The Brother Buck! · TradBowhunter-Ethical Predator

The Brother Buck!

Last night my brother and I headed out with the intention that if one of the two fork horn bucks we had been seeing consistently gave us an opportunity we would take it and split the meat. I climbed up my stand at 5 and by 5:30 I heard movement in the bush. Out stepped only one of the two fork horns. I went to draw back and the noise of my wooden arrow against the beaver leather of my rest spooked him. I thought "oh well" as he left. He returned quickly circling in the other direction and presented a better shot. I drew back and let my arrow fly, confident enough with the hit and blood on the arrow as a liver hit. It was going to need some time. After 3 hours my brother and I began searching and found the trail easily but it stopped cold. We had to back out. It was going to be a frosty night, there was no risk of meat spoilage. This morning we resumed with help but could not find any sign. After a couple hours I thought to myself it was time to check the long grass and water area, starting on an obvious trail I found a spec of blood and then some frozen clots. Nearby laid my buck, dead for many hours but well over 250 yards from the shot. Thankfully no coyotes had found it and was able to recover this young buck intact. Looking forward to another year of excellent venison meals and with more tags to fill between my brother and I I hope we will be splitting more meat and butchering costs this fall.

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