It was the morning of November 10
morning of ambush hunting with my new ACS longbow. I took a bottle of
HTS or Hoosier Trapper Supply “Doe and Heat” along with me. I had the
opportunity to scout my new hunting spot the day before and found a lot of
scrapes in the area so I decided to make a mock scrape near an existing
scrape line and soaked it with HTS doe in heat. I even went to the extreme
of pressing in doe prints with a dried doe hoof that I had made just for that
purpose. I entered the woods a good half hour before legal shooting hours
and laid a line of doe in heat straight out of the bottle and led it right to the
mock scrape. I then freshened it up with a good dose of doe in heat lure.
Once I was positioned in my natural ground blind and things began to settle
down, I began to hear the all too common
was getting closer and closer. I glanced to my left at my mock scrape and
there stood a huge widespread, heavy beamed buck with his nose in the
scrape. I was unable to shoot him due to the lack of available sunlight for
my camera and I was determined to get this one on tape. Shortly after good
light I found myself surrounded by five different bucks all looking around
for a hot doe. Suddenly the silence broke as an unsuspecting doe ventured
into the area with her yearling still by her side. All the bucks immediately
began to chase her all through the woods. After a good half hour of chasing
they realized it was a false alarm and the bucks began to make their way
back to the thickets one by one. I positioned my camera where the bucks
were crossing, right into my set up! I reached back to press the record
button on the camera and when I glanced back I saw the broadside of this
nice buck at only eight to ten yards from me in plain sight. Although it was
not the bruiser I was after I decided it was too good to pass up. My heart
began to pound with excitement and my mind released
giving me the green light on a quality experience. I drew back my ACS
longbow and let the wood shaft tipped with a Zwickey
broad head fly, and fly it did as the white tipped arrow disappeared behind
the front left shoulder. After waiting a few minutes the arrow was found
still in tact and coated pink, a great sign! I began the tracking process that
lasted for only a short time as I saw the buck down. Apparently he had
expired in full flight. A true trophy was taken, “
ground