Dead By Ned

I have gotten to know Ned Parker through my forestry classes at Iowa State. He showed some interest in the deer hunting scene and specifically wanted to try it with a bow. Nick and I have slowly but surely worked with him on all things bow and deer. His roommate Jon Jones is also a bow fanatic and it has helped in getting Ned out into the woods. Last year he struggled hard and never filled his tag. He was touting the PSE that Nick and I both harvested our first deer with but never fired a shot. He unfortunately broke the cable on it and decommissioned it for good. No harm no foul it just is.

Fast forward to this season. We have put Ned in the same stand over and over and he never got deer close enough. On the day after Ethan Shetler shot his buck, Ned went back to the same stand and his roommate Jon sat where Ned usually does. I was on a grocery run for Rachel when I got a call.

"I hit a buck."       "What!?!?!"        "I hit a buck. But not that good. I think. I think it was high and back. Maybe."   

Damn. That's never a good thing.
I told him to get out of there and get back to his car and we would go from there. I finished the grocery run and surprisingly to its completion. Ned went to Nick's where it was decided we were going to wait a few hours before we tracked him. We would be back around 11pm. Rachel was rather displeased with me but I still went to go track. Jon, Ned, Poindexter, and myself walked the mile in to begin the quest. We got to the stand and couldn't find blood to save our lives. Ned showed us where he thought it was standing. He told us after he shot, the buck just stood there, and eventually took a few steps before it bolted down into the willow swamp below. We looked down below and still found nothing. Nick doubled back and finally found good blood back at the top. Ned was completely turned around as to where he thought the buck was. We followed a great blood trail for about 200 yards before it started to turn into smears and specks. Another 100 yards and nothing. We finally found a bed. We followed the rest for about 20 feet and another bed. After that we ran dry. Doubling back Jon Jones found the arrow. No fletchings and a wad of frozen mud and guts and blood on the broadhead. It looked like good blood on the arrow and we knew this was a dead deer. We looked at what seemed like every angle from last blood and still found nothing. By now it was 2am. We called it and backed out. Nick had time early and he and Ned were going to look again in the morning.


First light was 6am giving them a little over 3 hours of sleep. They went right back to the last blood and found something interesting. We looked straight ahead, left, and even behind the line of trail this buck was following. They found that the buck doubled back and only went another 20 yards. At one point the previous night we could swear we could smell him. It was awesome they were able to find it.

This is Ned's first buck. Recovered on 11/11/11. We decided this buck is to be the Willow Buck and we would label it Dead by Ned.

 

After recovering the buck they both found that Ned's shot was much worse than originally thought. He thought high and a little back meaning paunch/liver hit. The arrow went in the right ham and came out underneath it next to his testicles. Poor shot indeed. The rage broadhead was attributed to the recovery of this one. Nick did the gutting for Ned and gagged his way through it. Being that they were well over a mile from the car, and it is uphill the entire way, they opted to hide the buck in the brush next to the river.

The ground was frozen and it was cool enough during the day that Nick came back and floated the buck out with his kayak. The river was low and he brought his waders and when needed he straddled it and paddled his way back to the boat ramp. This was a much better plan instead of having to drag the buck out. We were not going to go through that again.

 

That night was the beginning of deer camp as Michael Parker, Austin Freeseman, Mom, and Dad were in town and at Nick's place. We started camp with a deer on the pole (or Nick's deck). 

Congrats to Ned for harvesting his first deer and a fine buck to boot! Hopefully next year will treat you as well as this season has. But until then,

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Redemption is Sweet

Well, after my weekend at home of heartbreak and confusion I got back on the horse and got right back into the stand. Monday morning of the 7th (an exact year after Coleman's giant) my alarm sounded an hour after I set it. Thankfully, I set my alarm 45 early every day as I love the snooze button. I got my stuff and bolted. Got into the stand quietly and with 15 minutes before legal light. Beautiful morning. Sun was just about ready to show and turkeys start making their way down the ravine. I hear oak leaves crunch on a trail dead ahead of me and this time it is not turkeys. I swing my legs on the stand and look up to see a nice buck making his way right to me. He stops dead in his tracks and pegs me. His head bobs as he tries to pick me out of the skyline. He doubles back and is going right back from where he came, stops, and then turns around again to come down my trail. Every ten steps he stops and looks up at me. He finally commits and makes his way down the ridge to my opening. "Look thru the peep" says Rachel, "squeeze" I hear Nick tell me, "Loosen your death grip and take a breath" I tell myself. He stops in a basketball sized opening. I am already drawn back and decide to not shoot. Dad biffed a shot not waiting for the open shot, I will not do the same. He walks into my lane and stops. SMACK! A blast of sand behind him tells me complete pass thru. he runs up the side of the other ridge and stops 50 yards or so from my stand. He starts to sway, his tail goes up and starts pinwheeling, and he barrel rolls sideways into a downed tree bole. Redemption. Perfect shot placement on a nice buck feels nice.

I get out of my stand and go straight to him. I go to the top of the hill and get Nick to come help me take pics and drag him out. I sat at the hillside and soaked in the morning. A flock of speckle-bellies flew over, turkeys continued to scratch the leaves behind me.

Nick finally made it to me and we took some pics before dragging him out.

It felt good to put a nice buck on the ground, and eventually on the wall and freezer.

Nick helped me gut and start dragging the brute out. We soon figured out that this thing was stacked. Even gutted he was one of the heavier bucks we have harvested. We got to the ravine bottom and were already heaving trying to catch our breath. We had a goal to get him to a flat spot on the hill before taking a break. Just before the spot I slipped and all the weight went to Nick. POP. That was Nick's back. He crumpled to the ground and couldn't catch his breath. We eventually made our way slowly to the top of the hill without the buck and went to get the landowner's four-wheeler. We were given permission to use it the year before, yet we were too stubborn to use it the first time. I couldn't get it started and Nick was broken. I sent him home to have Lisa take him in to the doc. (Later we found that he completely dislocated a rib). A buddy of ours, Ethan Shetler, came and helped me with the four-wheeler and we got the buck out. What an odyssey. I packed him in ice and left him in Nick's garage and dealt with the rest that night.


The next Wednesday morning, Ethan shot a dandy basket out of our willow stand. We were unable to help him search for it or take pics. To shorten things up, he jumped it and it tried to cross the Des Moines River. He doubled back to Nick's to use the kayak to search. No find. He looked down stream to find this:

 

He died midstream and floated down river. He hung up in a tree in the river! This was a true adventure.

More stories to come. 

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Home Rut Camp

Went to Dike for the weekend and boy do we see deer. Friday evening I quick went to the beaver tree at the lower spot. Just at sundown I rattled and snorted in a basket. He came in all the way from about 70 yards to 10. On the walk out I was followed by a little buck. Saturday morning. I hit a nice buck in the same ash tree I shot Coleman's Giant out of last year this same weekend. This was a 3 yard shot quartering away. He jumped the creek and was out of sight. Half hour later Nick calls and says he shot a nice buck as well. Deja Vu. Same thing as last year, same weekend, same farms...Scary. We convene back at home and go back to find Nick's buck. Excellent blood for 100 yards, then it got dicey. We went 300 plus yards before we jumped him and lost site of him. We checked a pine stand, and Nick finds a funky little shed from this last winter. Cool find but not a deer. We back out to look later. We head over to Coleman's to recover my buck. We track the buck through the woods, into the corn, across the fence, and into another corn field. GREAT blood. He then did something I have never seen a deer do wounded; he crossed an entire bean field. I tracked him all the way to the next section. A mile to be exact. At this point I was sick. I backed out to come back later.

Nick went back out and eventually found his buck about 60 or 70 yards past where we left off the first time. Beautiful buck with some character.

At this time I was headed out to look again for my buck. I tracked for five hours. Some moments I was on my hands and knees. He eventually crossed the creek on the property and then dropped my arrow, again after about a mile and half. 50 more yards or so and that was that. No more blood, no more chance. Game over. At one point I was so close to the dirt I bumped my nose into a log, and this log turned into a nice shed. I backed out and decided to get back into the stand. Froze my ass off. I was soaked from deer tracking and had my coat and a t-shirt on. I have never been so cold.

An hour before sunset my beloved wife calls to chew me out for staying out in the cold. But wait? She shot a nice doe. Great shot and it didn't go far. We waited for everyone and tracked it 50-60 yards and found her in heap.

 

Two deer in one day is not too shabby. 

Next morning after church I got permission to go look one last time for my deer. I took Nick and Dad with me this time and we still found nothing. Oh well that hunting. I unfortunately know this buck is dead and I will never for the rest of my life understand what happened with this buck. It was a decent shot, close, and I was using a large broadhead. Nick attributes it to the shear will of the creature, I know this was God's work. He created shear will that mankind cannot understand. I was truly defeated by a magnificent animal. Dad, Nick, and I headed to my tree to grab my rattling antlers and to check the trail cam. Tons of black birds and shadows on it. One little buck close, and a great shot of a shot wide buck that was a for sure shooter. 

Upon comparison, I may have discovered something outstanding and in all honesty statistically impossible. The shed I found is most likely from the buck I shot from the big ash tree last year. The two properties aren't really that far apart and he was an older deer. 

I can't even begin to describe how cool this is. Yes, losing a deer is one of the worst feelings in the world, but this is unreal. This was a wonderful weekend and as I explained to my brother in law and to Michael Parker, bowhunting has some of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I am beyond proud of my wife for making a spectacular shot in her usual "there" fashion. I am proud of my brother for not giving up and being persistent as it paid off and got him his deer. I will be dumbfounded and sincerely humbled by the deer I killed this weekend. I will never see him again and I will never know what happened there. Can't wait to get back on the horse.



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Hunting ish

I have been so busy I no longer feel. I have had very little time to actually get into the stand but I have gotten to see some cool things. I have spent some time out with Rachel and even had the opportunity to shoot at a coyote. Never found it but Rachel ranked it right up there with one of the coolest encounters ever. Last weekend I rattled in two bucks who came in on a string. Tons of deer, turkeys, raccoons, and even some time out with th neighbor kids for youth hunts. No deer down yet but again too busy.

In a non hunting related note, Married life is great. Coming home to someone is awesome. Shitty day not so shitty anymore. We LOVE our fireplace and I know I don't have half as much firewood as we could burn this winter. School is going fair, and Rachel is surviving vet school. My jobs sucks more than I could have possibly imagine yet its better than my classes. Oh well, that's why I get outside I guess.


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