Haven't been hunting until today due to my knees and then injuring my back a couple weeks ago.

Georgia's archery season opened a month ago. Muzzleloader season is underway this week...so I had to wear orange. (Firearms season opens this coming Saturday Oct 18th.)

I had some stand locations picked out and rode the ebike into one with a Summit climber this afternoon. Got climbed up by 1630 hrs. At 1745 a spike loped by with mouth open...he came in one end of opening and went out the other end. My wind was right...so don't know what he was doing. But our rut is underway.

At sundown I heard a stick break and this good 8pt was approaching. I put one arrow thru him at 22 yds. He leaped about 15yds, stopped with blood draining out of him.....took about three more steps and toppled. He was stinky rutty smelling. My shot was at a steep angle and I hit lower than I was anticipating, but his heart was centered.

He is one of the better bucks Ive been getting pics of lately.

Awesome!!! That's a real nice deer!!!!

.. good deal uncl Swamp

… it better not have been after shooting hour lol

.. some of my best bow kill bucks got centered up in sight gaurd as it was too late to see the pins lol

Had plenty of light. It was about 10 min after legal sunset...so, had 20 more minutes of legal light.

I have arrowed a couple over the years by centering them in the sight housing and feeling that anchor point was right.

… yessir… killed plenty when most would be walking back to the truck

Yessir....I always sit until legal light is all used up.

Happiness is a bloody arrow!

… you got him iced down?

… I asked you a question… and I expect an answer… if you cooperate with me that’ll go along way with how this plays out

Right on Swamp!

I carried that one to the deer cooler. Friend owns it. Will go back there tommorrow and de-bone.

…. I liked it better when y’all were feuding lol

… I was friends with two brothers that had a cooler in town … they went out of business and took back welding… it was nice while it lasted

Im about too old and kinked up to skin and de-bone..then get to bed well after midnight....lol

Very nice!

Heck yeah! Great job.

Great buck Mr. Swamp. Congrats

Congratulations. That's a good one.

Nice deer.

Very nice. Great buck!

Good deal. Congrats

Congratulations! Awesome bow kill.

Very nice

Congrats

Nice buck.

Good job with that bow Uncle Swamp!

Nice buck

Good job

Public land or Georgia make you wear orange any time gun season is open regardless?

Nice buck. Im jealous cause I aint even seen a deer yet!

Georgia requires orange during muzzleloader and modern firearms season, regardless if you're bowhunting.
This buck was kilt on my lease.

Well done!

What type of broadhead?

Wasp Jak-Hammer 100 grain

1.75" cut.

Been using these for about 10 or 12 years now. Will never change. I bought up a good supply and a supply of replacement blades.

The blood trails are fantastic.

So True
Nice Buck

Does this look like a gut shot? That's the entrance. Exit was in same location just a couple inches lower. She was nearly square broadside.

24 yd shot. Minimal blood on arrow. No blood that my old eyes could see for first 15 yds. Then a good blood trail. I started the trail too early....only waited about 15 minutes. She was still alive but was only a minute or two from expiring. She went about 60 yds from arrow impact location.

All I can figure is the arrow must have passed thru her lower esophagus that was full of regurgitated cud. The exit was plugged with chewed cud/gut content.

Ive killed many deer with an arrow, but never hit one near perfectly and had gut content in the wound. I didn't open the abdomen so I dont know for sure what happened.

…. Shot one behind the shoulder one time … it went to bawling and blowing out cud everywhere… ended up dying under my tree

… if it had broke for cover a man would swear it was gut shot judging from the trail

Ive killed well over 100 whitetails and never had this happen. But I know she had just got up from her bed as I first seen her at 5:25pm and shot her at 6:05pm. An hour and a half before dark.

She was 1.5 years old and weighed 70lbs live weight. Typical weight for 1.5 year old doe down here.. She was healthy and had good kidney fat.

My brother bow killed one when we were kids. Arrow was covered with gut, and smelled like it. Waited until morning to track it, and it only went 30 yards and was hit well. It had a ruptured diaphragm, and a portion of stomach had made its way up between the lungs.

It didn’t ask that particular deer I shot it’s birthday… but it did spray gut matter all over the place while bawling like a branded calf lol

She was a little spooky. She seen me in the tree even though I was 25 feet up in a Climber. She caught my movement, but I froze as she stared, stomped, head bobbed, tried to fake me out by looking away and quickly looking back. Even at 24 yds she lunged forward as the arrow hit her. Maybe the front chamber of her stomach surged forward enough up into the diaphragm to puncture it.

I knew someone on Tman had seen this/done this b4.

Lol....I keep records of all the deer killed on my lease. Age, weight, physical condition, etc. Just looking for trends in the info. Have for 25 years. This tender pile of meat was #79 killed on 400 acres in 25 years.

…. Shot a spike one time at dark centering up the sight housing… went back to the truck and drank one … went back to the scene of the crime and found gut matter at the edge of the woods… eased in a little and seen it… double lung .. only went 20 yards

… also have seen great blood a time or two only to track forever and find them … only took a couple times for me to learn quartering forward is a bad idea with an arrow

Good job Swamp. That was not a gut shot. I agree you must of severed the back of the esophagus between the lungs.

Well done.Congrats

Swamp, has any rut activity started where you are? Nothing here but occasional butt sniff. My two biggest bucks haven't been seen for days. Plenty of does on feeder and food plot. Including whitety as I have named it. Im not going to shoot it. Just watch and video tomorrow if I get the chance. The rut seems to be a little late this year. Also, too many acorns still.

Sarge

Was straight guts on arrow perfectly broadside. Completely blew my mind... Was 6 yds with a recurve and saw my arrow slowly slink on in..

Your post makes me feel not so crazy...

Yes...been running hard here. Mature bucks have just started showing back up on cameras on my 400 acres. They were gone for over a week....with does I presume.

Wow! I'd never seen this b4 (mine) and I've killed a bunch of deer.

It's interesting to hear and see that others have had the same experience.

Thanks for posting.

I was gonna say our rut is a few weeks away, but I went and set a climber near some scrapes yesterday evening and it was absolutely crazy. I hadn’t been up the stand long enough to even take my quiver off the bow and hang the bow when a spike, followed by a real nice 10pt who was being followed by a decent 8pt ran a doe by me. A shotgun would’ve been needed to even think of getting a shot.
20min later I watched 2 really decent 8pts chase a doe around from the bottom they came from. And then right near dark a young 8 comes running a doe from the opposite direction and ran her apparently into one of the early 8pts cause he got a rude awakening about hierarchy and then the big 8 gave chase on the doe. I’d only seen a deer get hit by another deer on video…to see it in person is quite eye opening. It’ll make you think twice about walking up on an antlered deer for sure. That younger buck may still be running for all I know. He got hit so hard he had to get punctured.

Good shot!

Only takes one doe in heat to stir things up. I think your peak (when most does are in heat and standing to be bred) is 2nd week of November....correct?

Swamp that doe was still alive 3 hrs later... My exit you could draw up better...

I've killed a big pile of deer and never seen anything like it..

Was a no stopping to search for blood type blood trail also.

Yeah, these bucks are on early estrous does, the majority will be about the second week for the Southern half of the county. The north part of the county is around Thanksgiving. When our bucks would rather kill each other over a doe my son has them on camera acting like buddies, lol.
We had another couple of does killed so we’re at 24 for the year. I think that’ll slack off as folks will start holding out for a buck, then we’ll go back to thinning them. CJ has been trying hard to get a buck but with semi rutting bucks, it’s tough for a kid to get on them that quick, lol. Those Spring and early Summer rains gave us some thick vegetation to deal with.

I should have taken the time to look closely at the path of my arrow that night, but I was tired after skinning and de-boning. The next day when I hauled the carcass back to the property to dump she was a little ripe and I did'nt want to open that abdomen...lol

Congratulations
Nice Deer