chuckslife: 2018

This entire deer season has been a series of bad luck ventures. I had already missed 4 deer with 3 different firearms and I was beginning to wonder if I had lost it...you know...lost my touch. Well, I may have... I know I cannot hear deer coming through the woods anymore, due to serious hearing loss, and I tend to have more shaking from the adrenaline rush than I used to, and I also know that my confidence with my firearms is at an all-time low...BUT, I also know that my confidence in this crossbow has grown exponentially. This is the first deer I have taken with a crossbow that was given to our Osborne clan from Uncle Paul Yarger, who donated it to all of us to use and have fun with. With nobody claiming it yet... I decided to get it into the woods.

So this adventure started at JFM (my church), in a conversation with my good friend, Billy Cryderman. He convinced me that tonight, (Dec. 30, 2018), was going to be a good night to be in the woods, so I decided I was going to hunt (God Thing #1-Going out hunting in the first place...this late in the season) and we agreed to let each other know if anything developed. So, when this happened, he was among the first to know...and was eventually part of the celebration party that followed.

Choosing a stand is always a tough decision, since Murphy's law is a very close and dear friend that I deal with often. I chose a stand I had already missed 2 deer in previously this season (God Thing #2 - This is a stand I felt jinxed in and had definitely smelled the woods up and had a lot of bad luck here over the past 2 months or more)... but I figured my chances were the highest at this stand for seeing deer on any given night. We have had good history from past years at this stand too, and very seldom do we get skunked. My largest buck so far came from this same stand back in 2010, and Zack got his first deer in this stand, and all of us have seen bucks at this stand...one of which is the biggest buck Zack has ever seen while in the woods, and numerous other encounters with deer. So, this was the place to be.

It was just about sunset and I had not seen or heard a thing, except for a boatload of squirrels making a lot of noise in the crunchy frozen leaves around me. Of course, every louder-than-usual crunchy sound had to be investigated to make sure it could not be deer. It was all squirrels at the moment.

Ten minutes after sunset, I was fighting off a scratchy throat that was causing me to gag, then choke, then almost cry while trying not to cough. I have been fighting this all season. It got the best of me before I could get a cough drop from my pocket and all of a sudden, I am coughing into my sleeve to try and muffle the sound....while I am sure that every deer within 200 yards is running the other direction. I almost got down from the stand and called it another bad experience in the woods....but decided to stick it out for another 20 minutes til dark.

Four minutes later I hear crunching through the woods.... loud crunching. Now, you need to know, Caleb was also in the woods tonight and hunting behind the house and behind where I was currently sitting, and he had told me that if he wasn't seeing anything, he might get up and still hunt into the wind....which would be directly my way. So, knowing that, I thought for sure all this noise coming my way had to be Caleb...or maybe even a group of people taking a hike. I seriously could not believe what I was seeing when it was a deer making all this noise and coming my way (God Thing #3-seeing any form of deer after all the noise I had just made coughing). And like I said earlier, I don't hear deer coming through the woods anymore.... I have to SEE them... but I could not help but hear this deer coming from a long ways off (God Thing #4).

So, as soon as I realized this was a deer coming my way, I also caught site of a rack. Oh man.... I immediately said thank you God, and ask that He would help me not mess this one up, like the other four I mentioned earlier. I slowly pulled the crossbow up and got him in my sights and kept my eye out for an opening, since he was coming through some fairly thick brush and my shooting lane was not much of a lane at all, but was grown in quite a bit. (yes, I need to do some serious trimming of my shooting lanes before next year). But, he was heading the direction of a shooting lane, so this is good... and at the same time I am seeing that he is definitely a shooter, as I am able to see the rack better as he clears the thick brush. Yes, my adrenaline is kicking in pretty good right now, but one thing I make myself not do at this point is to study the rack... in fact, I will intentionally try not to look at the rack.

Just before he got to the shooting lane, I believe I must have instinctively let out a "baaahhh" to get him to stop, but in hindsight I actually did it about 2 or 3 steps too early, because he was not quite to the shooting lane (as you can see in the series of pictures I posted). So as I am looking through the scope, I am seeing a somewhat clear shot at his vitals and he is stopped....and I decide to take the shot. I pull the trigger....and nothing...my safety is still on. (I quickly dog myself mentally, ..."Smith...you turkey butt...you did it again...you screwed up yet another opportunity...I cannot believe it"). So, I am now in a hurry to get a shot off, so I quickly release the safety which makes a very loud and pronounced "click", (I dog myself again), and now he is at full alert and looking straight at me. I still have his boilermaker in my sights, and he has not yet bolted... so I squeeze the trigger again.

(Commercial) Geiko or a Car Company

The way he jumped and then immediately ran in a stumbling and jerky manner that deer will do when they have been hit with an arrow, gave me a good feeling inside that I had not had in a while. I knew he was hit...but then I found the doubt and questioning set in and I started wondering if the shot hit the vitals...or not. Was the shot good enough to put him down or have I just created the beginnings of a long blood trailing? Well, I needed to wait for at least a half hour before I got down from my stand to check things out, so I quickly and quietly re-cocked the cross bow, and got another bolt loaded. I might be needing a second shot on this guy...but hey...there was also about 15 to 20 minutes of light left and I would love to fill another tag of my remaining two tags. It could happen.........

But didn't.

I got down from my stand 10 minutes after dark and slowly prepared myself for tracking or blood trailing, all the time keeping my ears as attentive as possible to any movement or noise in the direction he had run. I went up the shooting lane to where he had been standing and looked for blood and for my bolt. I found neither after looking for 10 to 15 minutes. I decided to slowly head the direction he had run and search for blood. I did not have to go very far before I found some. I have a picture of the first blood I found. It made me cringe and I dogged myself again. If you are a hunter, you will know that good blood trails should have "clean blood"...meaning just blood coming out of the wound, hopefully from the heart or lungs. If you find blood looking like the picture below, you would think it is coming from somewhere in the back half of the deer, or the gut area, and it will have "stuff" in it...which can be from intestines and other organs in the gut section of the deer. So, my first blood was not looking so good. I sat there and reviewed the situation for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. Bad blood like what I was looking at usually meant it was time to leave the woods quietly and let the deer lay down and die without being spooked....and then you come back several hours later and resume the blood trailing. I am telling you all of this to help you understand God Thing #5. During my review of the situation, I decided that I needed some more food for thought, some more blood to compare with the drip I was looking at, and to see if it got any heavier. I also remembered that the noise of his crashing through the woods after being hit had not gone on and on in the crunchy frozen leaves like I had heard when I had first seen him...so maybe he had not gone very far. But, that could be a bad thing if the shot is not good. That means he will get up and run again. Anyway, you get the point. I deliberated for a few minutes and finally decided to keep on looking and see what was on up the blood trail.

I am so glad I decided to keep on looking, because the blood trail increased quickly and also did not show signs of a gut shot. I was not only hopeful, but was getting pretty excited.

I didn't have to look very long or go very far. 30 or 40 yards on up the blood trail from where I had decided to keep looking was where I found him. Finding a deer at the end of a blood trail is always so rewarding and fulfilling. It doesn't get old. I think some of my Indian blood and love for the outdoors and respect for the animal always comes out at this very point. It's not outward and you can't hear it, but inwardly I am always thanking God for the gift, the success, and I actually appreciate the animal for a few moments. I have heard of other hunters who do the same thing which is why I love the last picture I have included below.

This is where the story gets the most fun for me. I took a selfie with the deer and sent it to my family announcing the news and saying, "Finally". For some reason they could not believe it...but the picture was convincing, so they ask where I was. 5 minutes later I hear and see my family coming through the woods in a flashlight parade. It was great! I did not expect such excitement from them, but I guess it had been a while since I had harvested anything real exciting (8 years to be exact), so yea...I see why they were surprised...and excited.

We proceeded to capture the moment with the retelling of the story and taking several pics. Their excitement really made it special for me...and I really appreciate the fact that they were all home and able to be part of the celebration. (I have included a few retro pics showing family photos from past celebrations)

I then immediately called my good friend Billy Cryderman to let him know how my evening had gone. He didn't answer, so I left a message. Unbeknownst to me, he already knew about it anyway. Zack had immediately called Aaron Cryderman and let him know about it...and Aaron was already on his way out to see it (Thanks Aaron for your vicarious excitement too!) Aaron must have told his Dad about it because he already knew, and then come to find out, Rene' invited them out for pizza to help celebrate along with us. So, it became a party. In hindsight, I regret not getting a picture with these special friends who helped make the evening so memorable....so, thanks so much to all 3 of you Cryderman's! (FYI - if you check out my facebook picture album entitled "Outdoorsy Pics", you will see Billy and Aaron in there quite a few times. Our family history has quite a few celebrations together over the years!)

Caleb stuck around to help me field dress the buck while the rest of my family took the shortcut through the woods back to their vehicle (ha...ha...) I accidentally sent them on an "easier way back to the van" that got them lost in the woods for a while. (so sorry family...)

The next day, Jerome Country Market got $80 from me to process the meat. (I am really cheap when it comes to deer processing, and it kills me to pay that much). I kept the rack, of course, but sent the rest of the head to the DNR for voluntary cooperation for CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) testing. It came back negative and also let me know that he was 2 and a half years old.

So, why do I believe this was a Godsent Buck. Because of the number of "coincidences" that came together to allow such an experience to occur. It was a total package of events that just left me feeling thankful, blessed, appreciative, relieved, excited, amazed, surprised, and in the end...just downright overwhelmed by it all. To some, this would just be a series of lucky happenings that ended with a deer. It was so much more than that. Memories of the entire season, culminating in a beautiful evening in the woods, with family and friends that I will treasure for years to come.

(You may ask....why do you write these hunting stories out? Well, I want to preserve the experience, and try to capture the moments on some of these that are more exciting. These are some great memories of times in the woods that I can tell my grandkids about someday and I guarantee if I don't write them down and try to capture some of my thoughts and emotions...I will not remember most of it. So...that is why I write it all out. Sorry to bore you with all the details...but, if you made it this far you must be a little bit like me and able to appreciate the details)

(Selfie pic I sent my family announcing the news....saying, "Finally")

First deer with a crossbow.... and the biggest rack for me thus far

(pic of my kids and I...like the old days...)

(pic of the heart...showing the broadhead hole)

(first blood drop)

(looking from the tree stand the next day, down the shooting lane. the small orange dot is where I found the bolt (arrow), which shows the path of the arrow in the pictures below...through the brush and trees)