Ted enjoys great company when possible, such as hunting with Kai Buckert at Wexford Hunting in south Texas. Not every buck is a rack-monster “wall hanger,” either!
I hunt daily. I get skunked most days. I experience every imaginable hunting scenario God’s miraculous creation can possibly produce. I have seen it all, but I’m not even warmed up yet.
Last Friday I once again found myself sitting in a tree pursuing happiness and sacred backstraps in South Texas on what can truly be best described as the most target-rich whitetail deerhunting piece of wildground there is in all of North America.
By Ted Nugent
Even with very disciplined trophy hunting selectivity, the 1000s and 1000s of pristine habitat deer paradise acres I was hunting averages a whopping 150% success rate per hunter for bowhunting only.
Can you say KOWABUNGA!
Of course combining my 1 mile radius deathwish electronic warning aura emitting Defcom1 high energy alarms to all living creatures, a blinding fullmoon glow and a record setting rain induced vegetation glut providing unlimited ultra-nutrition for the deer to gorge themselves on here there and everywhere, the huge whitetail population had turned into ghosts and I was about to single-handedly reduce this phenomenal success rate down to a more animal friendly single digit reality.
I hate when that happens.
Being that as it may, I sat 15 feet up all giddy with positive hopes and anticipation that my backstrap jihad would continue for the best bowhunting season of my life.
At dark-30, a trio of fine little bucks emerged from the dense puckerbrush for a date with destiny, and after a stealthy predator ballet of graceful maneuvering, my 50# Mathews Halon sent a 400 grain heat-seeking GoldTip projectile deadcenter through a handsome butterball buck’s shoulders, in and out for what certainly must be a near instant death arrow hit.
You know, the kind we all train and practice for with all our heart and soul.
You would think. And video evidence from more than 100 big game bowkills for the season would surely promise a repeat result, would it not?
Not so fast MotorCity WhackMaster goofball, not so fast.
Let us scurry to day three where my 3rd arrow punched a bloody hole clean through the 3rd deer of the trip, in what stop action video would clearly show to exactly replicate the 1st two arrow hits on the 1st two deer.
Deer #2 and deer #3 died within sight after a scrambling 75 yard deathrun.
Entrance and exit wounds proved to be near identical within less than an inch difference on each, my razor sharp broadheads cleanly disconnecting the life giving pumpstations and skewering the air bellowing lungs for what I am sure we can all agree is the dream shot for all dedicated, diligently practiced bowhunters.
But here’s the rub/lesson; deer #1, again with the exact same hit, was never found after two days of tracking, including the employ of a well-trained, experienced blood-trailing hound.
Ted doesn’t always look for antlers! He’ll whack a nice doe like this one at Wexford Hunting in south Texas any day!
Go figure. It happens. And though it happens rarely, it could very well drive a conscientious bowhunter batty, even causing post-traumatic stress as the losing of a sacred animal is tragically heartbreaking to any of us whenever it happens.
I shoot my bow daily. I train/practice like a bowhunter possessed. I concentrate on form, breathing, sight control, muscle memory, and one hell of a systematic, all-encompassing release on every arrow.
And if I do say so myself, I send some mighty fine arrows into some mighty fine critters for a near 100% recovery rate, year in and year out.
But when weird alien, anti-science deer team up with the old bastard Murphy and his repugnant law, strange things can and do happen.
Sometimes the critters simply don’t play by the biology rules. It makes no sense whatsoever, but it happens.
As long as we dedicate ourselves to be ultimately proficient with our weapons, practice diligent predator stealth and only take those maximum percentage shots we are capable of, when an animal refuses to give up the ghost and it appears to have been lost, we can only chalk it up to bad luck and some bizzarro voodoo of the animal kingdom.
It’s been five days since the arrow hit on my lost butterball buck and the ranch hands have not seen any vultures indicating a dead deer.
I will never know how they do it, but they do, and as long as we did everything right and proper, we must not beat ourselves up and torture ourselves for losing a deer that by all indications was not our fault.
Ted Nugent is an award-winning musician and writer, with numerous best-seller books including “Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto,” “God, Guns and Rock ‘n Roll,” and “Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish” with his wife, Shemane, among other books. Be sure to check out his website for more news on his latest music, thoughts and upcoming shows, and also at World News Daily, Newsmax and Daily Caller for more insights.
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Maximize Your Deer Season Planning With the 2016 Whitetails Wall Calendar!
From Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine, the 2016 Whitetails Wall Calendar features the work of deer researchers Wayne Laroche and Charlie Alsheimer, who reveal the 2016 whitetail rut prediction, based on years of lunar cycle research. Utilize this deer moon phase calendar to find out which days the deer will be seeking and chasing so you can time the rut for the best time to hunt.
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