Got home at midnight with grandson Cody's buck

[Okanagan]

Grandson Cody phoned last evening just before dark.  Grin in his voice. He had a buck down.  Two of his brothers and I arrived at the locked gate where he was parked within a minute of each other.   The buck was 300 yards off the end of a logging road, 1 1/2 miles behind a locked gate.  We hiked in to Cody and the deer and his uncle came in a bit later with a two wheeled game cart.  Overkill on muscle and fun with the boys.



He shot it in the last few minutes of legal light on the last day he can hunt deer due to work.  Opening day for bow season was Sept. 1. He had passed at least four deer by last evening and passed his first chance at this buck.   He listened to it feed through thick brush for an hour before it came into the open within bow range of his tree stand.  He knew there was a slightly bigger buck in the area and could hear another deer feeding, so didn't shoot.  It went out of sight and lay down, and as evening approached, he decided that with no more time to hunt deer, he would shoot it if it showed up again.  He knew that it was an older buck, not a 2 or 3 year old.

It got up and fed into the open again before the end of legal shooting time.  He shot it at 20 yards as it faced him.  He hit it high in the neck, sort of its Adam's apple and it dropped on the spot.  The arrow angled down and back through the length of the neck into the chest cavity and must have hit spine somewhere.  Cody removed the guts but left the lungs and heart till he got it home and hanging in good light.  We were all concerned that he was going to cut himself on the broadhead which is lodged somewhere in there.  The arrow shaft broke off.

Blacktails are generally not big deer but this one is a fat old boy, large body.  He has very large gnarly bases, bigger than appear in this photo, and not much for antlers.  He is a good one to remove from the gene pool, and a dandy to take in the last few minutes of his hunt.

[JohnP]

Nice buck and the bases sure do look big and gnarly.  Question for you, you stated he left the lungs and heart till he got it home and hanging in good light.  I have never ate lungs, how are they prepared and did he not take the liver?  At any rate tell him there is an old soldier out here in the desert that said congratulations.

[remrogers]

That is a nice blacktail. Tell him congratulations!

[pitw]

Dang, I would quit hunting with someone who makes me walk miles to the kill.  Good job on the buck Cody

[Okanagan]

Nice buck and the bases sure do look big and gnarly.  Question for you, you stated he left the lungs and heart till he got it home and hanging in good light.  I have never ate lungs, how are they prepared and did he not take the liver?  At any rate tell him there is an old soldier out here in the desert that said congratulations.

John, I've never eaten lungs.  I don't think Cody planned to eat them.  I've never heard of leaving lungs in when gutting but I urged him to leave them in till he had a better place to work on the deer, because of the scalpel sharp broadhead lodged somewhere in the front end of the buck.  It was dusty and we had to drag it to the road.  We didn't want to open it up much and reaching into the chest cavity by feel seemed like a recipe for a bad cut on hand or fingers.

We didn't take the liver.  I love deer liver, but Cody and the others not so much.  I had a really bad tasting one a few years ago from a whitetail that looked healthy as can be, and have never quite gotten over the memory of that bad taste. I almost put it in a bag and brought it home last night but didn't.

[Hawks Feather]

Tell him congratulations on a fine looking buck.

[riverboss]

Congratulations on a fine hunt and harvest!

Sent from my Vivo XI using Tapatalk

[coyote101]

Congratulations Cody.  That's a beauty and any deer taken with a bow is a trophy. 

Pat