Archery Season 2001!!

Myself & my Son & Brother George had done all our pre-season scouting. We had been seeing a lot of buck activity along with a very large doe herd & deer sign overall was abundant. I had Chosen to set up a groundblind on one of Georges neighbor's Property after securing permission to do so. It was Cold with temps near or just above freezing. It was about 6:15 when I entered the woods & headed to the spot where I had set up my portable groundblind. About 6:30 or so I heard a loud snort , Then I immediatly heard antlers banging not 50 yards or more away. It was an obvious buck fight!!! I thought about sneaking in for a look but decided instead I would freshen the Doe in Estraus trail I had for 2 day's pryor kept refreshing. The rut was pretty well underway now for several day's , as I had been out a few day' s before doing a rattling session to see what I could draw in & get a look at. These two bucks however were obiously bigger sounding than what I had seen pryor to hearing them this morning. Well this fight went on for about 4 mabye 5 minutes when it finally went quiet. They were so loud they had the area dogs that were outside in an uproar barking like crazy , Not to mention had my adreanilin pumping heavily already & it was not even daylight yet. About 7:30 am after not hearing anything more from the two I decided to give Rattling a try , So I took out The Can by primo's gave out 3 calls with it. It was the Doe in Estraus Bleat call tho the big one for long distance calling. About 1/2 hr went by with me hearing nothing still. I again rattled my rattle bag & gave the can a series of three calls again, This time, about 5 or so minutes later I heard a loud cracking noisi to my Right which was the direction of the hay field where I had heard the buck fight earlier . As I looked, there came from the field a real nice tall racked Buck.He was heading right towards where I had laid the doe in Estraus trail 4 a couple of day's pryor & refreshed when I first heard the fight upon comming to my blind . I had orange tags on several trees to mark off my 20 yard & 30 yard shot ranges. This buck had responded perfectly to the rattling & calling sequence I did. As the buck approached the scent trail I laid earlier his nose hit the ground & he stuck to that trail until he was right out in front of me giving me a Perfect 18 yard quartering away shot opportunity, I had already been at full draw I gave out a baat the buck stopped, looked as I let the broadhead fly it was a perfect broadside double lung hit behind the shoulder !! The buck jumped started to go I agian gave out a baat noise he stopped again looked around & started to run I again went baat he stopped again, This time I had another arrow & tried to knock it to mabye get another shot into him. But when I looked down to knock the arrow & looked back up the buck had vanished into the cut side of the hayfield, man I was shaking with excitement!!! He was a Beautiful Buck & looked to be at least an 8 point or better I walked over to where I had shot him & found my bloody arrow confirming a good hit to the bucks vitals. I got on my two way radio & Let my brother George know that I had just hit a real nice buck & explained that when I came in that I heard a buck fight . Well as it turns out my brother who was only mabye 75 yrds away from my location in a treestand had also heard the buckfight when he got in his stand before first light. I sat on a log for about another 1/2 hour before walking out into the feild & starting to look for the buck. As I watched the field I noticed a group of does heading up the treeline on the opposite side of the field mabye 6 or 7 of them. I immediatly radioed my brother & let him know that there were Does heading his way. Well about ten min later he radioed back saying they had turned at the top of the treeline & traveled along it instead of entering the wooded section he was in & all he could do was watch them trot by without a shot opportunity. He then said he'd come to my location & help me find my buck. We started out into the field I had a very good blood trail leading to the field & then nothing!! So we both assumed since I was hunting a wooded section that had a treeline leading down to & beyond another neighbors that eventually led to the Town reserviour , With fields on both side we would follow the treeline down & see if we could find anymore sign of this buck. Well after going about 100 yards we finally found good blood again where the buck had went back into the same treeline heading towards the reserviour. That part of the treeline was very thick with tangle & very hard to see & to penetrate . We decided to

go back up about 20 yards or so where he could cross over into the other field . Upon doing so we both walked along heading down we didn't walk another 30 yards & there the buck laid.!! My brother George had walked up on the buck laying right along his side of the treeline , when I got to the buck I was as amazed as him & couldn't tell who was more excited me or my brother George (he he). Anyway the buck though being hit with a perfect double lung hit managed to go another 100 something yards before laying down 4 good . It was a real Beauty! I took a chance rattling later after the fight, because it was too early before leagal shooting light too start rattling & possibly calling these deer in only to not be able to leagally shoot them had they come in. Had it been leagally daylight I would have taken a chance rattling & calling as soon as the deer were done fighting, figuring I would have nothing to lose by giving rattling & calling a chance, But because I did chance calling these deer at first light I believe is the reason I was able to have a shot at this big guy. So take a chance if ya ever come up on a similar situation you really don't have anything to lose & everything possibly to gain as I did this day !!!