Okay, I went for an evening hunt today, it was incredibly wendy and I had picked a very thickly brushed area and sat down on the grass.
Well at about 7:00 pm here comes a nice big doe, and since it would make my first deer of the season. I started to get excited, she was snorting continuously and I wonder'd if she had smelled me and was about to run off, but to my suprise she ran within 10 feet of me!!!
I drew my bow and she looked at me, I remained still for about 10 seconds with her staring at me, I decided to take the shot and fired at her chest area and to my disgust the arrow hit a small limb and was bounced off course!
Talk about being mad.
I have a question though, why did she snort over and over like that, and when would be a good time to hunt the spot again?

Cmon guys how long should I wait before hunting the area again? and why was she snorting like that?

she may have gotten a good wiff of you and didn't know were you were and just happened to come by you i'm sure she knows you were there now. but shes not the only deer that lives there i go back if you don't see any deer you can always move

you can use your pepper spray my 12 gauge with 3 inch slugs works fine

Welcome to the club! We all have missed or will miss! Thats just part of bowhunting.

Deer make two differant snorts. a DANGER...DANGER...DANGER snort and a "What the heck are you?" snort.

The first one comes with a "White flag"
and will put every deer in the county on red alert.

With the second type they will usualy stomp their foot and move there head around tryin to get you to move.

DON'T MOVE OR YOU ARE BUSTED!!

I found a site that has all the sounds from a doe grunt to the buck bawl but I can't seem to find it now. If I do I will post a link.

As Selway said above, she isn't the only deer there. Get back in there and see what happens.

Good luck,
SF

Your disgust may have been a blessing if you are just firing at a deers chest area. Pick your spot. Was she facing you? The disgust of a clean miss is elation when compared to a bad hit and no recovery.
Maybe you just left out some details in the story but it didn't sound good.


Some things are true whether you believe them or not.

She was snorting because she had a fawn very near you, maybe even closer than she was, and you did not see it. At this time of year a doe is still extremely protective of her young. She probably knew something wasn't right and was warning off her fawns, she just didn't know exactly where you were.

I wouln't hunt the same exact spot again. Move off at least 50 yds, probably more. She will avoid that spot for at least several days, maybe even the whole year if she is an older deer. That doesn't mean that other deer night not come in, but I'd move off the spot a bit.

Also, others had mentioned it, but the hardest deer to take, is an alert one. You should strive to take a deer that has abosultely no idea you are there. Even if you didn't hit a limb, its LIKELY, that she would have dodged the arrow, or worse almost dodged it due to the high state of alert she was exhibiting.

hunting is like being in school to learn you got to get back in there i would rather have agood miss than a bad hit ....good luck