30 Days Hunting Deer in Canada – Arrow Kills, Swamp Survival & Building a Swamp Log Road!

Thanks to Bass Pro Shops Canada for sponsoring this video! And thanks to Tactacam for all the awesome cameras to track these monster deer! Join me on an insane deer hunt, archery buck hunt with a seriously interesting twist. We build a corduroy road from scratch using logs taken from the property in order to traverse an intense swamp filled with white-tailed. I eventually arrow a beautiful buck that puts me on an adventure! Late October, 10 °C, wind out of the east. I slipped toward a homemade treestand I’d built years ago but hunted only once—it sat perilously close to the bedding area, and reaching it without bumping does had always felt like threading a needle. This year, though, trail-cam photos showed a good buck using a wider path down the pinch. Safe enough. I climbed in. I’d been watching patiently, but mostly listening, since the area was pretty thick. That’s when I heard the typical sound of a mature buck with purpose. The buck materialized—quiet, but purposeful, ghosting through the thick stuff straight at me. Ten seconds from spotting to drawing: I thumbed on the bow-mounted Tactacam camera, pivoted, and hit full draw as he stepped broadside at 15 yards. A sharp, confident “meh” froze him. I settled the pin high on the shoulder crease and released. Thwack. No hollow thunk—just broadhead on bone. The buck panicked away from the stand, and smashed the arrow into a fence-row tree. The shaft snapped clean, leaving only the broadhead inside; I’d later learn just 3½ inches had penetrated—about as shallow a hit as you can make. He trotted off slower than expected, tail low. I collected my gear, heart in my throat, and climbed down. My son, Holden, met me halfway from where he’d been hunting that evening. An hour had passed—temps were cool—so we took up the trail. Blood poured: bright, steady, hand-sized splashes every step, laced with small bubbles and even a bit of bright pink blood. More than anyone would expect from a shallow hit. We didn’t yet know it was only 3½ inches deep, or we might have backed out sooner. Two hundred yards in it was still easy; then it got hard. With temperatures holding, we called it for the night. Back at the stand we located the broken arrow, and everything clicked into place. At best we were looking at a single-lung hit—at best. I pulled the trail-cam cards and watched the footage at home: hard shoulder hit, devastating. The buck trotted off as I had remembered. Three days of silence. No buzzards, no crows. Cool rain delayed the smell. After securing permission, I searched the open woodlot across the road, the ditches, further up the shoulder—nothing. The field to the back of the woodlot was recently replanted - short winter wheat that would hide nothing. The ground was more lawn than cover; a carcass would have been obvious. On day four the farmer called - after I had spent the day grid searching areas adjacent to the original hit: “Got a rack and ribs fifty yards from your stand. Coyotes cleaned it.” Coyote tracks ringed the bones like a wagon wheel. Unfortunately no scapula to be found nearby, and no chipped ribs to confirm the hit. But it was obvious to me by now that I had slipped off the edge of the scapula and nicked the lungs in between the ribs. The Ghost Buck had circled a full mile under coyote pressure, returning to die in the open near the farmer’s hay bales. Holden and I pieced it together that night. The buck had bedded 700 yards out, clung to life for 36 hours. Coyotes found it weak, pressured it. Panicked, it bolted—not away, but home. A dying whitetail will circle its core area under duress, and this one ran a full loop—nearly a mile—before collapsing where it started. The rain hid the final 500-yard death march; the coyotes finished the job—leaving no meat at all—before the buzzards ever smelled it. Only a chipped eight-point rack remained—and bones. I confirmed all this later with the farmer, where he admitted that the buck couldn't have been there sooner since he was working the bales the day before. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_wooded_beardsman/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Wooded-Beardsman-454022962084308/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_wooded_beardsman Holden's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HoldenAnton Kevin's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClhInAMlPM1UcjD8lI4o7UA MEDIA - Website: http://thewoodedbeardsman.com/ - My Gear (Shop and Support): https://www.thewoodedbeardsman.com/shop/ FISHING SPONSORS -Lyndon Trout Pond: https://lyndonfishhatcheries.com/fishing-pond/ SPONSORS | DISCOUNTS - Woodobo Spice: https://www.thewoodedbeardsman.com/shop/ - Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops: https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en - Tactacam Camera: https://www.tactacam.com/ #wildernessliving #survivalchallenge #wildfoods