Tominator's Journal

[Tominator]

well, now that i know what this forum is all about, i guess it's time to start my journal and hope that i don't bore anyone.

since about the middle of june i've been noticing a group of about 4-6 deer hanging out in the same bean field. decided to sit out on the fence line and video them if i ever got a cool night to do so.

got my cool night around July 5th. walked out there and sat down about 10 yards away from the SW corner of the woods. i had been waiting for about 1/2 hour videoing a flicker make goo goo eyes with me, and listening to the wood thrush melody off in the woods. is there a better sounding bird? started to get harassed by skeeters and lightning bugs. lightning bugs were landing on my hat, nose and ears. they were so close and it was so peaceful i could hear their wings. how many city slickers can say that?

i turned off the video camera to conserve the battery and about 5 minutes later i heard some twigs snapping, moving fast and i figured it had to be a deer. no sooner did the camera go through its power on sequence and little mr. 4 point shows up. he came out of the SW corner of the woods, just my luck, because as soon as he stepped out he could tell that there was a 230 pound blob of Realtree sitting near his fence line. he pinned me right away and started his bobbing and weaving and stomping antics. he circled down wind and snorted and bounded off about 50 yards only to turn around and investigate for about 5 minutes. i thought to myself, "no wonder so many of these yearlings get shot, they're pretty stupid." well, after trying to figure the blob out he had enough and bounded back in the woods. i had enough of the mosquitos so i headed back. as i walked back i replayed the tape, and about half way down the fence line i heard a commotion only to see another deer running away. i switched the camera from video mode over to camera mode and videoed another little buck, this one has only two little points, a true trophy for the scrubmasters club, but just one to laugh at for me.

so ends my first journal entry.

[Tony]

no way are you boring.
thats the reason i came up with the idea for this forum .
i just thought that it would be a great way for someone to keep track of there daily hunting activities. its great to go back at the end of the season and look at all the days you hunted and how they went.
welcome aboard and i will enjoy reading your future posts.
Tony

[Tominator]

thanks tony. had a good night to scout tonight, nice and cool, but one thing led to another, family time and all. i did step out to try a new release with my Legacy, and saw a rabbit in my tomatoes. hope that booger is till around come november, then i'll cook him with some of the tomatoes he missed.

[Tominator]

i posted this story in another forum room. just wanted to get it in my journal. it's the story of my 2001 deer, which ended up scoring around 115.

after seeing around 100 deer last year in october and early november, my wife was getting a little annoyed that i wasn't taking any shots, but yet was seeing plenty of deer. i guess i've gotten pretty picky the last couple years. i just wanted a nice one, so i decided to suspend my "pope and young or better" rule because my wife was getting 'extremely pregnant' (we ended up having our 3rd son on December 20th)

i got an adjustable Woods Wise last year and had good success with it. in fact, i would credit the buck i took last year to my calling.

it was November 17th, a day before my birthday, and steve and i had just given up on his blood trail after it petered out after about a 1/2 mile of trailing. i noticed a big cedar tree had been seriously rubbed as i walked out of my morning stand hunt and decided to hunt that area for the afternoon. i got set up around 2 p.m. and after about an hour i had a doe and a fawn come over a small saddle and browse about 50 yards away from me. soon after a little 8pt came trailing her, nose to the ground. i decided to shoot him if given the chance. well i grunted, and grunted and grunted more than i normally would, but no reaction from any of the deer. my call was still set on the doe bleat from earlier in the year, and as the deer left i decided to deepen the sound of the tube as the rut was in full swing now.

about 10 minutes later a nicer 8pt came over the same saddle nose to the ground following the exact same trail. well, i wanted to see if the deeper tone would work so i grunted quite a bit to this deer too. he looked, but did not come, but the same doe that left earlier did! she was still trailering the fawn and little 8pt. what a site, i was a spectator. the big 8pt circled, caught site of the other deer and started squaring off with the little guy. as i'm sitting there watching and saying to myself "these guys are going to fight" i realized i had a perfect broadside 20 yard shot on either of the deer. the doe parked herself right under my tree looking for the big buck that she heard, or thought she heard. the doe bolted as i drew on the big guy and drilled him. he ran back up a little hill about 10 yards, and i could see that i only got about 10 inches of penetration.

i quickly started cursing the mechanicals my buddy talked me into, and watched as my arrow fell out. i was sick that i though we were going to have another long blood trail with nothing on the end of it. the shot looked like it might have been too far forward, and that maybe i hit the shoulder blade.

the buck turned to his right and headed back to where he had been shot, took 2 steps stumbled, righted himself, and stumbled again for good. he gave two big breaths and he was done. he died within about 15 seconds of the shot about 3 yards from where i shot him.

when i took out his heart the next day i saw that the spitfires did indeed open up and one blade cut the windpipe nearly in half, and one of the other blades cut the top of the heart all the way through. the right lung was toast, but the off lung was untouched. i still don't know why i didn't get a passthrough, which was a first with that bow.

hope i have a story like that this year.

[size="1"][ 10-25-2002, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: Tominator ][/size]

[Tominator]

for my 1,000th post i thought i'd post the story of the biggest buck i've ever shot. i originally wrote this story in hopes of getting it published someday, but i never had the guts to submit it. maybe someday.

anyway, here's the story if any of you care to read it. my deer ended up gross scoring 152 4/8 and netted 141 7/8.

I arrived at my friend Steve's house monday december 28 about 2 p.m. we got ready to hunt his woods, but i hadn't shot the bow too much since the season opener so we decided to take some practice shots before setting up. i took about 5 shots from various yardages and angles. all the shots were from at least 20 yards. i'm glad i decided to take some long shots that afternoon.

when we finished, we walked about 200 yards to the timber's edge. steve decided to hunt the neighbor's section of the woods about 400 yards away from me. i got set up and checked my watch, it was 3:20. it was a very nice day for late december in Ohio, about 42 degrees overcast and not much wind at all. later the woods got very still, so still i was afraid fog would roll in any minute. the hunt was turning out to be very uneventful until one of those events that bowhunters often witness happened. all at once i was surrounded by about ten different kinds of birds. nuthatches, brown creepers, downy and red bellied woodpeckers, a flicker, a titmouse, chickadees flitted, a carolina wren with its familiar song, all the while a big red tailed hawk screamed while cruising the area. i just sat and smiled in awe of it all.

the birds left around 4:30 and all was still until about 5:00 when i heard a rustling to my left. i slowly turned my head over my shoulder and there he was, walking pretty fast and scent checking the air. when i first spotted him he was about 100 yards away. i had no chance to stand at all. he was walking right at my tree. i had a little time to study his rack and my first thought was "man, he's wide." as he got closer i could see the left side of his rack was beautiful with at least one really long tine. his right side seemed to be a little weird. i could only see two points and thought "he's probably a nine point." he kept scent checking the air as he continued to walk right at me. when he closed to about 20 yards his scent checking put me in his direct line of sight and he spotted me.

i don't think he ever winded me because i was 25 to 30 feet up. i surmised he was smelling the Tinks 69 i had set out. he was not alarmed at all. he continued to check the air and try to "make" me out, and just stood there. i don't know what other bowhunters do, but i don't play stare-down with whitetails, they always seem to win. i just sat there looking away and waiting for my shot opportunity if there was going to be one. i can remember my heart pounding and being able to feel both jugulars thumping. i thought my neck was going to explode.

because this brute came in so fast, i had no chance to stand or position my bow for a shot. i got caught with my bow half way up and my release was torquing on the string. this deer was perfectly content to just sit there and wait for me to make a mistake, and i did after about five minutes of holding my bow in that awkward position. as my arm began to fatigue and tremble, my release hand torqued too hard and knocked the arrow off the rest echoing that distinctive aluminum on aluminum sound. that definitely got mr. buck's attention. i silently cursed myself and figured this deer was going to bolt, but he didn't. he just sat there and studied that big lump in that tree. out of the corner of my eye i could see him bobbing his head trying to get me to move. after about 5 minutes of this he turned to his left and started to walk away at an angle to my right. he stopped and again i torqued the arrow off the rest. i wanted to scream at my ineptitude. i closed my eyes and figured, "surely he'll bolt now." he didn't, but he started walking again in the same direction. i quickly looked for an opportunity to draw and by the Grace of God he stopped with his head and neck behind a thick maple. we was angling away and left only about three inches of ribs exposed. to make this shot even more difficult was the fact that a small sapling covered his last rib on his right side and he was about 30 yards away; a little out of my comfort zone.

auto pilot took over as i drew and weighed my options. luckily for me the big boy was content again to just stand there. i think he was trying to figure out where that doe was. i decided to aim for the three inches of lung i could see. i was actually telling myself "if i hit that sapling, i really don't deserve this deer." i settled the 30 yard pin on that last rib and let the arrow fly, then i heard that familiar thump. at the shot, the deer wheeled and ran back the way it had come. his tail was at full alert and i started to have my doubts about the shot, i checked my watch, 5:10. as i sat and wondered about the shot and how far he'd go, i began to shake uncontrollably. i'm glad i had my safety belt cinched tight or else i might have fallen out of my stand. amazing what pent up adrenaline can do.

at 5:30 i heard steve climbing down from his stand. it took him about 10 minutes to get down and start walking towards me. i hadn't seen or heard my deer during that time, but i wanted to wait another 15 minutes or so before getting down. i didn't want steve to bumble over and spook my deer any farther, so i climbed down and looked for my arrow. light was fading and as it turned out i couldn't find my arrow. i replayed the shot over and over as i sat there looking back at my tree. i looked where i thought i shot the deer and found a small spot of blood. i knew he was hit, but how bad?

by now steve was back in his field and i walked out to meet him. as i walked up to him he looked at me and said "you don't have your stand." i was practically out of breath and all i could muster was a breathy "yeah." and then it hit steve, and he said "did you get one?" again, all i could muster was "yeah." we briefly discussed the shot and the situation and decided to go back and get his coleman lantern as my flashlight wasn't doing a great job. i kept running the scenario over and over trying to convince myself it was a good shot and that he's down somewhere, we just had to find him.

we got back and picked up the blood trail. we briefly looked for my arrow, but still couldn't find it. i thought, 'from that distance, maybe it's still in the deer.' we followed the blood trail marking it with toilet paper as we went. at times it was a decent trail, at other times it was down to pin prick sized drops. after about 80 yards or so i told steve 'if we don't find him over the next 30 yards we're going to back off and pick it up in the morning.' he agreed. after that the trail started picking up and he was bleeding pretty good. i found what i thought was lung tissue, but as i picked it up and smelled it it was unmistakably stomach contents. it was then that i knew this deer was going to die, but where, and would i find him. i said a quick prayer to the good Lord that i would recover him. steve and i lost the trail 20 yards or so later. we had no choice but to come back in the morning. steve kept saying 'we'll get him, he's down.' i had my doubts.

i went home and told my wife the story. i was so keyed up i went to bed around midnight and i still didn't fall asleep easily. i don't know how many times i ran that shot over and over in my mind. to add to the restless night i woke up paralyzed at about 2:30. i thought i heard rain. i swore i heard rain on the roof. i almost cried. i couldn't believe this was happening to me. that deer was dead and now i'd never find that blood trail. i forced myself to get up and look outside, maybe it would stop soon. as i turned on the porch light i could see that the sidewalk was bone dry. again i thanked the Lord and went back to bed.

it was overcast and still not really light out at 7:30 when i headed out for steve's. i was supposed to be there at 7:30, but it was still too dark to track. when i got there steve's truck was gone. i thought "where the heck is he. he couldn't have gone to work with the tracking job we have in front of us." then i thought 'maybe he's already out there, ' so i drove back and sure enought he was. he had only been out there about five minutes and i asked him if he had found my arrow and he said no. i don't know why, but i really wanted to find that arrow. i went back to try to find it, but had no luck. steve and i picked up the blood trail and continued marking it with toilet paper. we "leap frogged" each other looking for blood. at first we only found very small drops. it was easier to follow the scuff prints the buck was leaving in the leaves. the big boy was obviously dragging at least one leg now. after another 70 yards we started finding real good blood and more stomach contents. at one point you could see where he stopped. there were two distinct pools of blood. he was bleeding from both sides.

we continued on the trail, i was following blood, steve more or less following scuff marks. we came to a spot that looked like an old dried up stream bed with about five feet of bank on either side. as i got to the bottom of the stream bed, the blood petered out again. i kind of figured after about 300 yards of bleeding he wouldn't go up that little hill, he'll walk right down that dry stream. i looked around for blood and started making small concentric circles down the stream bed. steve headed up the bank. after about three minutes of no blood, steve was still working up the bank. i thought to myself, 'what's this beginner doing?' this was steve's first blood trail. i thought, 'i've got blood down here.' so i asked him "do you have blood over there?" he said "no, but i think i'm still following his scuff marks." i shrugged it off and turned around. not 10 seconds later steve said "hey chris, here he is." as i turned around, there he was. he had walked up the creek bank in the opposite direction i was heading. i was 50 yards away but i could clearly see his wide rack (21" inside spread) protruding from the forest floor. i started thanking everyone from God to steve. i walked up to steve and startled him with a healthy smack to the back.

the deer had been hit right where i aimed, just behind the last rib on the right side. the arrow exited about 3 ribs from the back on the left side taking out the left lung. the buck field dressed at 160 pounds and because of that relatively low weight for our area, i guessed him to be 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 years old. the rut almost certainly reduced his weight too, as he was shot about a month after our typical rut time.

i'd be lying if i said i'd been hunting this deer all year, truth is, this was the first time i'd seen him. we knew there were big deer in that area. i spooked the biggest 6 pointer i've ever seen back in october from the same area. there are definitely good genetics on steve's property. truth is, a lot of luck and a little skill and persistence put this deer on the wall and in the freezer.

thanks for reading.

Here's a pic of Steve holding "Bruno"



[size="1"][ 07-24-2002, 08:52 AM: Message edited by: Tominator ][/size]

[Tony]

WHAT THE HECK ! lol.
i was just getting into your story about the big boy and you cut me off. man i got to know what happened ! please !
now on the serious side have you heard of a product called a bow holster ? it hangs from your belt and you can put your bottom wheel in it to help support the weight of your bow while waiting to make the shot.
good hunting
Tony

[Tominator]

sorry tony, i really did have to go make dinner. i finished and cleaned it up. thanks for reading

[Tony]

great story. i have been on many blood trails for myself and friends and i can tell you there is no better feeling than to hear " here he is ".
i used to live in Ohio and i hunted a lot near cambridge and the Salt Fork public hunting area.
good hunting
Tony

[Tominator]

8/6/02

as some of you know, most of the country east of the mississippi got a nice shot of cool weather the other day. i told my son we should go out and look for some deer, well, he was all for that because he's been kind of bugging me to go hunting. i've been seeing 2 or 3 deer in this particular field every night, so i figured we'll sneak out there and hopefully something will show. well, when we go there, there was already an nice 8pt in the field about 800 yards away. we decided to hit the tree line and put the sneak on. i had my decoy and it seemed to relax the buck. we got within about 200yards and sat down. long story short, we saw a total of 10 deer. 2 bucks behind us a 7pt and the 8pt we saw from the truck (which will come close to P & Y) both of them got within about 70 yards before walking off, 2 bucks in an adjacent field. one of the bucks was a shooter for me, he will score about 140 non-typical, he had 4pts on the left side and a huge split brow tine about 14 inches long with his main beam being around 17 inches with 2 points coming up; it almost look like he had 2 main beams. the other deer we saw were does and little fawns. the big buck and a doe got within 40 yards, and i videoed the whole thing.

i thought i got pretty lucky for the first time taking my son out like that. it could've been a lot worse. i may have spoiled him

[Tominator]

opening day 2002. 54 cloudy, last quarter, tropical storm lili came through yesterday dumping .5 inch of rain.

went to steve's, sat in the bruno tree. after getting all hooked up, turned around, sat down to pull up the bow and heard a deer. deer came 15 yards in front of the stand. stopped when it got to my trail, stopped, turned around walked off. couldn't tell if it was a buck, too dark, but it acted like one.

nothing happened until 7:30, had a coon sneak up on me, ground is soft so couldn't hear anything until they were right on you. coon walked right under my stand. tried to hit him with a gob of spit. missed by about 2 inches. coon sniffed spit and walked on. coon walked right by steve too.

7:45 button buck came from the east. put the release on until i saw that it was a button buck, let him walk. 10 minutes later a wave of 5 deer all came through from the south. they all milled about and wandered towards steve. tried the can call and grunting, interested them, but did not come to it.

8:30 something spooked them and they came running back and past me. tried the can a couple times, but they kept going. saw them walk up steve's neighbor's field. i think a skunk spooked them.

button buck kept milling around the whole time. got down at 9:30 finally chasing the button off.

good first hunt of the season. heading to Hendren's tonight. taking a kid hunting.

[Tominator]

oct5, evening, waning crescent, 59 degrees, sunny, calm winds

went to a new spot and had intended to take a kid hunting with me and found out he got pretty banged up in his JV football game so i went alone. at 6:45 i had 5 deer burst out of a tree line and start walking across the hay field. 3 fawns, a yearling doe and big momma bringing up the rear. the 3 fawns entered the woods right below me and the yearling followed. at 12 yards the Legacy zipped a thunderhead 100 right through the rib cage. one of the fawns sat and looked out in the field for 10 minutes trying to figure out what happened.

i was literally giggling in my stand because that Legacy was so quiet and effective.

[Tominator]

sunday, oct 6. windy, mostly sunny, waning crescent, about 65 degrees

got set up at 5:30

i saw 7 deer, had a nice fat doe broadside.

once the doe wandered in the field i used the can call just to see her reaction. she picked up her head, but didn't do anything for about 5 minutes. then she abruptly turned around and came back into the woods ears forward looking for whatever made the sound. she looked really pensive, like nervous she couldn't find the source of the sound.

she wandered back out to the field and again i hit the can, and she came back again! pretty funny. this time she walked in a couple circles looking really nervous again. after about 5 more minutes of walking around, she butted her fawn out into the field and the wandered off.

pretty effective call i'd say.

spooked one going out after picking up dustin. didn't see if it was a buck or not. pretty loud like a doe though.

[Tominator]

10/11, first quarter, wind from the north at 10mph, warm, too warm, about 69.

God bless my wife, she took the kids tonight, got off work early so that i could go hunting.

as i was walking in i spooked a little 8 pt out of his bed. it was warm tonight, a little too warm for me, but after about 10 minutes of nothing i saw a turkey vulture circling. this vulture attempted a landing on a dead tree about 50 yards away. he tried to land on a branch that was about 4 inches in diameter and about 10 feet long. well it broke off on him as he tried to land and that log came crashing down from about 40 feet. what a racket that was.

i'm glad i watched the whole thing because that crash would've scared me right out of the tree had i not seen it.

nothing else happened except for being serenaded by the katydids and tree frogs.

[Tominator]

10/12 still too warm, too warm for a morning hunt. went to hendren's, steve went with me. i put him in the stand where i shot the doe last week. we should've gone to the north lot instead of the south lot. didn't see squat.

saturday night, wife was late getting home so i got a late start. checked out the east field at hendren's. great ground blind potential, but that's about it, no good trees for a stand. wandered over to the north woods. sweating like a pig. saw two about 200 yards off to the northwest. never even got close.

went to rick's for dinner sunday night so no hunting sunday.

could sum up the weekend's hunt in one word: SUCKED [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

oh well, a little balance i guess.

[Tominator]

took the kids over to cloise's and set up a stand in the northeast corner of his field. mrs. gary's field has corn in it this year.

came back to the stand and started at 6:30. a day or so past first quarter beautiful evening, cool, light wind, switching though, mostly out of the east, not the greatest wind for that stand, should've waited. didn't see anything until almost quitting time. heard what i thought was a neighbor to the north cutting brush, was actually a deer coming through the corn. i'm pretty sure it was a buck, i could hear it knocking over corn. it trotted the whole time, jumped the fence and kept going towards the south. i never saw it.

wonder how big it was. i'll never know for sure.

deer total for 2002 stands at 26.