Finally, 5 days into the season, 4th trip to the woods and I scored a nice doe last night at about 7:15 p.m...after missing an earlier shot on a doe that I could not have placed in a more perfect spot for me to shoot. Musta been the "first deer this season jitters".
After missing the first doe and being pretty upset with myself...I was finally able to calm back down and let it go. Not long after, 2 does and two fawns came in from the opposite side of the first doe that I missed. At first it looked like they were going to circle wide of me, but then...as if on a string, all 4 came right at my stand. Thankfully they were up wind of me and although cautious, did not seem real nervous. It was tough keeping an eye on all 4 at the same time, but finally the lead and biggest doe got into shooting range and I let her fly...from a seated position in my stand. I could hear the "thwak" of the arrow and knew I got a good hit. . I watched her go further than I would have liked, but was confident of a fairly easy recovery. Waiting a half an hour after dark to get out of my stand, I put a piece of toilet paper at my arrow location (arrow covered with bubbly blood and there was a bit of bone with it)andeased myself away in the opposite direction to take my gear back to my truck, give the doe some time and collect my $2.50 dragging sled from the truck. I was parked at my buddies house so he came back into the woods with me...with his bazillion watt light. My two little lights were not worth crap, and his faded very fast and we were not picking up much blood so I decided to back out. He went home to charge his light and I went to Wally world to buy something better. They did not have much so I ended up with a battery operated lantern and another flash light. Heading back out we found more blood, but not a lot. However, we eventually picked up a good trail where she was blowing blood from both sides. Once we finally found her...looking back at our TP trail, it looked like lines on a highway. We were about 90-100 yards from when she was shot.
After getting her back to the truck we tried to take a decent picture, but it was just not to be. Wish I could post one, but the only one we got is less than acceptable to put on this site.
Field dressing revealed that I had caught a double lung shot, but a little further forward than I would have liked.
So, bottom line...1 down, several to go...I hope.
I know I need a much better tracking light so if anyone has good suggestions, I'll be at a Bass Pro this weekend.
Best of luck to all,
Craig