At the end of August, I wrote an article on prepping your hunting site. At the time, our set up had sound logic and a lot of deer sign to make my friend Kyle and I confident in our decisions. Below is the diagram from that article that illustrates where we felt I had the best chance of making a good shot on a deer.
As September turned into October and the season began, things just didn't seem right. We were no longer seeing deer tracks or signs that they were anywhere close to the attractant we had placed out in the main shooting lane for my spot. Now we could have let pride get in the way. I mean a lot of work went into making those shooting lanes and knowing the exact distances. Or, we could just listen, because the deer were telling us something. Things had changed and it was our job to figure out what they were trying to say.
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Deer Candy |
"Hey wait, in the diagram there is a big White-Oak right by your stand." Yes, you're right and White-Oaks are known to produce acorns every other year. There wasn't an acorn within 40 yards of that tree.
Once in the woods, Kyle discovered a myriad of deer trails that gave us a decent idea where they were coming and going. Several large scrapes were noted also. A scrape is a spot in the dirt that a male deer will paw up and urinate in it to tell all the ladies in the area that he is there. The does will follow suit by also leaving scent in it. It's sort of like a singles bar for deer. One scrape in particular was located on the equivalent to a deer stop light where different trails all connected at this one point - Bingo!

We set up 15 yards from the scrape and the intersection. The very first evening in the blind paid dividends. I thought this was a decent doe, however it turned out to be a button-buck checking the scrape. We typically do not like to harvest young bucks but it was simply a case of misidentification. One minute the coast is clear. The next minute you look up and wow, there is a deer right in front of me. Shoot Goofy, SHOOT!
The Barnett RC-150 Crossbow performed flawlessly. The Toxic broad-head passed completely through the deer and he was down within a couple of seconds. The wound you see in the picture is the entrance. The exit wound was identical. It looked as if the deer had been shot with a slug. These broad-heads are amazing and allow for a very humane death for the animal. Kyle is a Rage broad-head fan as am I. But, I like a fixed blade broad-head that flies straight and Toxic does just that. Check the video below for other shooting tests using the Toxic broad-heads.