fillae

Ok, I'll start off with an apology.....no pictures. I'll explain that later. I just spent a week in MO on my lease. This is my second year of archery hunting, and still searching for my first kill. As the week played out, I didn't think it was going to happen. My plan was to hunt Saturday evening through Thursday morning, then return home to CO on Friday. I saw one 8pt Sunday morning, but he never presented a shot. That was it......until Wednesday evening. The temperatures all week were in the upper 70's. The deer were just not moving. One evening I hunted a field stand and waited until after dark to get down, just to see if the deer were coming out after dark. Sure enough as I was departing the field, I saw three sets of eyes along the edge of the woods. Anyway, on Wednesday evening the temps were again in the 70's. I was on the stand by 3pm and was not expecting too much. I set out a doe decoy in an opening I had and pointed her in the direction the 8pt had come by earlier in the week, hoping to draw him in. At 6pm, I heard a noise behind me and turn around to peak around the tree. Sure enough, the same 8pt was there. He was approaching from the opposite direction I expected, but was still entering the opening. I slowly grabbed my bow and turned back around. He was slowly walking away from me when he stopped between two trees when he spotted the decoy. He froze there presenting a perfect 14yd shot, slightly quartering away. I drew back (I also noticed it is considerably harder to draw back smoothly when in the stand and under pressure), held my 20yd pin just behind his left shoulder, and let the arrow fly. I heard a nice "thwump" sound and the deer took off. I heard him crash about 30yds away. I sat there trying to get my shaking under control before making the 22ft climb back down to solid ground. I new it was a good shot and I had heard the deer crash down, but I waited until just before dark before tracking. At the impact spot, I found about 12in of my arrow with the broadhead. I must have hit bone, oh well, he's down and is worth the broken arrow. I walk about 10yds and find the back part of the arrow, blood covered all the way. 20 more yards, and there he was. The shot actually went completely through both shoulders, taking the heart along the way. It was now very warm as the temps had increased. I quickly gutted him and headed back to the cabin to get some help dragging him out. By the time we got back, it was pouring down rain. Because of the high temps and the pouring rain, I never stopped to take a picture. I will always have this one in my mind though. He wasn't a very big 8pt, but he was a legal deer, and I made a great shot on him. I'm very proud to of made that shot on my first archery kill. Basically, I was able to get my deer in the last 45mins of daylight, on my last evening of hunting for the week.

On a side note. This was the first time I hunted with a decoy. If you haven't tried it, you must. I can't think of any detrimental aspects to using one. I can confidently say that I would have never gotten a shot without it. He literally froze in his tracks when he spotted it.