Huge 10-point buck makes up for 2010 hunting failures.
Drew Getman of Raleigh was about as low as he could get at the end of last hunting season, having missed two trophy bucks with his bow.
But he’s about as high as he can get this week, having killed a huge 10-pointer Saturday (Sept. 10) on opening day of archery season in Alamance County.
“Last year was a rough year, but I stuck with it, I had a good mentor, and I kept practicing,” said Getman.
It paid off around 7:20 p.m. Saturday when the big buck “popped out” near Getman’s tree stand.
He put a Rage-tipped Mayhem shaft through the buck a few minutes later, and a few hours later, he kneeled down behind the deer, put his hands on the heavy rack and admitted thinking that his hunting career might have peaked.
“You start thinking, ‘When are you ever going to see another buck like this one?’” Getman said. “But I had a bachelor group of three shooters on my trail camera, and one is actually bigger than the one I killed – a main-frame 8-pointer with double drop tines and all kinds of kickers.”
It’s nice to have something to look forward to. It’s also nice to have a hunt to remember. That’s what Getman is concentrating on these days.
He was sitting high in a stand on one of several tracts of land he has permission to hunt, in a stand of mixed hardwoods set back from the edge of a field.
“My hunting buddy and I have two stands we can hunt on a south wind,” Getman said. “We’re real conservative on the wind. If it’s not right, we won’t go out there.
“For the last four weeks, these deer had alternated which stands they fed at. We couldn’t figure that out.”
Getman had a spike buck show up around 5 p.m., but it was obviously fidgety the entire time it was close by. When it left, Getman turned off his Thermacell just to make sure.
A 6-point back arrived at 6 o’clock and stayed almost an hour, feeding calmly. At 6:40, Getman heard another deer behind him.
“I can’t see them behind me until it pops out right there, but I heard something,” he said. “I heard him jump across a creek about 75 yards behind my stand.
“At about 7, he popped out and I knew it was the big 10, but he had lost all his velvet in a week.”
The buck didn’t come straight in, though.
“He threw his head up, taking a big smell, and he rubbed his horns on this cedar tree that’s about as big around as your leg, then he came on,” Getman said. “He came up and he and the 6-pointer actually touched noses, looking each other over. Then, I heard somebody holler a ways off, but they both immediately looked up and stayed (alert) for two or three minutes, then finally relaxed.”
The big buck finally walked behind a tree.
“He came around another cedar tree and went behind a hickory tree, so I had a chance to draw,” Getman explained. “He came around the other side, but he was quartering toward me and I didn’t want to shoot.
“He took another step to his left and, even though he was still at an angle, I had a good shot, so I took it.”
Getman clearly saw his arrow hit the deer an inch or so behind the front shoulder and 10 inches below its spine – a great hit at a steep angle from 30 feet up.
“He ran off, and I heard him crash across the creek, but I waited until dark to get down,” the hunter said. “I went over and found one drop of blood, and I found my arrow covered in blood.
“I went back to my truck – my hunting buddy was there – and we waited three hours, until almost 10:30, before we went back in the woods.”
Things didn’t look good when the hunters began tracking the deer.
“We worked our way up and down the creek, and didn’t find any blood,” Getman said. “Then we went on up on a ridge about 150 yards and didn’t find anything.
“I went from the highest high to the lowest low. I couldn’t believe that deer was not giving us any blood to trail.”
Then, things got better for him.
“We came to a fence, and I found two drops of blood on a log, and I told my hunting buddy it looked like he doubled back,” Getman said. “Then, we found softball- and grapefruit-sized balls of blood.
“My buddy went 30 yards and found him.”
Getman said the buck was huge, weighing well over 200 pounds. Looking at the wound, he guessed that a thick layer of fat just under its skin had closed off the exit wound, keeping it from shedding any blood until its body cavity had filled up.
The buck’s heavy rack has an 18-inch inside spread, and its G3s are the longest tines. In addition, it’s got a spot, a “knot” on the bottom of one antler, which Getman figures was a drop tine that didn’t break through.
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