I have been hunting three years, and this is the first time getting a deer. It’s also the first time I went hunting with a bow. Well anyway I’m always looking for people that have problems with deer on their property. So I finally found one, very gracious guy at that!
Well the story is, last Thursday my hunting buddy and me went up to walk over the property with the owner. Beautiful 40-acre property. Spent and hour and a half talking and he invited us to camp, spend the night – whatever. So as we were leaving he asked when we wanted to come up. I said Friday afternoon?
So we hunted Friday through Sunday. Friday we saw tracks everywhere, but no deer. Friday night my buddy saw a bobcat-didn’t get a shot though. Saturday morning, couple coyotes came into some calls I was doing. I couldn’t get a shot off & my buddy didn’t know it was ok to shoot them. An hour later, we saw two big does about a hundred yards off the property. Tried to call them in – no go. Didn’t see anything for the rest of the day and evening.
Sunday we got up early and at about 8:30 I came down from my tree stand, and my buddy decides to go home. So I said so long and I stayed a little while longer. I went to go investigate another location for my tree stand – went about 100 yards and up on a ridge I spotted a doe looking right at me. It was obvious she saw me way before I saw her. I tried not to make eye contact with her. Tried a couple of estrus bleats (I was trying to assure the deer I wasn’t a threat). When I first saw her she was at 52 yards at the top of the ridge. For the next ½ hour we kind of just watched each other while I tried to get closer and she moved away. The closest I got was 42 yards, as she came down the ridge. I figured I better take the shot since I didn’t think I’d get another opportunity. I drew my bow back- just as I did she turned away from me and started back up the ridge. I let my bow down and realized she was moving quickly up the ridge and onto the top. As quietly as I could I hustled all the way to the far side of the ridge – 120 to 130 yards. As I was coming up to where I would meet her, I got ready for the shot. She popped out on the trail – just where I expected. I drew my bow back and I let my arrow go…
I completely missed her and it went just under her belly. As she bounded off into the woods I followed her thinking I might be able to get a second shot – no go. At this point I stopped and just thanked God for the incredible opportunity to pursue the deer. It blows my mind how fun and exhilarating the opportunity was.
So then at this point I started back down the ridge figuring my day was over. Then I thought about where she would have gone and figured I could take the back trail to the meadow to see if she was there. I started walking in that direction and got back to where I first saw her and she popped out on the trail about 50 yards in front of me. As soon as I saw her I was going to draw my bow, but she bounded off. The last I saw of her she was headed in the direction of my truck into another meadow.
I paralleled her over a couple rolling hills- past my tree stand and then back up toward my truck. I got about 20 feet in front of my truck and she bounded from my left out in front of me. I immediately drew my bow and took the shot. As I watched my arrow leave my bow and arched toward her I heard a big whack as it hit her right behind the shoulder. Then she bounded off.
I tried not to make any noise because I didn’t want her to go very far. But I was so blown away, excited, totally stunned. I set my bow down right where I was standing and took off my hat and put it on the ground so I would know exactly where I was standing when I took the shot. Then I dropped on my knees and thanked God and remembered I had asked Him to guide my arrow to hit the mark.
So I climbed up on top of my truck (cell coverage is really bad) and called my hunting buddy. That call went something like “Dude, I got a deer!!!” He said “what, you saw a deer” I said, “No man, I got one!”. Well we checked the distance of the shot it was 32 yards. We found the blood trail pretty quick and tracked her to where she lay and the rest is history. All in all, I’ll never forget that hunt. Here’s a couple pic’s – hope I did it right so you can see them. Good luck to the rest of you. And may God allow your arrow to hit the mark.