Not the biggest in the woods but I am pretty much out of time and have had some hunting access issues this year so when this guy decided to come for a closer look at the decoy he made a mistake.


I have never used a decoy before other than for waterfowl.

I saw a guy selling a decoy earlier this week on craigslist so I contacted him and bought it.

Got in the tree this morning and as I was pulling my bow up had two snort right behind me in the field, they came over close to me but ended up going into the corner of the woods. I think one was a small buck.

Anyway about 8:30 or so I see a deer sneaking along up to my left. They follow this same trail pretty much all the time and once in a while will cut low toward my stand. Well this one was a 4 pt and he kept on the usual trail and heading into the thicket.

About 9:20 or so I look and see a doe sneaking along the same trail, I tried some bleats etc and she didn't seem to care a whole lot.

Well about 10 I check my watch and think I better be getting down soon i need to get back to our Chocolate shoppe to open at noon. I needed to relieve myself and at this point figured I was pretty much done so I did what I needed to from above in the tree. I sat down for another couple minutes and rattled one more time.

Nothing happening so about 10:15 or so I stand up hang my bow and turn around to grab my bag which is hanging on the other side of the tree. Right as I turn to grab my bag I look about 70 yards out and here he comes. Coming right down the trail that leads right to me. Now I go into "oh crap" mode. My bow is on the other side of the tree on a hook. I reach around quickly grab it and he is closing the distance. I see he a shooter(in my books anyway) I am thinking man I am doomed I have nothing but air between us. There are no trees or anything to do the "when he steps behind the tree I will draw up on him" I notice he goes into a different type of walk, Oh wait he has spotted her "the Craiglist $35 decoy" He is now 30 yards and still coming. I get ready to draw up and get the oh no, I'm shaking, cold etc I can draw the bow back.

I take a deep breath and give the bow a tug he is at about 15-18 yards coming right toward me but notices nothing except his new found love. Well as he kept coming I thought I don't have the best angle but I know I can sink it into him from above. He turned his head slightly which turned the rest of his body giving me a little better angle to try and get my arrow where I wanted it.

I let the arrow fly see it hit what I thought was my mark and he takes off. As he is running I see the arrow fly into the air and I am now in the uuggghhh I hit a bone. Though as he is running away I can see bright red along his back. I waited a few minutes and got down. I walked over and see my arrow laying there. I pick it up and see I only got about 8 inches or so of penetration.

I see blood on the ground and it has bubbles so I figure ok I got something good. Nice bright red blood.

I back out to my stand gather my stuff and head to the car. I called my buddy and waited for him. Gave him a good hour plus and then headed back up.

Started down the trail and started finding decent blood then a whole bunch then nothing then more etc etc. In the meantime while tracking holy scrapes they were everywhere in this thicket. We kept following him a way and finally we caught up to him. I think he just ran out of blood and finally laid down. We did not jump him along the way but all in all I would say he went a good 120 yards or better through some really nasty stuff.

Right when we found him he was still alive but had nothing left in him to try to get up. He expired within a minute of us seeing him up ahead.

Somehow when I was aiming for just where his neck meets his shoulders and to miss the spine I manged to catch the back of his neck skin pretty good must have been the angle and the broadhead sliced his neck skin open almost like your were caping him out before it punched down in toward the main chest cavity. Thinking about it my guess would be just as I released he turned his head back and the arrow flew right at the angle of his neck into him. Its kinda crazy how it sliced like it did.

I know it was probably not the best shot angle but I was not sure how he was gonna react to the decoy anymore and like I said I had little cover to try and adjust myself or to wait for him to walk closer because then I would have had a straight down angle.

Anyway I am pretty happy with him though I know there are others that are bigger around I cant be to picky with time running out. (Not to mention I do not have the best luck in the woods)