October Rainy Day Buck - Long Read

I had a nice 4+ year old droptine buck move onto the farm on October 10th, and he was very visible working scrapes, although 100% nocturnal. First I ever knew of him. He “owned a 10-acre feeding area” and I had multiple pics of him hitting the dozen or so scrapes around the field and fighting other bucks. On 10/21, another larger buck moved in and I noticed the scrape pics of the droptine drastically shrink to a two-acre corner of the field, and that one morning he was visible in daylight.

I was ultra-limited on days I could hunt this week, and Weds the 30th was the only day I could get out. The forecast for Pike County was lousy, basically 100% all day. Late Tuesday night I talked myself into going justifying a “low-impact hunt with perfect wind and that anything can happen in late October”.

I arrived to the ******* sled blind about 45 mins before first light and got in totally clean. Once daylight hit, the windows were about useless with the rain & moisture, so I decided to leave one big window open...an action I hate, especially on ground level.

My plan was to sit until 10, then head back to town to get the day started. Around 8:30, the rain miraculously stopped. I was a little bummed by not seeing a single deer (this field is usually chocked full of does and small bucks). I had black curtains on all windows except the open one, and would check my blind spots once every few minutes.

I had a feeling that the bucks would be antsy to refresh scrapes, and at 8:50 I looked to a scrape in my blindside and saw the droptine absolutely thrashing a scrape tree. He was 55 yards away and I didn’t feel confident I could get the vertical corner window open without altering him and didn’t have a shot at the extreme angle he was at. His coat was literally steaming from the moisture, such a beautiful site and I honestly thought briefly about Vince Vector’s recent post. Fortunately, he turned and started feeding/walking into my open view in the foodplot. I was set up and ready for the potential 35-yard broadside and suddenly he snapped his head up on full alert. I have no clue what bugged him, the wind was right and I was dead still. I quickly grabbed my rangefinder and had him at 46-yards and tried to move my Garmin action cam in frame. He started the pre-bounce tail twitching and I knew I had seconds before he bounded away. He was slightly quartering towards me but I was extremely confident in the shot. I took it.

I watched the lighted knock arrow sail a touch lower than I wanted (was using a Ravin crossbow - you do you, I’ll do me) but definitely connected. I chatted with a few buddies over text and shared pics of the estimated entry point. I decided to wait an hour then belly crawl to grab and inspect the arrow. I grabbed the blood soaked arrow and saw sprays of blood all over the field toward the timber. I went back to blind with the goal to wait as long as possible before the rain started again, and would pick up the trail at noon at the latest (I felt it was a shot that he was either dead from a heart shot, or ultra grumpy from a sliced brisket). The rain came back about 10:45 so I went to the blood trail. Once I stepped into the timber, I was confident in the hit, there was a 4’ wide trail of red mist. He was laying stiff as a board about 35 yards in the timber and didn’t make it 50 yards from the shot.

The buck definitely didn’t have any ground shrinkage. He was definitely a warrior and had a punctured eye that was pussed over and a deep puncture wound in his throat. I have a feeling I know who whipped his backside and I’m praying the kids can tangle with him this weekend for youth firearms season . So beyond blessed and thankful he gave me this opportunity.