My First Bow Hunting Experience...by Riley

My Second Buck

I got a late start and didn't get on the stand until 4:00 pm. I was hoping to see the big buck that I'd watched the night before chasing a doe. 

There was almost no action. 

At about 5:00pm or so a spike buck and doe went across the road about 100 yards in front of me. 

At 5:30 pm I was watching the road for more deer to cross, when all of a sudden I heard leaves crunch from the opposite direction of where I was looking. I looked over and there he was! He came in and stopped 25 yards up wind from me. He was sniffing around like he smelled something fishy. I could see his back legs tense up like he was getting ready to run. He was looking right at me. I just stared back without moving. Then he started to turn slowly keeping his eyes on me. About the time he got turned around and took a couple steps back the same direction he came, a car drove by on the road. While he was watching it from behind a couple small trees, I raised my bow and centered the cross airs on an open place a few feet in front of him. As soon as the car passed he started walking again. As soon as he walked into the cross airs, I grunted with my mouth. The second he stopped, I pulled the trigger. I heard the twang of the bow as he crashed away at top speed. 

I felt good about the shot. So I climbed down from the stand and went to examine the spot where he had been standing. As I looked around I didn't see anything, so I walked down the trail a little. I still didn't see anything. As I walked back I turned to scan the area again and I saw a big splotch of blood on a tree right by where I'd walked. That was all the evidence I needed to know he was hit hard! So I raced to the 4 wheeler and drove home as fast as I could. 

When I got home I changed out of my hunting clothes. Me and Daddy got some flash lights and drove back over to the field in the pick-up. When we got there we followed the blood trail for about 20 feet and found part of the arrow covered in blood. We followed it all the way into some tall grass where we lost the blood trail. So we came home and got the 4 wheeler. When we got back to the field we found where we'd left off and followed the blood trail farther out into the grass until we found him! 

We took a few pictures and then we hauled him back to the truck on the 4 wheeler and brought him home on the pick-up. Then we gutted him out and hung him up in the hangar.