With a twist as stated, through the frenzy of texts, what I mostly read was, "how do you find them, you sure know how to find odd ones, do you ever shoot complete deer, so you had to shoot one that couldn't run away and so on and so forth, oh, and my favorite, the legend lives on!". LMAO.
So it was SOOOOO foggy this morning as light started filtering through the trees. It had rained all night and the forest floor was as quiet as it can be. I never heard myself walking to the tree. Ah, and this tree is a special tree. This is the same triple tree I had taken my Halloween buck out of last year in my very first and only sit in "my" hollow. I was there opening morning this year just to see what might walk by.
As light gathered I made out a figure, yes my first deer sighting and I immediately saw she was a doe. She was already about 60 yards out but in the bottom which made her look very small. My heart was renewed, my soul cleansed as I sat 23' up in a treestand, opening morning seeing my first deer. Just for clarity I brought the binoculars up to my eyes, aaahhhh nuts, what's the matter with this young girl? As she hobbled picking acorns I could make out that she only had 3 legs.
Suddenly I got a text, check and it was Preacher Tony wishing me well and mentioning that it's game on. I replied stating that I had a 3 legged doe hobbling below me and if I got the opportunity that I was going to take her.
She fed, hobbled up the drainage away from me and as a last resort, I threw some contact calls/bleats her way. She threw her head up and I figured she'd want some companionship as she most likely couldn't keep up with the other deer. I gave her another soft bleat. She turned and immediately started my way. It took her quite a while as she had difficulty managing the hill. As she came in facing me I knew I had to tag this nanny. I fought the decision several times as I never take doe from these grounds. It's been way to good for me as a buck haunt.
But as she neared and came in range I knew what I had to do. At 25 yards she turned down hill and I came to draw. I held as she never really offered a shot with the vegetation and each opening I'd have, she'd hobble through. She wouldn't take one step, each time she moved it was 2 at a time. She stood looking for the other deer and I let down. She turned back up hill and I had one opening, it was right between 2 double trees forming a V as you can see in the background.
Through that V I sent a XX78 tipped with a Rocky Mountain Snyper. I heard the hit and the 82nd knocked her off her good leg and which she never recovered or stood again. She pretty much snow plowed about 40 yards straight down hill and expired.
I got down, checked her out, grabbed my arrow and climbed back up in the tree to see if any bucks would come by. Of course that was after a tirade of texts. LMAO.
Anyway, she's a 1.5 year old nanny. She had no milk so she wasn't bred and I'm not sure if he leg was shot off last year as a fawn or she lost it in a car accident or what but my decision to take her and burn my only "Home" doe tag sets easy in my mind.
I drug her partially back to the house for some hero shots (which I apologize for, I used the self timer) and then walked back to my dad's place where he loaded the his wagon on his lawn tractor to pick her up. Thankfully for that!
Back in the garage and before butchering I took a couple pics to show ya'll her leg.
Opening Day Success, a Rob doe?
WTG
