Sunday morning was a fun one. I hunt a great spot in western IN and have a stand right in the middle of the action during the rut. The tree I sit has a neighboring cedar tree that is always rubbed and inevitably has a scrape under it somewhere.

As I settled in, the sun was rising behind me and the woods looked like they lit up. A good south wind blew my scent over the marsh and lake to my right. About 9:30, 2 does walked over the ridge in front of me and off to my left on a trail about 40 yards away offering no shots. I imagined a buck would soon be following. Less than 5 minutes later a small buck did just that. And 2 minutes later, another larger one followed. I decided I was watching the wrong trail 😊

I got down and stood/knelt by the largest tree (maybe 8”), near the trail in my leafy suit. 2 minutes later the does worked back the way they had come originally. The bigger one sort of saw me and veered off but then calmed down and gave me a 20-yard broadside shot; but an unperceived rose bush swallowed up my shot. Tunnel vision! Just no actual tunnel. The does ran off snorting the whole way. I am sure there was no damage done to them.

I was smart enough to think that a buck would be following, and no sooner had I thought that, a buck grunt came from down the trail. I knelt and became as small as I could with almost no cover. He worked his way right at me and 5 yards away decided this bush looked weird and he about-faced. But he came across that luscious doe smell and continued dogging her. He got to the one window I had at 15 yards and I bleated him to stop. The shot looked great, a bit high but in the goodies. I heard what sounded like a crash not 50 yards away.

I gave it 30 minutes and quickly came upon my arrow. It had blown through him and was painted red. I started trailing and found no blood the first 10 yards or so. A large log laid across the trail and I stood on it to get a higher vantage point and see the lovely site of a dead deer where I thought I heard the crash. He ran maybe 50 yards total with blood starting at 20 yards due to the high hit. The hit got the back of both lungs and a bit of the liver.

It was the second buck I saw dogging the does in the first place. He is my first buck from the ground with a recurve. I am very happy with him and so impressed with the efficiency of a heavy arrow out of a trad bow. I shot him with my Sierra Blanca bow from the 2012 TradGang Swap that Jess Stuart made for me. It’s 47# @ 27” shooting a GoldTip blem and a Ribtek 190.