HuntingNet.com Forums - First deer of the season (pic)

Things have finally slowed down enough to finally post my first deer of the season. The story is from my journal that I've been keeping the last few years. I enjoy reading all the different stories posted on this site. Hope someone enjoys my outings. It's all about getting out and enjoying the great outdoors.

Sunday, November 10, 2002
Bob, Patrick, Greg and I arrive at CB(California Bend) at about 0600 hrs and each of us head to our stands. Patrick has the digital camera and his mission is to capture what he can on the camera. I get all set up at about 0620 hrs and wait for legal shooting time which is around 0635 hrs. The winds are out of the NW at about 20 mph, just as they're forecasted. As the sun comes up I can hear turkeys calling throughout the woods and ducks flying overhead chuckling. Around 0745 I hear some crashing coming from my left rear. As I turn, I see a doe come running out of the woods into the old slough with a buck hot on her ass. I grab my bow and stand to get ready for a shot. The doe comes towards me but turns and goes up the slough. I have one shot at the buck, but wait hoping for one a little further up the slough, but the doe leads the buck more to the center and they end up downwind of me and immediately stop and start sniffing the air. It doesn't really matter because they're to far away for a shot anyway.
So as I'm sitting there thinking about the one shot I may have had, I hear leaves crunching off to my right. I see a buck come out of the brush on a trail that goes right past my stand. As the buck advances he stops once to test the air. I have deja vu of past bucks stopping and heading back into the woods, but this one continues towards a shooting lane. I can feel the buck fever setting in and try to control my breathing. I try to breathe in through my mouth and softly out my nose because I don't want to add bad breath into the air, (if that works at all). As he comes past the brush pile I have my bow drawn. The buck is still moving at a slow pace as he comes into view of my sight pins. I let the arrow fly and with a solid thud the arrow hits home. The hit is a little back of the vitals I was aiming for and the deer takes off running across the old slough. The buck stops at the opposite edge and stands for a couple of minutes, tries to take a couple of steps and falls over. I look at my watch and it's 0802 hrs. I can see the buck lift its head a few times, but after 0815 hrs I see no movements, but decide to wait another 15 minutes just to be sure.
After climbing down from the stand I go to the spot that I arrow ed the buck. Blood is very scarce so it's a good thing that I saw where the buck fell. As I follow the trail I see no blood until I get to where the buck fell. Even around the buck there is really not much blood. I don't want to dress the deer where it lies so I drag it out into the clearing away from the main trail.
After dressing the deer I start the 100 yard drag towards the road. The drag isn't really that bad, it's just the logs you have to stop and lift the deer over and they seem to be about every couple of yards. After hitting the bank of the road I decide to see if anyone has come back to the truck. Luckily Patrick and Greg are there to finish dragging the deer up the bank and down the road to the truck.
It's hard to explain the satisfied feeling I have after finally arrowing this deer. With missing two shots at deer during muzzle loading season and then having the arrow deflected by brush on the 10 point buck I shot at Monday it's fair to say that my confidence level was a little low, but not lost.
http://www.hotspothunting.com/userimages/buckmister_5673.jpg[/img]