The Rodriguez Buck
Cattaraugus County Crossbow Buck
As told by Andrew Rodriguez
It was Novemeber 7, 2024 when I got to the property. I was feeling very discouraged because I hadn’t seen one shooter buck in the six previous days of hunting... though I know they are there. Just little buck after little buck, but I stayed true to my goal of harvesting a mature whitetail. Anyways, that morning, I sat in a new location on the property thinking maybe I had to change it up.
Eight o’clock was approaching and I hadn’t seen any deer at this point and something was telling me to get down and go to the back end of this property... so that’s what I did. I got down and walked into the woods down to a creek bottom, following the creek to the rear end of the property. Back here there are no stands, so I knew I would have to find a suitable set up on the ground. I had a general idea of where to sit and when I got there it was about 8:30 am.
I found this three and a half foot dead log I said to myself, "This is where I’m going to sit." As I sat down and cleared some leaves away I noticed movement to my east in the pines. It was a doe and two yearlings walking in my direction. They strolled on through and I figured I might as well tip the estrus can a few times. About five minutes after the can tips a 3-point showed up. He got about 13 yards away before he noticed something out of place... me sitting beside this dead tree. I went on a few more times tipping the can and ended up calling in another little half rack spike.
It was now around 10 am and I was getting impatient, but I knew from all the rubs I was seeing around me that I had to sit tight. At about 10:20 I spotted a doe running down into woods about 60 yards north of me, following her was a little spike, mouth open just dogging her. That to me was a great sign. I had a hot doe in the area and it was just a matter of time before a good buck would present himself.
At 10:30 I decided to give the estrus can another tip. Ten minutes later I hear something walking in the leaves just north of me where I saw the doe being followed by the spike. I peak my head up over the log to see and here comes this big boy walking directly at me, nose to the ground and only about 25 yards away. I quickly grabbed my crossbow and got ready to shoulder it as I watched him, waiting to see where he was going to go.
He turned just a hair and headed to my right, walking parallel with the log that I was leaning on. As he got closer I swung the crossbow up on top of the log and waited for him to come into my shooting lane. This beautiful buck walked right in front of me at five yards. I saw nothing but brown in the scope and I "brapp" to stop him. He stopped, I found his shoulder in the crosshairs and slightly moved to the left over the lungs with a slow steady trigger squeeze. Immediately I watched the crossbow bolt go right through him at five yards.
I knew that I just harvested a monster buck! He ran about 45 yards before I lost sight of him in the pines. I could tell he wasn’t going far because he got really wobbly before I lost sight of him. At that point I couldn't believe what just happened. This buck walked by me just as I envisioned in this spot. I started saying out loud, "Omg! Omg! Omg!... I just shot a giant."
I pulled my phone out and called my father-in-law to tell him my location and told him he needed to get here... I just smoked a really good buck. Fifteen minutes later my father in law showed up. I showed him the beautiful lung blood painted in the leaves. We followed the painted trail straight to the buck, which only went fifty yards. I ran up to the buck, recording on my phone to send to my buddies. They all have been cheering me on, it’s been about 7 years for me eating tag soup. I finally ended the drought!