Seth Swilley first spotted the buck on his game camera last year and started hunting him during bow season. Though he hunted the buck he never got a shot and passed on smaller bucks in hopes of getting a shot at the bigger buck.
This year, the buck appeared on his game camera and his quest continued during this bow season.
“I’ve been after him since last year,” Swilley said. “He was a 10-point last year and I saw him but didn’t get a shot. During the velvet season he appeared back in the area and I began my pursuit again.”
Swilley hunts an area near his home in Church Hill that is full of steep hills and ravines, and they have food plots on the hills and ridges. That makes it hard to bow hunt due to the close proximity of the deer while bow hunting and the thermal currents which change in those areas.
“I had a lean-to stand set up and I hunted from that, but it didn’t work,’ Swilley said. “I kept getting busted, so I cut a little pocket in a briar patch along the top of the hill and put a small blind in there to conceal my movement and scent as much as possible.”
Taking a chance
Although the buck was coming into the area, it was usually after legal shooting light, and Swilley had not yet gotten a shot. He went in to check on the stand one afternoon and it was 85 degrees, but he decided to get in the blind and see what happened.
“It wasn’t too long before a doe and yearling came up towards my stand as the wind was blowing toward them, but they walked on by and never smelled me,” Swilley said. “A couple minutes later, a 4-point came up the hill and walked by me but stopped and looked back down the hill. I finally spotted another buck in the bottom and after I got a better look at him I decided it was my target buck, the one I was after.’
Though he had yet to draw his bow back on a deer during bow season, the veteran hunter was calm and steady as the buck walked up the hill and came within 5 yards of him!
“I watched the buck walk by me and when he got about 20 yards past me he turned broadside and looked at me,” Swilley said. “Then he turned his head away from me, so I drew back. When my hand hit my anchor point and my eye hit the peep sight I let the arrow fly.”
A perfect shot
“Thwack!” The Rage hypodermic broadhead smacked the buck in his engine room and a perfect heart and lung shot was made. It was obvious that a kill shot had been made but Swilley didn’t want to jump the buck by trailing too soon.
“This was the first deer I’ve ever drawn back on with a bow,” Swilley said. “I’ve killed a lot of deer and have been an avid duck hunter and turkey hunter, but I just started hunting with a bow last year that I got from a friend.”
The bow was a Mathews Chill R bow with Easton Axis arrows and a 100 grain Rage Hypo broadhead.
“My friend, Kyle Ensminger, wanted to be there if I killed the buck, so I called him after I shot him and let him lay until Kyle got there with his dogs,” Swilley said. “I had actually made the shot at 6:40 and wanted to make sure the deer was dead and have some company to help before looking for him.”
Locating the buck
Swilley’s children and father got there and as soon as Ensminger arrived they started walking towards the buck. Their walk was not long as they found the buck a mere 40-yards downhill from where the kill shot was taken.
The massive 235-pound buck was a trophy indeed, sporting a rocking chair rack with 11-points with long tines and an extra brow tine. Taxidermist Lucien Gwin measured the buck’s rack, and it produced a total score of 163 7/8!
“These days I don’t shoot everything that comes by,” Swilley said. “After I get my first buck each year I won’t shoot another buck unless he’s bigger than the one I’ve already killed.”
Though it was only Swilley’s first deer with a bow, he’s a veteran hunter with many kills to his credit and he knows it will be hard to beat that one this year.
In the meantime, he will enjoy taking his children hunting and looking for that next big buck. And who knows, Swilley might just harvest a better buck later this year!
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