Tall Tined 10 pointer

Justin Fitchett was hunting in Clarke County, Va on October 15^th on a property that had multiple shooters on trail cameras in the late summer. He had hunted the property 3 times prior to that morning and saw does and small bucks slowly moving through and feeding on white oak acorns. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week prior he had climbed down from his stand at 9:45am and later that day his dad sent a trail cam picture with a shooter buck that had entered the woodlot at 9:30am just 150 yards from Justins stand.   There were also two shooters on the same camera right at daylight that following week so on the 15^th Justin climbed a tree in his lone wolf stand 30 yards from that camera.  

On the way into the stand location before daylight Justin heard deer running through the thicket and a buck grunting but they crossed the road and headed into a neighbor’s property.  15 minutes after daylight he heard a second buck grunting in the thicket 75 yards from him, the Mid-October cold front had bucks moving.  Over the next hour and a half Justin had 3 small bucks and several does within bow range.  He had to work that morning so checked his maps app and saw with traffic he was already going to be 45 minutes late but decided to give it another 15-30 minutes.  With all the grunting he heard that morning he decided to rattle did a 30 second rattling session.  10 minutes went by and he heard something behind him to his right and turned to see a racked buck 25 yards and closing.  As soon as he spotted the buck it went behind a small tree with a decent amount of leaves so Justin took a chance and stood and turned to prep for a shot.  The buck looked like a nice 8 point that was a shooter for mid-October bow season, when he stepped out from behind the tree before Justin could draw back he realized it was a tall tine 10pt.  The buck kept walking in and Justin only had one 6” diameter tree between himself and the buck that would allow him to draw back unseen.  As soon as the buck went behind the tree Justin drew back and was surprised the buck didn’t catch his movement.  He lowered the pin behind the shoulder and took extra time to settle the pin perfectly and pulled the trigger.  He thought he saw the arrow pass through right behind the shoulder, the buck bounded away as Justin fist pumped aggressively and almost forgot to keep watching the buck.  He caught a glimpse of the buck standing at 60 yards in the thicket and then disappeared.  He texted a few people that he’d just smoked a 10 point and after 15 minutes he climbed down to look for his arrow and immediately smelled a gut shot deer.  He found his arrow and there was a little blood but was mostly covered in green intestines.  He followed the buck’s path for 40 yards and only found a few tiny specs of blood so he backed out.  He was 97% certain the arrow went in directly behind the shoulder but with the slightly quartering-to shot angle he hoped it exited through the gut and the exit hole was blocked.  He planned to come back that evening after work and continue to track the buck until it started to lightly rain right before he drove off.  With the possibility of rain washing away any blood he decided to follow the trail for 100 yards and see if the exit opened or cavity filled up and the buck started bleeding heavier.  On the track he found very little blood for about 70 yards and then found a spot where the buck stopped and there were large pools of blood in 3 spots. 

He decided he was right about the shot placement and the exit being blocked and decided to continue the track.  He followed decent blood for another 80 yards and walked up on the biggest buck he’d ever harvested, a heavy, tall tined 10 pointer with a massive rage entry hole in the perfect location.