You have to love it when a plan comes together. Sunday evening I had to watch 4 bucks cross a saddle and walk on the other side of a small drainage I was sat up on just out of range. The plan tonight was to get up closer to the saddle but stay in good cover. I settled in my stand around 5:40. I know a late start, but after making a 90 minute dash from work, if all I could hunt was an hour I was going to get it in.

I didn't really know what to expect since the moon phase wasn't favorable to a lot of deer activity. After an hour of nothing but squirrels milling around I heard something walking on the other side of the ridge from where I was setup. I could not see over the ridge, but felt it was a deer. Around 6:45 I caught a deer about 35 yards away in a thicket coming my way. At about 25 yards I could see antlers so I got ready with my bow. The buck stepped down in a ditch that cut up the ridge. I seen he was about 18" wide and had 5 on one side so I drew. At this point he was about 10 yard from the base of my tree, but I could not shoot because of foliage. The buck came up out of the ditch and stopped at about 7 yards. I swung my bow on him but a couple of limbs prevented a shot. He took 2 more steps and stopped again. This time the mid section of his body was clear. I had to lean and get up on my toes to shoot. He must have caught movement because next thing I know he was staring right at me through my peep. His head was now in the way. I lost my concentration on the spot I was aiming. I hate taking a bow shot on a deer that is looking at you, but I knew it was now or never. So, I moved my pin back behind the shoulder a bit and let the arrow fly. I did not know if I hit him or not, but thought I could see him stumble as he ran off. I lost sight of him after he had gone 50-60 yards. I figured I either missed him totally or the arrow zipped through so fast that I couldn't make out a hit or not. By this time I had deer all over the woods. I wanted to get down to find my arrow before it got totally dark on me, but I waited the other deer out. I had 2 other bucks and a doe cut the trail of the buck while I waited. The doe hit one spot and got real spooked. I knew she must have hit blood, so I started feeling better.

I climbed down around 7:30 and went to get a buddy. We came back about 30 minutes later and found my buck about 80-90 yards from where I shot him. I've never trailed a deer that sprayed blood like he did. We had blood on trees head high in several places. The shot proved to be a perfect double lunger tight on his shoulder.

I greened scored the buck at 131" and some change. He ended up taping 18 1/2" on the spread, 8 3/4" G2's, 8" G3's and 23" main beams. 5+" bases. Not much mass, but the rack was balanced. He tipped the scales at 167lbs.

If you are interested in arranging a hunt with the WKO team, you can contact us at info@westernkentuckyoutdoors.com

Good Hunting,