I’ve been deer hunting for 10 years, I’m 36 and have killed a few does and a couple of spikes when I first started hunting but a nice or even decent buck has always eluded me. I’ve shot at 3 racked bucks in my life, all with a rifle. First one was a clean miss and on the 2nd and 3rd, buck fever got me and I bloodied both up and never recovered them. During these last ten years I’ve let a lot of bucks walk, some because I wanted to and others because I was a guest hunting on a friends farm or hunting club and just wasn’t sure the buck would make the cut. That is the back ground on my hunting career and what makes this buck so special and meaningful to me.
Anyway, to the story! I have been grinding it out on public land this year. I believe I’ve hunted 15 times and 11 of those sits were on cahaba WMA. Sunday morning after my hunt I was close by a spot I had found late in the season last year and decided to check it for sign before I headed home. There’s a firelane the bisects a young pine thicket and some mature thinned pines that the bucks had rubbed and scraped. I had a camera and was going to put it out if they had started scraping. Sure enough there were several fresh rubs and a big freshly worked scrape. I set my cam out and knew I would hunt that spot the next opportunity I got. This morning I slipped in as quietly as I could, picked out a tree facing NE around 20 yards from the scrape line and climbed about 30’ up. I was settled in at 5:40 waiting on daylight. At round 6:05 I heard something on the little ridge to NW and kept scanning that direction. I picked up movement and saw it was a buck. He was walking a direct line parallel with me and he was about 70 yards out. He stopped and worked a scrape and a licking branch for a few minutes and then continued walking slowly to the south and away from me. When he got to my 9 o’clock he started angling towards me just picking his steps and taking his time. If he stayed on this line he was going to either walk right behind my tree or right in front of it as he was headed straight towards me. He got behind a bush and I stood up because he was over my left shoulder. He was now within 30 yards but was walking straight to me with a pine tree between me and him. He finally decided to walk to the left of the pine and got behind a little cedar. He was at no more than 10 yards when he stepped out almost perfectly broadside. I had my crossbow burning a hole through him and fired off a bolt. I immediately heard the THWACK snd saw the fletching sticking out of him. He wheeled around and took out of there like a bat out of hell following the same path he took to me. I intently listened after he went out of sight. Limbs were popping and breaking and then it just got quiet. I looked at my phone and it was 6:17. That’s when the emotion hit me. I was thrilled that I had just gotten a shot at this buck but worried about the penetration. I knew I needed to sit tight so I posted on Aldeer and then texted 3FFARMS. He told me to stay my butt in the tree and he would be there around 7:30. I stayed in the stand until 7:15 and then I couldn’t take it anymore. It had been an hour and I climbed down. Right at the hit sight there was good blood and I felt really confident that the arrow must have punched through the underside of the deer. I followed the blood trail without any problem and he had only ran about 60 yards. When I saw that white belly I was so relieved and excited! I’m not gonna lie, I had tears in my eyes when I walked up to him. 3F showed up and I told him we needed to go to last blood, to which he replied that I didn’t listen for crap
As were walking Brandon said, you’ve already found him haven’t you? I just turned around and grinned and we had a little celebration. Brandon was a good photographer for me and even better deer dragger. The buck isn’t a monster but he made a memory for me that I’ll never forget. All the sweat, shoe leather and time invested in scouting and hunting cahaba finally paid off with a buck that I am dang proud of. I am no expert but I figure he’s 3. Obviously he doesn’t have a huge rack but he was fat joker. Here are some more pics. Thank y’all for reading. I couldn’t wait to post this story for my Aldeer family