Sarah's determination buck.

As most of you know, Sarah and I have been together for almost 2 years. One of our first conversations was about hunting. She showed me pictures of bucks that she had killed with her rifle over the years. She also told me that she was a bow hunter. She likes to sit in a grove of trees with just her bow and ghillie suit. That is awesome. That is how I like to do it, be up close and personal to the game you pursue.

Over the last year and a half her shoulders have really been giving her trouble. So much trouble that she couldn't pull back her regular compound bow. I could tell this really disappointed her. She couldn't do something anymore that she loved doing. So I mentioned the idea of a crossbow. I told her about the crossbow permit application she would need to fill out and bring to a doctor in order to be able to shoot a crossbow during hunting season in the state of North Dakota. Evidently the Game & Fish think using a crossbow is cheating or something. There are many states that allow crossbows during regular bow season or have their own seasons altogether. But I digress.

Once we started the paperwork for the crossbow permit, we started looking at crossbows. I found some online that I knew would fit her and would have a cranking device for cocking. This makes it a lot easier than using a rope cocker. I even contacted my friends at Scheels to see if they could help. They gave me some good info, we decided to go up there and have her put her hands on some. As soon as she grabbed one of those crossbows it seemed natural. It looked good on her. But what wouldn't. She grabbed it and held it to her shoulder just like she had done it 1000 times. She looked down the scope and the fit was perfect. Everything was great except the price tag. Crossbows are expensive, especially if you want the new lightweight, fast shooting, easy maintenance, accurate right out of the box crossbows.

I looked all over the internets for the best deal on one of those crossbows that worked perfectly for her. But we wanted to wait before we pulled the trigger on purchasing a new crossbow just in case the crossbow permit paperwork did not go through. It was just about this time when we were about to give up on this year's hunting season when I received a big box in the mail. I had no clue what was in there. When I opened the box it said Barnett Crossbows. I was a little confused. I didn't order anything. Once I got the box open there was a brand new Barnett HyperGhost 425 crossbow with the new micro-diameter Hyperflight arrows. I was in shock. Where did this come from I thought to myself. So I decided to check my e-mail and I found out that I was given this crossbow for free to test out and use. You see Mossy Oak who I have been a pro-staffer for and Barnett partnered up to put together this awesome crossbow. What are the odds I would receive this free crossbow right at this time when we were looking for something just like it? Sometimes things happen for a reason. This is one of those times. Un-freaking believable.

I believe I received the crossbow around October 15. The next day I had my dad put the crossbow together which is pretty easy. It is just one bolt tightened with an Allen wrench. The next day I had my friend Tito come out to help sight it in. I would normally do this myself but this crossbow isn't like mine. It is built in one solid piece. My Carbon Express Intercept crossbow is built on an AR platform. Everything is adjustable. I could use this new Barnett HyperGhost crossbow but I would have to put it in my rifle mount system that hooks to my wheelchair. I look forward to doing this this summer.

Anyway, Tito and I set up a couple of targets. My Block target and my Big Shot Ballistic 450 X bag target were set out at 20 yards. Tito cocked the bow, placed an arrow and clicked the safety forward onto fire. He held on the center target and squeezed the trigger. The next thing I knew I heard a "snap." I didn't hear the crossbow fire I just heard the sound of the arrow smacking the bag target. Holy shinto this thing is fast I thought to myself. We both looked at each other and said wow. We had to adjust the scope a couple clicks higher and a couple clicks to the right and it was dead on. Tito fired about six shots after we got it dialed in just to make sure it was on and just because it is fun to shoot. This was actually his first time ever shooting a crossbow. He is also left-handed and it doesn't matter which way you shoot this crossbow, it is ambidextrous. That is neat.

I was excited. I sent Sarah a text and told her that the crossbow was dialed in. Now all I needed was to find a broadhead that would work well with these micro-diameter Hyperflight arrows. I contacted FeraDyne Outdoors, makers of the finest broadheads and they gave me some options. A couple of their options included mechanical broadheads. I was a little leery of this. I don't like shooting mechanicals out of my crossbow because I am worried about them opening prematurely in-flight because of the high speed that these crossbows produce. But the lady assured me that these Muzzy Trocar HBX crossbow broadheads wouldn't deploy prematurely. So I decided to give them a whirl. Three days later they were in my mailbox. So I called up Tito again to have him come over and help me test out the new broadheads.

The hardest part about testing these broadheads was opening the package. Good grief these things are almost impossible to open. I was worried about Tito slicing more of his fingers off but we managed to do it without incident. Tito spun on the new Muzzy Trocar HBX broadheads, set up the Block target at 20 yards and lined up the scope. He squeezed the trigger and the arrow sliced the bull's-eye. It almost also blew right through the target. The new Hyperflight arrows really do have +25% increased penetration over the competition. I was totally impressed with the accuracy of the combination of these broadheads and arrows. I knew they were going to be a deadly combination.

Now all we needed was for Sarah to come shoot the new crossbow. We had to wait a while for everyone's schedules to line up. I believe it was a weekday night and it was windier than heck. Cold too. So we decided to set up the targets outside of the shop and opened the door about a foot and a half. We would sit inside enjoying the warmth only having to face the North Dakota suck when retrieving the arrows from the target. Ingenious I know.

Sarah grabbed the bow and we showed her how to load an arrow. It comes natural to her. You can tell she has been around guns before. She held it to her shoulder, closed her left eye, looked through the scope with her dominant right eye, took a deep breath, let out half and squeezed the trigger. Smack! Another bull's-eye. She shot probably another half dozen times and was smoking the center ring every time. We all agreed, she was ready. So we hopped in the pickup and headed to the Spare Time to celebrate.

The next thing we needed was to find her a spot to hunt. I knew I wanted her to hunt in my spot. The same spot where I have shot three different bucks including the buck I shot this year. My trail camera in this spot was still getting lots of pictures including one doozy 4 x 4 that she had her eye on. He is tall and wide but the only problem he is also nocturnal. They don't get big being dumb but the rut was coming near. Maybe this would be her opportunity to put this big boy down. Maybe he would become careless when he was twitterpated. A bunch of skinheads had moved in so you just knew the bucks were going to be active in this area.

She hunted in my spot six times. All of these times were either pre-rut or full-fledged rut. All of the hunts took place between November 6 and November 21. There should have been deer everywhere, every night. She would take off work early and get here around 3 PM. She would sit until there was no light waiting for Mr. Big. But it never happened. I tried to keep her spirits up and tell her it is just going to take time. The 4 x 4 will screw up eventually. 

But that too never happened. She only saw two skinheads in those six sits, along with some rabbits, blue jays and some really annoying squirrels. She was losing hope and I could not blame her. I sat in this spot one time during the bow season, October 20 and shot a doozy 5 x 4. But I told her I usually sit 15+ times a year and many of those times I do not see a deer. But she knows hunting. She knows it is hunting, it's not killing. The biggest thing is that she wanted to get something before it got really cold out. She is just little.

For the story of the hunt, it is in Sarah's own words.

So the morning of this hunt November 23, I found out from Nathan that there was a really nice buck just ½ mile southwest of our place that he saw the night before. So I decided to give it a try over there instead of at Clint's place. I left his house having this feeling that I was forgetting something but I went through everything in my mind and I couldn’t figure out what that one thing was so I pushed that feeling out of my head. So when I got home Nathan drove me out to the spot where I was going to be sitting so I knew where to go. I went home to make myself something to eat before hunting while he went out the tree row to put a bucket out there for me to sit on.

So here I am getting ready and that one nagging feeling I had earlier popped into my head. I forgot my bow tag and my crossbow permit. So then I texted Clint and asked if he could run it over to me. I finally got all my layers of clothing on for the hunt, even though it was 45 degrees outside. So I showed Nathan how to get the crossbow ready for me and we make our way out to the tree row that I’m going to sit in. I get my scent drag wrapped around my ankle, put some Whitcomb's individual doe in estrus on there and start trekking out to my spot (Nathan had it marked with an orange hat). So I get to the spot and I realize that there aren’t that many open shooting lanes so I take all of my gear, with the bucket and move it a little bit to the west. After I finally get situated I’m sitting there waiting for the good stuff to happen when I see two does to the south of me and they’re making their way towards me. I look to the north tree row and there are two more does wandering around. So now I’m getting really hyped up and here comes this dark pickup driving up and down the gravel road right to the west of me. Granted I know it’s a public road but both sides are posted and this guy had been driving up and down this road four times already and he has his own hunting spots so this really irks me. The idiot stops his pickup right at the end of the tree row to watch these does and he’s sitting there for so long that it spooks the deer away that were heading right at me. 

So now, knowing from experience from past hunts, I figured that since the does are spooked that I won’t see anything else for the rest of the night. And yes, I was being negative. Now I’m sitting there again waiting and I’m messing with this buck grunt call app I have on my phone, hoping to god it will work and I’m kind of giving up hope that I’ll even see anything. It’s getting later and later and dark and just when I was about ready to give up hope and head back, I hear this loud rustling and I think it’s in the tree row that I’m sitting in. So I’m straining my ears trying to figure out where it’s coming from. I finally see movement to the west of me, right by the cattail slough. Here is this doe making her way towards the field to the north and I hear grunting and rustling right in the tree row to the north. I was hoping that they would make their way to me before it got too dark to shoot but they weren’t really going that fast and I didn’t think they would make it in time. Then I hear more rustling, more grunts and doe bleats. I’m getting more excited. So I start using my deer call app a little more hoping for the best and I see them start really moving. They were running around, back and forth, like a bunch of idiots. I absolutely love to watch that!!! So I’m trying to keep my eye on everything but it’s hard to keep my eye on that many deer and watch in front of me and pay attention to what’s happening behind me. I’m watching this doe and a buck chasing after her and they were running around so I decided to use my buck fighting call, that stops them dead in their tracks and then they just bolt towards the tree row that I’m sitting in. Well, I can’t see them anymore so I figure they are right on the edge of the tree row running towards me and I’m waiting for them to appear right in front of me when I hear this noise behind me. I turn around and here is the buck right behind me running towards me. I forgot to mention that earlier I had sprinkled doe pee all over my bib overalls. So here is this horny buck running at me and it kind of freaked me out. So I get my crossbow up and I can’t seem to find the damn safety. When I finally find the safety and take that off I look through the scope but I can’t see shit. For one it was getting dark and for another reason the buck was so close that I couldn’t see him in my scope. The buck turns and runs away for a little bit and stops. I finally get him in my scope and he starts running again so I take a shot at him while he was running away from me. I don’t even remember if I aimed or if it was just one of those lucky shots. Everything happened so fast that I really don’t remember seeing anything in the scope when I pulled the trigger. All I know is that I heard the arrow hit something but the first thought that crossed my mind was "Shit I just messed up and hit the ground."

So I watched him run away not looking injured at all and I’m beating myself up the whole time. He gets about 100 yards away and he just stops. I watch him for a while as it’s getting darker and darker until I can barely see him anymore. That’s when I finally text Nathan that I shot at something but I’m shaking so bad that it came out as "I sho at something" and it took me forever to type that out haha. He asks if I want him to come out there and I said yes. While I’m waiting for him to show up I texted Clint and told him that I shot at something but I didn’t know if I hit it or not. I didn’t even get a good look at the buck to see how big the antlers were. It’s kind of hard to notice that sort of thing when you think you’re going to get raped by a horny buck and you’re covered with doe in estrus pee.

When Nathan shows up I grab all of my gear and start making my way towards the vehicle to drop off the crossbow but I marked where I took my shot with the orange hat before I left. When we get back to the spot where I took my shot he’s asking me all of these questions like "How far away was he when you shot?", "How far did he run?", stuff like that and I didn’t really know how to respond to that because everything looks so different in the dark.

So we start looking for signs of a good shot or any blood (I was actually looking for the orange and white color of the arrow because I thought I had missed him). I get out about 25-30 yards and I spotted some blood. I almost started jumping up and down because I was so happy that I had hit him. But then the thought popped into my head "What if I just hit him in the leg or nicked him?" So we start following the blood trail and there was starting to get more blood spots and not just little droplets so my hopes started going up and I’m getting more excited. Then Nathan gets his binoculars out and scans out in the distance when we get out a little ways in the field and spots something lying down and we think it’s my buck but we’re not for sure. So now we have the dilemma of should we keep on or let him lay for a little while longer? We don’t want him to get up and start running again but the way he was laying it looked like he was down for the count. So we make the decision of me waiting right there while Nathan goes home and gets his bow just in case when we do get closer and the buck jumps up, Nathan has something he can finish it off with. Well that wait took forever and I was getting kind of mad because I really wanted to find my buck. Nathan finally shows up with Sage and we start in on the blood trail again and we finally come across a big pool of blood, then another one. They both had bubbles in it so we all figured it was a lung shot. Then all of a sudden it just stops and I’m wondering how the hell can a buck just stop bleeding and where the hell is he at? So we’re sitting there looking at it from different spots and going back to the big pools of blood trying to find the trail when the thought comes to Nathan that sometimes deer double back when they’re injured so he backtracks to the pool of blood and goes to the southeast instead of northwest and that’s when he found the trail again. We go a little bit farther and Sage lifts up his flashlight to scan the field and he spots the big boy down. We take our time getting to him because we wanted to make sure he was dead but when we got closer I could see he wasn’t breathing.

I finally got up to my buck and I see that I didn’t make a lung shot but I had got that buck right in the neck and it was a gaping hole. He didn’t last long after I shot him. He must’ve bled out pretty fast. I was happy as a clam!!! Then we all realized that we were not going to be able drag him out of the muddy field and we couldn’t drive Nathan’s Jeep to him so Nathan and Sage had to leave me there, yet again, to go home and get the four wheeler to drag him out to the Jeep. That trip didn’t take as long as the first one. So as we were getting him ready to drag back, Clint sent me a text that he was almost to my place with my tag and permit, thank god. We get him to the jeep and load him on the carrier and hightail it ½ mile home to get my bow tag on him. When we pull up Clint was already there waiting and the first thing he said, "Does anyone need a tag?"

Now back to me as storyteller.

As soon as I got out of the pickup Sarah grabbed the tag off of my tray, handed it to Sage and he notched the dates, then he quickly wrapped it around an antler. Then the story time started. Sarah was so excited. It was awesome. She was explaining the events that just took place. Then my parents got in her car and drove back to Enderlin. We were going to meet them at the locker later. After they took off it was picture time. I couldn't believe how big this 5 x 5 was. He was bigger than the 4 x 4 she was after at my place. Everyone had a smile on their face from ear to ear. We took a bunch of pictures. Then Nathan and Sage started the process of gutting it. It didn't take them long, besides the time it took for Nathan to gag a couple times. The buck was rutted up something terrible and did not smell very good. While this was happening Sarah was inside showering, getting rid of the doe in estrus perfume that she had accenting her. Good stuff. After she was done we went to Litchville to see how much he weighed and to do some quick measurements. I believe he weighed 165 pounds and had an outside spread of just under 18. It doesn't matter. He is an awesome buck. We got him loaded up again and made our way to Enderlin to drop him off at Maple Valley Meats. Once we got there my dad met us and he strung up the buck, washed out the cavity and pushed him in to the freezer. It's handy knowing people. We then decided to head to the Spare Time for celebratory libations. It was good times.

She is going to get the head and antlers made into a European mount. I can't wait to see the mount, it is not going to suck. But even better is the freezer full of tenderloin, back straps and ground burger that is going to nourish everyone throughout the year.

We would both like to thank Tito, Uncle Gary and my dad for cocking the crossbow for Sarah so she could hunt at the farm. The crossbow is real tough to cock back if you are not tall and have the shoulder strength to pull. I ordered the cranking cocker device so it will be on hand next year, using this is much easier. The crossbow was always ready for her when she got here and we are indebted. We would also like to thank Nathan and Sage for the help in tracking and gutting, along with scouting this doozy.

What an awesome story. I couldn't be more proud of her. I know what it is like to be discouraged about things not working the way they should. She didn't let the negativity take over. She kept pursuing until she achieved her goal. Hunt number seven did not suck.

Thanks for reading, Sarah and Clint.