him... his tail is intermittently twitch-twitching, so I'm like damn it... he's gettin' antsy... he's about to jet. Now being in this different spot and closer, he no doubt was starting to get a whiff of my scent. So then he decides to take off. So there I am looking at him intensely to see if he's wounded, since I didn't yet know what had happened with that first shot.
So of course... after be bounced outta there I'm like silently cursing up a storm and clenching my fist in anger.
Thankfully... the next morning... after I blew on the grunt again with another quick soft little "Hey is anybody there?" kinda call... a younger 2x1 comes clumsily busting out of the nearby chaparral... pretty much at damn near the same place the first shot happened at y'day. Well... I had mentally reviewed in the tent that night what I did wrong... and that 25yds means you damn well better hold between the 20 and 30yd pins at an imaginary mid-point halfway between 'em.
So this "Sporky" is heading toward that same tree at 25yds. So I'm like "YES!". So I wait, and the moment his eyes are behind that tree I draw back. ARGH!!! Wouldn't you know it... that's when he decides to stop and remain obscured by that tree browsing on the ground right there. So again... had to wait what was a problematically long time for me. My shoulder was burning and shaking man. And I had to patiently wait a little more for him to advance a little more past that tree because there were some tall grasses between us and I wanted more of his body exposed to me before I let it go.
And then the weirdest thing... so now enough of his body is showing that I figure I should be good to go... so I let it fly... and there's this patch of sun-light between where I am in the shadows and where he is in the shadow of that tree... so I saw the fletching of the arrow mid flight when it passed thru that sunlight... and it looked good, like it should be in his body....
But then? WTF!? He just stood there! And I'm all over here bewildered and in disbelief because this time I know damn well for sure I held at that correct halfway between point with the pins. For a good number of seconds he didn't move... and then finally, it was like he's all "Oh crap.. Oh crap... I think I need to get out of here!!" as he slowly starts to pick up the pace and begin trotting over to the gullie. Meanwhile I'm over here in total disbelief... as I start to get up off my stool and rise to my feet and reach for the next arrow.. totally in disbelief that I "didn't hit him?". As he dips out of sight momentarily into the gullie, I nock up the next arrow. He pops up on the other side and loops around a tree on that sides bank.. loops around to the other side of the tree, to then look back to see what the hell just "bit him". So since he's looking back this way.. I play the freeze-game again standing there frozen in the full 3D leafy suit, with an arrow knocked, waiting for him to possibly turn around so I can draw back.
So then after a bit of a pause and me not moving, he decides he needs to go.. so he turns around now facing away from me and starts off with a stot.. which he quickly lowers back down to a trot, right about the time he passes thru a patch of sunlight, where I can see in glorious vibrant color the blood stain where the arrow exited his opposite butt-cheek/hip area. To which I'm like "YES!!!!!!" inside and my feeling of disbelief turns into total elation as I watch intently as he then trots away and crosses back over that gullie again at another spot where it looks like he just went into some thick stuff.
OMG it was Torture! waiting those 30 minutes to give him time to kick the bucket!
So then I set out to follow his trail. There were drips of blood. Not all that much. And once I got over to where he crossed that gullie again, I spent a minute trying to think about where he'd likely have gone in order to pick direction to check in where the trail line he'd followed just kinda stops at the thick stuff and some cut-down deadfall. It was such a joy when I elected to crackle and snap thru the deadfall, to then see him a little ways up down on his side and down for the count! Felt like such a bad-ass that day since I managed to make it happen with a bow! Was a little bit bummed at how I'd messed up of that freakin' Gorgeous 3x3 the day before, especially since the Sporky was a good bit smaller in size. But then I rationalized with myself that at least he won't be as heavy as that one in 2016.
Also same spot... Bobcat at 18yds. And the year before, was calling in February. And after 45min of holding the rifle at the ready since FOV was very narrow.... I rose to my feet from my tripod stool... and saw the tufts of a Bobcats ears and the tip of his nose sticking out from behind a low rabbit bush. He'd gotten down on all fours to check out the Mojo decoy like 7yds in front of him. He was to my extreme 90 degree right at like 8yds. Me again in full leafy. Tried to slowly do the 3 steps and turn to try to make the shot happen, pausing whenever I saw him move... but eventually he smelled me after I'd stood up and he looked dead at me. Played the freeze-game. Tried to turn more each time he'd look away and move a couple feet, but then he'd just as quickly look back so I'd have to freeze again. Then... crafty lil ba$tard he was.. there was a taller bush.. he then made sure while retreating to keep that bush in-between he and I. As he was nearing the thick chaparral.. he had to leap over some rabbit brush several times.. I tried my best to time the leap and let a .17HMR go, but no dice that time.
