Buck by a String

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="088085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Saskatchewan Trophy Hunts</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Saskatchewan Trophy Hunts"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gone Western"><U>Gone Western</U></A>   |   <B>Buck by a String</B>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Unbelievable Season"><U>The Unbelievable Season</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Quest"><U>The Quest</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Rock King"><U>The Rock King</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="One Great Week"><U>One Great Week</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Canadian Bacon"><U>Canadian Bacon</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ramblings From a Man"><U>Ramblings From a Man</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Oklahomas OK"><U>Oklahoma's OK</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Buddys Buck"><U>My Buddy's Buck</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hunting the August Rut"><U>Hunting the August Rut</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Challenge"><U>The Challenge</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Still Rambling"><U>Still Rambling</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Changing Tactics"><U>Changing Tactics</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Blue Bulls of the Wild Horse Desert"><U>Blue Bulls of the Wild Horse Desert</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bowhunters Heaven"><U>Bowhunter's Heaven</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="089d2e83.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hunting Articles"><U><B>Back to Hunting articles</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Andys Photo Album"><U><B>Back to Andy's photo album</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="08a07073.jpg"> <div> <I>Buck by a String</I></div> <div> January / February 1994 Texas Trophy Hunter Magazine.  </div> <div> Also Lone Star Bowhunter Magazine January / February 1994</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="12b2d950.jpg" border=0 width="557" height="405" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> BUCK BY A STRING</div> <div> As I watched my daughter board the plane to Houston from San Antonio my mind went into overdrive. For many years now I have been making an annual pilgrimage to South Texas for a couple of weeks of excitement in the land of big bucks. I had planned this hunt to occur while my little girl spent the Christmas holiday with her mother.</div> <div> The ranch I would be hunting this year was new to me. It was being managed exclusively for bowhunting by my good friend Bobby Horton. Being located in Lasalle County I knew it had potential to produce some very good trophy's.</div> <div> Priorities had limited my hunting to zero for the month of November. (something which has not happened to me in twenty years) I have been an avid bowhunter since arrowing my first buck at fifteen years of age. Despite the fact that I had taken a nice buck in October which narrowly missed the Pope and Young minimum's after deductions, the layoff had me even more then my usual antsy to be back in the brush.</div> <div> The date was December 19th and the rut should be in full swing. Even my neck seemed to be swelling a bit. I had spent a brief period of 24 hours, (my first time on the ranch) the previous weekend scouting the area I would be hunting, building blinds, cutting shooting lanes etc.. I had attempted to hurriedly set up blinds to hunt on either northerly or southerly winds. While scouting I had located a good rub and scrape line running adjacent to a creek which bordered a large field. Setting a blind for North wind had been a simple matter due to a massive oak growing on the creek bank just south of a point where the rub and scrape line intersected the creek. I clamped on one of my homemade treestands and bowholders, trimmed some branches and was ready to go. I immediately had a great feeling about this spot. It is extremely unusual in south Texas to be perched in a tree some thirty feet of the ground. I was not so successful trying to locate a spot for south winds. I found a spot which looked promising near what appeared to be a primary scrape but after spending hours working on a pit blind, I spotted</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 2</div> <div> five different bucks directly south of the blind as I made my exit. This had me worried that the bucks would easily wind me as they traveled through this area. I was out of time and had no choice but to play it by ear from there.</div> <div> Naturally, the first day of my hunt which was booked for ten days, was warm with a south wind. Since I was suspect of the location of the pit blind which was only a couple of hundred yards from the tree blind I had erected for North winds, I elected to stay out of the area completely until the wind changed. There was a spot on the edge of my area where the fence made a 90<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >°</FONT> turn and should funnel the deer around it and would work well with a south wind without affecting my other spots. I set up a quick temporary blind in the dark, set my bow in my portable holder and set back to wait. Just after daylight I did some rattling then followed a few moments later with a few grunts. Approximately twenty minutes later I spotted movement, then made out a buck headed in my direction. I grasped my bow to prepare for a shot but as he came in decided he was not what I was looking for. He was a very unusual buck. His back leg appeared to have been shot off some time years ago and due to this had a normal 4 points on the side with the bad leg but the other side, also with 4 points grew in a downward direction.</div> <div> Unfortunately I had used the fanny pack normally reserved for my camera to carry my portable bow holder.</div> <div> I had invited two buddies to accompany on the first weekend of my hunt. One was my business partner and hunting companion Gary Vaughn who had filled all his tags after an outstanding year of bowhunting. The other, James Lucas was a friend who was interested in taking up the sport and joined us to learn as much as possible about scouting and hunting whitetail's with a bow.</div> <div> Back at camp after the morning hunt while checking my equipment and telling my buddies about the non-typical I had seen, James asked Gary about the release aid which I had strapped to my</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 3</div> <div> bow. Gary showed him how it clipped onto the string and then released when the trigger was pulled. I can not describe the horrified look on Gary's face when the trigger mechanism broke and fell out. He immediately began defending himself saying that it wasn't his fault. Fortunately I was able to laugh at this and told him I never left home without a spare. To say the least he was quite relieved.</div> <div> That afternoon I went to the temporary blind I had put up that morning but it turned out to be an uneventful hunt due to unstable wind conditions. A northern was reported to be on the way so I was hopeful that conditions would improve soon.</div> <div> I was up at 5 am but the wind was still from the south so</div> <div> I decided to hunt the temporary ground blind once again and returned to the camper for more coffee. An hour later, as I was loading gear onto my mountain bike to head out the wind made an abrupt turn around and began blowing in from the north with light rain mixed in. I quickly decided to change plans and donned my polar fleece clothing in anticipation of a cool, wet morning.</div> <div> By the time I got settled into the tree blind the wind had picked up dramatically and as daylight came I was able to make out sheets of rain moving horizontally across the brush. The treetop I was situated in was kicking back and forth like a bronco and I was holding on for DEER life.</div> <div> Around 9:30 the wind began to settle somewhat and I was able to release the death grip on the tree which I had maintained all morning. Although the wind was not so unbearable, it was quite cold and my gloves, hat and neck were soaked. I had spare gloves and a stocking cap in my backpack, which helped, but in my early morning haste I had neglected to put on anything under the polar fleece for warmth. I was chilled to the bone but determined to stay put as long as possible. By 10:30 I could take no more. Deer movement had been great all morning despite the inclement weather but visions of hot coffee and dry clothes were finally dwindling my persistence</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 4</div> <div> As I prepared to leave the blind I realized that I had not dropped a string for lowering my bow. There was a string tied to the bottom of my clamp on so I loosened it and dropped it down. To my dismay it only reached about half way to the ground.</div> <div> I stepped out onto the tree, set my bow in the seat of the blind and attempted to untie the string from the base of the blind with my chilled hands and after several minutes of fumbling, plucked a broadhead tipped arrow from my quiver and cut it. I then took several steps down the tree and tried again but again it was to short. As I stood pondering this I caught movement below and saw a doe run through the area beneath my blind. Not far behind was a good buck in hot pursuit. I glanced up at the bow laying across the seat of my blind, then back at the buck and doe playing chase. The buck decided to take a break and eat some of the corn I had scattered beneath the blind. I could make out eleven solid points and just a bump where the twelfth should have been. Now I was thankful for the gusts of wind which helped cover the noise and movement required as I eased back into the seat of the blind. It was now that I realized that in the predawn darkness I had thrown the corn in a location that provided no possibility of a shot. My only chance was to catch him leaving.</div> <div> He suddenly must have remembered the doe and ran out to locate her, passing through my shooting lane so quickly that I could not get a shot off. Luckily, once he located her he returned</div> <div> to grab a few more bites. I stood, leaned out, and even stepped down a step out of the blind.... no way, I simply could not take a shot where he was feeding. I decided to try to get a picture and began trying to dig my camera out of my fanny pack but no sooner than I did he started to leave again. In near panic I shoved the camera back, grabbed my bow off the holder and came to full draw. This time when he passed through my shooting lane I was able to make my shot. The arrow placement appeared to be perfect. The buck ran south down the creek and camp was north so I scampered down the tree and via my mountain bike</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 5</div> <div> was back in camp drinking that hot coffee 10 minutes later. After the customary 30 minute waiting period we set out to trail my buck. When we were about 40 yards from the blind Bobby commented that we would not have to much trouble trailing this deer. When I asked what he was talking about he pointed towards the brush about 50 yards to the south of my blind and there he lay. He had a typical 12 point frame with a kicker on one back tine. Unfortunately, he just missed Pope & Young minimum's but was still an outstanding trophy to this bowhunter.</div> <div> You know I never did get that string lowered.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> By Andy & Mary Milam</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>