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DAY 6

Day 6 - All day

I went right back to the same stand as last night. It was cooler today but not cold and not quite as windy. I settled in for a long day again and watched several does and fawns along with one forky that hit the bait.

Every hour a deer or two would show up. All flatheads. But at 2:30PM things had changed. A doe was moving toward my stand from the downwind side. As she got closer I could here another deer behind her. When he grunted with a deep, bellowing "urp" I knew it was a mature buck. But I couldn't see him yet. The doe continued dangerously close to my downstream scent. And when she hit it, she slammed on the breaks. The buck walked out of the trees and I couldn't get over how big this buck was. Not so much his rack, which was a perfect 8 with great mass, but very short main beams and spread. But more his body size. I mean, this thing was a tank and easily would go 250lbs. He was so pretty, and I had more than paid my dues. If he came in, I would shoot him.

The doe seemed to be confused. She caught half a nostril of me, but the buck was chasing and grunting his way to her. I swear she chose to come in anyway to get away from him. She trotted over and stopped at my stand. The buck followed her same trail but when he hit my downwind he stopped dead, stomped, then turned and crashed away.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty slow until last light when at least 15 does and fawns came into my stand. I heard a grunt and looked over my shoulder to see that same buck was back. I knew he was not the kind of monster buck they have up here but I really liked him. He was a 250lb buck with beautiful coloration on his face, dark horns that were perfectly symmetrical, and huge mass that he carried all the way out. There was only one problem. He winded me again.

With all the does and fawns under me he couldn't stand it. He wanted to head in but he got a full nostril and was stomping like crazy. But a doe fight made it impossible for him to resist and he came in. I got ready, flipping on my video camera for what I figured would be a clean close shot.

The 8 was chasing and I needed to stop him to make the shot

As he walked under my stand I followed him with my camera. But unlike the other deer, he was not interested in bait, he was interested in chasing all of these does around. He turned and headed away from the bait and off into the woods. I made a one of those "nerrr" sounds that stopped him. I drew back but my string hit the viewfinder on my HD video camera. I leaned away from the camera to clear it and shot. I knew immediately, the shot was low and far back. The deer crashed away and I quickly played back the shot on my video camera confirming what I saw. The shot was 28 yards and I was cocked at an angle.

You can see the white nock of my arrow just before it passed through this nice 8pt

Sorry - no video. The internet connection is far too slow for us to upload the kill shot.

I waited a little while before climbing down from my stand. The arrow was buried in the dirt and was slick with deep red blood the entire length. I gathered my gear and waited a little while longer before looking to see what we had for a blood trail. There was none. Eventually, Rob showed and we called for the other guys who were going to be passing by this farm with their trucks. Along with Dwight, his camera man Dave, and three other guides we took up the sparse trail. After 300 yards we decided it was far better to not push him and wait for morning. Of course, up here there's not only coyotes, but wolves too. So even if we find the buck, there may not be anything left to him.

The trail is terrible. A drop every 20 yards or so. It doesn't appear to be anything more than muscle blood but we did find one pool of foamy blood that makes no sense. Playing back the video footage its possible I caught liver and guts, but more likely it's guts only. It will be a long night once again. Hopefully this won't be a replay of my elk hunt.

Tomorrow morning we'll be hitting the trail in the daylight and hope for the best. Based on what I see in the video, and on the ground, I'd give it a 20% chance at finding this buck.

This Live Hunt Sponsored by:

This Live Bowhunt takes place in Northern Saskatchewan with Rob Nye Wilderness Adventures.