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Old 11-29-2009, 05:53 PM
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tsaxybabe
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Iowa
Posts: 117
Talking First time bowhunting - no deer, but learning a lot

Since I'm a full-time college student pursuing a pre-med degree, Thanksgiving break was the first time I could really get out there. I've never hunted before, but have always liked the idea of it. My dad fished a lot and hunted a little, but he died when I was 14 so I never really got to learn any of that stuff from him. Thankfully I met the right guy and he and his family are starting to get me into the sport. You might have seen him around here...[BuckRogers].
Anyway, he took me out almost every morning and a few evenings. We hunted mainly on the ground because we weren't seeing much action from his tree stand. Thanksgiving morning a group of 5 does showed up around us, and after having a staredown with one doe, she stepped out in front of the ground blind. Since I'm so inexperienced, I'm relying on my boyfriend for basically everything. He told me to draw back and to use my 30yd pin. I did, and let the arrow fly....and missed. The whole group of them ran off. I was a little disappointed in myself, but we practiced with a target later and realized that my sight must have gotten bumped because all my arrows were shooting about 7 inches low and to the left. I'm glad I missed by that much, because I would feel awful if I wounded a deer.
After that, we left the ground blind to stalk a little basket 6pt his dad had seen bed down in some tall grass. Going by where his dad directed us, we creeped through the grass for a while, using a grunt call to try and get him to stand up. Eventually the buck jumped up about 15yds to our left. I drew back right away and aimed, but he wasn't sticking around so I didn't have a shot. That morning's hunt ended there. I wasn't frustrated; I liked stalking and it was cool to be that close to both of those deer.
The next morning (Nov. 28th, my 20th birthday!) we went to the ground blind again, but weren't seeing anything so my boyfriend's dad picked us up and took us to where a nice 8pt was standing out in the tall grass. Apparently he had been glassing this deer for about 20 mins, and at one point the deer actually charged at his truck! We think he must have had a doe bedded down nearby. His dad dropped us off and we stalked the buck for about 45 minutes. It was hard! There were points when we had to run, and climb down into a creek bed to get close to the deer. After we found a decent spot along the creek, we hunkered down in the grass and started grunting. Pretty soon here this deer comes walking down to check out the sound. He's on the other side of the creek, and when he got almost straight out in front of me, my boyfriend said to draw back, he's at 30 yards. So I drew back and the deer saw me. He stared at me while I centered my 30yd pin on his vitals, and I threw an arrow. It went about 3 inches over the deers back (left/right aim was accurate), and the deer took off. We stood up to check it out, and it turns out the deer was only 20 yards away. It's very hard to judge distance while sitting down, and plus we were lower down since we were on the bank of the creek. The boyfriend was really upset with himself that he had "cost me" my birthday deer (and first ever deer), but I wasn't upset in the least! I thought it was awesome how we were able to stalk him so well and call him in like that. Luckily, my birthday present was a rangefinder...6 hours too late! Won't miss next time though!

So my tag is unfilled, but I sure am learning a lot about hunting! I had a lot of fun stalking. I'd say it was a successful week even though I didn't get a deer. I'm going to try late muzzleloader season, and maybe the late archery season too if we have time.
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Last edited by tsaxybabe; 12-01-2009 at 04:13 PM. Reason: pics
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