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Opening day of the 2006 Illinois archery season was upon me before I even knew it. Granted, I had been scouting, hanging stands, shooting my bow, and gearing up for the season for months and back in May it seemed like it would never get here so I can't say I was surprised that it was October 1 already, but it just seemed to get here quicker than I thought. But hey, who am I to complain?
 | If nothing else, at least I'm still good at taking photos of myself while on stand.
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Sunday, October 1, 2006 started off beautifully. You really couldn't have asked for a much better morning. It was clear, cool, and the wind was nearly as calm as could be. Of course as Opening Day luck would have it my morning wasn't without it's difficulties. First off, my flashlight that had been working flawlessly all summer long ran out of batteries. So I was left to navigate my way through unfamiliar woods with nothing but a small red LED light that I ripped out of the inside of my brand new backpack. Once at my tree I was faced with the task of installing my Lone Wolf climbing sticks in the dark, and of course I banged and clanked them together that I must've sounded like a one man band to any deer within a hundred yards. Maybe that explains why I didn't see anything that fateful morning?
I guess I can't say I didn't see anything - I did catch a glimpse of a few gray squirrels milling around for acorns and whatever else they could find. I used that opportunity to better familiarize myself with the new Canon GL2 camera we recently purchased for filming our hunts. I spent a few minutes playing with the white balance, the manual focus, the audio levels, and a few other options that I felt were worth exploring. All in all I think I got the hang of it. We'll see what happens later this year when I'm in the tree playing cameraman for Todd! I was using my Lone Wolf camera arm this morning, but will be rotating between that and my Pine Ridge Pro Bow Cam arm throughout the season to get the feel for which I like better.
 The GL2 resting on a Lone Wolf camera arm, just waiting to be used.
The afternoon brought with it more South winds and increasing temperatures. Rising above the 80 degree mark for the first time in weeks, I was sure glad I had picked up a lightweight Scent-Lok Savanna EXT suit and some Under Armour Heat Gear as I headed out to my stand. By the time I had completed the walk to the far North end of our hunting property I was ready for a drink of water - that of course I had forgotten in the truck. Ah yes, how I love Opening Day! Nearing 5 o'clock I finally settled into my stand and got the camera set up pointing towards where I thought the deer would be (my righthand side) and made sure everything else was in order. After all, you never know when a 200" monster is going to step out. Remember, this is Illinois and according to my hunting DVDs they're behind every other tree - sometimes two and three at at time! At around 6:15, as I was looking to my right, I heard the thump of a large animal landing in the open field as it jumped over the fence. I turned my head to see a big doe standing 18 yards from me, peering toward the water hole to which she was headed. I guess I wasn't the only one who was thirsty! Knowing she was on a mission and had no intentions of feeding in this pasture for long I didn't even bother trying to turn the camera around for a shot. In fact, I had just enough time to lift my bow off the hanger, clip on my release, and draw back before she started moving. As if she were following a script, she stopped at 18 yards, directly downwind of my stand, and presented a perfectly broadside shot. I settled the top pin of my Copper John sight on her vitals and touched it off.
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Before the arrow even impacted her I knew she was a dead deer. I heard the tellate "thump" as the arrow struck her and then passed through and embedded itself in the ground. The big doe turned and bounded away back towards the safety of the woods which which she had come. As she leaped the fence I noticed a bright red spot of blood on her opposite side which only confirmed that the hit was lethal. Seconds later I heard loud crashing and then silence. My deer was down for good. I waited a few minutes before climbing down to retrieve my arrow and mark the spot which she crossed the fence before heading back to meet Mike after his evening's hunt. Just as I had thought, the arrow had great sign on it. Bright red blood ran from end to end. The NAP Nitrons had done their job, and done it well.  This is always a good sign for a bowhunter.
We returned to the spot shortly after dark to take up the blood trail. Unfortunately it was not as easy to follow as we had anticipated and lost the trail after only 40 yards! I was dumfounded at the time, but later would find out that the shot was a bit higher than I originally thought, resulting in a lack of blood trail as her chest cavity filled with blood. Though we searched the woods for some time with flashlights, our search was fruitless and abandonded as a lightning storm and rain rolled in ontop of us. Just our luck!
Monday morning Paul Mazur and I headed out to try to find my deer. I know that I had heard her crash not more than 100 yards away and was confident we would find her. Within 15 minutes I heard Paul say "I've got her!". As fate would have it, she was less than 15 yards from the spot at which we lost the blood trail the night before, but had made a hard left turn into some blowdowns and a thick briar patch, making it nearly impossible to see her with the aid of a flashlight alone.
Due to the warm temperatures she was a bit bloated but fortunately enough the meat was not spoiled yet. Before removing her from the woods Paul brought out Spike, his miniature wirehaired dachsund, that he is training to blood trail wounded deer. As practice, we let Spike run the sparse blood trail and then gave him his first exposure to a whole deer. He was very excited and guarded his prize with as much ferocity as you could expect from a 10 lb dog!
Here Spike is investigating the entrance wound of his first successful recovery.
Knowing temperatures were going to be climbing into the upper 70's this day, Paul and I quickly field dressed the deer and got her out of the woods. I stuffed her chest cavity with ice and took her to the butcher shop immediately. Fortunately the meat had not yet spoiled so I'm looking forward to having some jerky in a few weeks!
 This is my first Opening Day deer, a big Illinois doe!
Thus far the 2006 season is off to a great start for the Zarr family. My dad took this 47" moose last week in Ontario. An 11 yard shot but the giant down in less than 40 yards! Unfortunately I couldn't be there with him - maybe next year! Until my next entry, stay safe and shoot straight! The season is just beginning so I'm looking forward to some more great encounters and hopefully some more deer on the ground! Justin
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