HuntingNet.com Forums - Success this weekend...pic added

Hey guys.

I thought I'd share my success this past saturday morning. I got into my stand about 20 minutes before daylight. I hadn't hunted this stand since last year, and felt it was a pretty good option for a nice doe to fill the freezer. I sat for a couple of hours and saw nothing but a stray cat. Along about 8:00 a.m., I heard deer coming my way, so I stood and readied my bow. I saw a young deer, looked like a doe, enter the food plot about 100 yards away. I watched as she made a bee line for the salt lick in the middle of the plot.I heard more deer following so, I took my attention away from the first deer to see 3 more appear behind her. Another doe, a fawn and a 4 point buck. The milled around for about 10 minutes at the salt lick, and finally the old doe satrted to leave. She was on a path to pass my last shooting lane at about 47 yards, and I'm just not comfortable with that distance so I let her and the fawn walk without drawing my bow. Next the 4 point decided to leave and followed the same path but detoured to within about 37 yards of my stand. I elected to pass as, I only have one buck tag to use prior to the second portion of bow season here in Missouri. That left the original doe still standing at the salt lick. The other deer had moved about 120 yards away when the doe finally realized she was alone and took off to catch up. In her haste, she split the difference between where the other deer had passed. She was at 41 yards when I drew. She caught some movement and stopped broadside. I hadn't hunted this stand since last year, and I really should have trimmed some of the oak leaves back because I had to " adjust" my angle to get a good shot. I let the arrow fly and to my horror watched it fly left or behind of where I thought I was aiming. I heard a funny noise, but thought it was my arrow striking the ground behind her. She whirled and ran off the way she came. In retrospect, I believe the combination of having to squat and lean to get around the leaves and my own lack of discipline at trying to "peak" caused some bad follow through. In any case, I watched the deer leave and was a bit confused as I never saw the 4th deer go with the others. I nocked another arrow and sat back down believeing I'd missed clean. Around 9:20 I decided I'd better head back home for family stuff later in the morning. I had to walk over and retrieve my arrow and wanted to look the "miss" over from the vantage point of the deer. Lo and behold as I approached my arrow, I see blood on the white cock feather. A complete pass through! Now I start to get that sinking feeling and, since I was pretty sure the shot was back, I stuck the arrow in the ground and walked out. I went home and replayed that shot 1,000 times in my head and with the evidence on the arrow concluded I'd made a gut shot, though all the hair I'd found on the shaft was brown, not white. I was horrified, and felt about as worthless as could be. I waited another painful hour and after a call to my dad, he convinced me to go look again and see if I could find some more clues. He was thinking more of a shot in the hams with the fat and brown hair. I'm truly color blind and blood doesn't show up for me in small amounts. Luckily, my wife has an uncanny knack for bloodtrailing, so she went with me. At first there was no blood, but after about 25 yards she spotted the first drop. We trailed it another 50 yards and the blood finally reached enough proportions that I could see it myself. The deer was headed uphill, so I decided that if we couldn't find her in another 50 yards or so, we'd back out and give her some more time. The blood became so profuse I just knew we'd find her any minute and sure enough, after another 20 yards or so, I spotted her piled up in a cluster of vines. To my surprise, the she ended up being a he. The silly thing had small spikes. I guess, I just couldn't see them for his ears! The shot was a poor one, but deadly none the less. I hit him high in the hip and got a passthrough. I guess it damaged a pretty big artery back there, as the total tracking job was less than 120 yards. I'm a bit bummed because I had to use my only buck tag for the first portion of the archery season, but was greatly relieved to recover the deer after a bad shot. I firmly believe patience saved the day in this case and would strongly recommend it to anyone who makes the same mistake I did. I have some pics, butthe cable for my camera is missing. As soon as I find it, I'll share them. All in all, I'm pleased. It was my first bow kill with my Bowtech tribute. I was using 100 grain spitfire mechanicals and was impressed to find my broadhead was intact. I simply washed the mud out of it and will replace the blades for another use.

I'll update tomorrow probably with a couple pics.

GH