My First Crossbow Buck

I have bow hunted for many years, but only started using the crossbow about three years ago.  I had never taken an antlered buck with any bow, only does and button bucks.  That changed last year with my Parker Buck Buster.

I have a ladder stand that my dad and I welded together about ten years ago.  The ladder is black pipe and the stand is angle iron with expanded metal for a floor bolted to it.  The sides and rails were made out of the legs from an old trampoline with pipe insulation on them for silence when the gun or crossbow is laid on it for a rest.  It is ten feet tall and rests up against a huge oak tree.  The limbs come down on the left side and just over my head giving a good, shady little nook to hide in.  I have never been busted by a deer smelling me there even when the wind was blowing toward them.  Something about how the land lays that sends the scent over their heads.   There are smaller oak trees around and a small field lays behind the stand which I had planted some clover in years ago, but now is mostly grass with some weeds.  It is surrounded by blackberry briars and has a good trail coming into it at one end.  In front of the stand the ridge rises up fairly sharply and there is a 60 yard shooting lane about 10 yards wide cut through a thicket of saplings.  I have taken more deer out of this spot than any other, all of them with a bow, and all of them does.

On this particular evening the wind was up some.  Just enough to make it hard to hear anything walking.  At one point when the wind died down some I heard the unmistakable sound of briars whisking along the side of a body behind me to my left.  I eased up and turned around carefully.  A small doe stepped out right behind me and walked up beside the tree my stand is against.  I shifted my weight and the metal mesh under my feet made a slight creak.  The doe looked right up at me then ran back into the thicket, circled around into the little field and ran out the other end.  First time I had ever been seen in that stand.  I was thankful the doe had not snorted and hoped a bigger doe may come in behind it.  I waited for several minutes and then sat back down to ease up my back.  I kept my head turned listening for the slightest sound from the direction she had came.

About a half hour later I heard the same sound, but further down.  I eased up again and got turned.  It was a big bodied deer in the little field about 30 yards away.  I do not know how I did not see the antlers at first, but I did not, and assumed it was the momma of the little doe.  I brought up the crossbow and as I did, I saw the antlers then.  They were tall and went out toward his nose a good bit.  It was trotting and I put the crosshairs behind its shoulder and pulled on the trigger.  It would not fire!  Having my mind more in tune with the crossbow being, well, A BOW, I had not gotten used to the idea of a safety yet, and had forgotten to take it off.  Just as I got it off and got my eye back on the deer through the scope the buck was almost behind some brush on the other side of the clearing.  I made a fast shot at its shoulder.  I heard the hit and the deer bolted down the hill.  I thought I heard it pile up down at a branch over the bank.  I waited a bit and collected myself, then let my crossbow and other stuff down on the ropes I have for that purpose.  I got down, put everything on my ATV and went to the shop.  I called my neighbor and my two brothers to tell them the news, and asked them if they wanted to help me get it.  I told them I did not think it had went far so we shouldn�t be long.  About fifteen minutes later my two brothers showed up as did my neighbor and his cousin.  They asked how big it was, to which I responded that I knew it had a nice rack, but no idea how many points.  It was dark by this time, so we got flashlights and headed up there in a convoy of four wheelers.  We found blood at the hit and some blood down the logging road a little piece and then it stopped.  Thinking I heard it crash down next to the branch they spread out down there and looked but found nothing.  I kept looking for blood and could not find any.  I started to get depressed.  My wife yelled from the house asking if we found it, then stated she and my daughter was coming up to help.  When they arrived my German Shepherd had followed and he got to running around wanting to play with everyone.  My wife and I got into a little tiff as I got on her for bringing him and my neighbor�s cousin got a little uncomfortable as he didn�t know us well enough to know we were not really having a serious argument.  I was telling her not to move so the dog would be still for a minute and I noticed my neighbor�s cousin had stopped stock still not moving a muscle!   I got tickled at him over that and quit fussing.

We all spread out looking for blood and a few minutes later my wife found a good trail.  We all began following it.  The blood trail wound around the ridge and down to the main road.  At that point I could not go anymore so I sat on the edge of the road while my brothers and the other two guys went up the other side following blood.  My wife and daughter headed for the house and my dog and I sat there alone waiting, hoping to hear the others holler down they had found my deer.  I could see the lights going farther and farther up the mountain, and with each passing minute my heart sank more and more.  A half hour later and they still had not found it.

My dog got antsy just sitting there and I said, �Go see what they are doing.�  He took off up the mountain.  A few minutes later I heard him bark a few times and then he let out a loud yelp.  He came running back favoring a back leg.  I got him to lay down and there was a big gash on the inside of his leg.  I don�t know if the buck got him with his antlers or his hoof, but I knew my dog had found it.  I just hoped it had not took off again.

A few minutes later the guys called down to me they had found it but it was still alive.  I hobbled part of the way up, but even in my excitement couldn�t make it far.  I sat down again and waited.  Finally they shouted it had died and it was a nice ten pointer.  I was so relieved!  They came dragging it down and he was a nice, big bodied deer with the best rack I had ever taken.  Instead of hitting it behind the shoulder, however, I had hit it in the neck.

My wife brought the truck down and they loaded it up.  We took him to the shop and hung him on the pole.  Later I scored it at 152.  Virginia allows bonus points for tips that curve inward.  The closer the tips come to touching each other the more bonus points given, and they are figured by subtracting the tip to tip measurement from the inside spread.  What is left over is bonus points.  If a rack�s tips would happen to touch it would be zero minus the inside spread giving you the total inside spread as the bonus points.  Without the bonus my deer would have still scored in the high 140�s, but to be honest, I don�t mind it being 152!

I mounted the buck myself and it hangs in my shop.  It is still the biggest I have taken so far, the next in line being an eight pointer I took with my Marlin 30/30 and scores about 132.  The next buck I mount will have to be at least as big.  So that is the story of my first crossbow buck, and as such is very special to me.  It was also my first antlered buck with any type bow, and my 29th deer ever taken.  I sure appreciate that my brothers and friends retrieved the buck for me.  At times like those they come in mighty handy.