HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 This guy was thankful I already got my 🦌.

Not alot happened I'll lay it all out next week. Stay safe.

Finally

 Monday I went out in the am and pm mainly because it was my start to the gun season. I saw a doe and a fawn in the morning, and this guy strolled through in the afternoon toward dusk.

Tuesday in rained all morning so I hunted from the house.... mainly saw alot of YouTube. I did go out in the afternoon mainly because of the cold front. I thought they should be moving.... and they were... in every other field but the woods that I was hunting. I think at last count I only saw 3 squirrels, which for my woods is pathetic.

Then Wednesday rolls around I hadn't seen anything until 7:42, when I saw a buck coming down the trail headed my way. I got my bino's out and recognized him as the big bodied 8 that I saw a couple weeks back. So I got the gun up and picked out a clear lane and waited for him get to it...squeezed the trigger.... and off to the races. He bucked so hard I thought he was going head first into the ground. Then he bolted straight away across the field, and the road, and into the next section. Well I got down and got into the truck knowing I had a dead deer. I drove over to where I saw him cross, and started looking for blood, hoping to cut out the field run.

Well, I couldn't find where he went in so I went over to the landowners house and asked permission to track and was givin' a green light.. so back to the beginning.

I went down to where I shot him at and immediately found blood and a chunk of lung, dead deer I thought. Trailed the blood to and across the road, the deal I made with the landowner was, since he had hunters in the woods, I could only trail the blood and if I lost blood I was to back out. 

Well, I got into the woods and immediately jumped a deer so I backed out and got breakfast. I went back to the woods and contined the trail, I got in about 20 yards and bumped another deer, I realized they both jumped the opposite direction from the way the blood trail was going. So, I kept trailing the blood, I had gone in about 50 yards and the trail just stopped. 

 

Since I couldn't start a grid search I had to think of another option. So, I got on the trakr app and started a request, after I did that I texted Jake for the number of the drone guy he used. I was with him the last time when he grazed a big 8 so I knew the guy through him. 

Well, I got a response from a guy named Braxton I told him about the shot and conditions. I realized it wasn't the guy I knew, and since he was coming from the south side of Fort Wayne I let him know I'll try to get someone closer. It wasn't a minute after I had hung up that Keegan called and after figuring out that was the guy I let him know who I was and he agreed to come out and fly. It took him about a half hour to get there. He set up his drone, sent it up and asked where I lost blood at, I pointed and said 50 yar... hey I got it on OnX I had a track on. I got my phone out and got OnX with my track pulled up. I looked at the screen and I heard, "I think that's your deer." with a laugh.

 

I know the video is terrible it's the end of the whole video where I just followed the drone to my deer. You should be able to see me walking to my deer, following the sound of the drone. 

 

In the time it took me to find that app and get it on the phone he had my deer found. Just amazing.

I mean I shot that deer at 8am and it was located at 1:30ish really really dead. He died within minutes of getting into that block of woods. When I got to the deer I grabbed an antler to move him a little an rigor was really set in. 

So, I went out thanked Keegan agreed on the payment, we parted ways and I got to work.

He was an 8 when I saw him the first time and a 7 when I shot him, nice big bodied buck.... 

only a doe to go.

Here's the issue

 Last week I decided to contact my crossbow manufacturer about an issue I've been having off and on since I purchased it. These were the pics I sent....

So I told them I was having cocking issues where the anti fire did not allow me to cock it unless I manually held up that roll pin in the second pic. To which they replied that I can buy another trigger for 50 bucks with a 15 dollar shipping fee. I found this to be totally unacceptable since they have a lifetime guarantee. 

So, I was going to finish out the rest of the season and figure out which crossbow and company I was going to upgrade to.

Then this happened...

See that silver thing? that's my anti fire device completely out of place and unusable. So while pondering what to do I contacted my buddy in WI who said I should call and give them another chance to make it right. I let him know, I don't want to strong arm them into doing the right thing, I just want them to do the right thing. So, that's what I'll be tackling today, along with getting ready for work this week. 

 

Next week is the gun opener 👍....  👀to fill some tags. 

I borrowed my buddies .243 again.  

Woulda tagged out

 I had to do alot of running to do on Monday , so I didn't get to go hunting. Tuesday I went deer hunting but only saw doves and squirrels. More of the same on Wednesday, but today..... 

I got to the stand and heard rustling in the dark until daylight then a buck came from behind me at 20 yards. I think he is the 7pt I have seen out there prior. I saw him 2 more times within the next couple hours. Then just when I was getting ready to get ready to leave, I was standing up turned around in the stand. When I turned back I saw a really nice 3 year old 8pt at 45-50 yards. He was at the end of my comfort zone and I had alot of limbs in the way so I couldn't get a shot anyway. He hung out for a couple minutes then just turned and started to cross the neighbors field. I tried grunting him back and even tried a rattling sequence to turn him, but he had other plans. 

The one deer I would've shot and I never even got a chance..... hope he stays around. Gun opens is a couple weeks. 

 🤞