Hunting at The Hackberry Ranch

Brett's First Bow Kill

Brett put some meat into the Zogas freezer this weekend, which is more than dad can claim. The scene began Friday evening at the box blind when we saw a few nice bucks come in at dusk. I thought there were two eight pointers, but Brett swore that there was actually a third deer that was a 9. All of them were nice bucks, but none of them really got into position for Brett to shoot. We left the blind a little frustrated that evening.

We hunted the same blind on Saturday evening. This time I had the video camera as I was convinced that it was going to be Brett's night. The Ameristep Intimidator blind that we set up a few weeks ago actually has little video camera ports that are at knee height and very convenient for the job. We were ready for the boys to come back. After watching a doe for a while, a nice buck came in. Sure enough, Brett had been right because this guy had nine points. He hung around quite a bit, but just as Brett pulled back, the buck spotted the action and ran off. Brett was pissed as he let down on the bow. The buck stayed at about 50 yards and studied the scene, but slowly walked off. So far, I'm impressed with the scent-free clothing and believe it's because of this (and the wind) that we are not getting busted by smell.

The doe returned shortly and Brett had to settle for her. She jumped the string as can be seen in the video, and the shot ended up hitting her in the hind leg. The interesting thing is that the shot put her down after she hobbled for about ten feet. When I deboned the meat, I found that the arrow actually cut right through the femar bone and hit the artery. Not textbook, but we have the meat to complete the hunt.

If I can figure it out, I'll post the pics (vidoe grabs) of the buck and the doe.