HuntingNet.com Forums - My first deer with a bow at 49

I never hunted with a bow until this year my brother and me took the archery safety course. We started out hunting during the bow season with no luck. Then the road to my honey hole got closed right before the general rifle season. Then I had to travel 1500 miles and visit my mother during my special elk permit week I waited twenty years for and only had the weekend to hunt. And last the forest service has closed so many roads all the hunters are bunching together (unsafe in my opinion). There always seemed to be someone in the place I planned to hunt.

Yesterday I had one day left I could hunt this year due to other commitments. We chose bows during the rifle season just because we like it so much and wanted to enjoy the last day. What we did was find a few small sections of land that did not allow discharge of firearms.

The bucks are roaming for the rut here. We set up two ground blinds near a creek and field we saw deer feeding that morning. The plan was when a deer circled downwind from the blind to get the scent he would run into the other blind. It worked great!

I saw a huge whitetail 75 yards from my blind that never gave me a shot. It was a 5x5 with bases that you would need two hands to put your fingers around them. The buck slipped back across the creek and disappeared. Thirty minutes later I hear my brother shoot his bow. He said the deer was so big he almost forgot to pick up his bow. He looked for the arrow and it went under the buck as he jumped from the creek to the bank. Talk about the one that got away and future nightmares.

Within an hour before dark I decide I want some meat and at least my first bow kill. This spikewas 43 yards from me when I took the shot. I could tell from experience the sound of steel hitting flesh and bone and knew I hit the deer.I also heard a crash like on thoseTV shows. I waited about 30 minutes and looked for blood.

It was amazing! Just like bow class with a few spots here and there. Then the blood trail stopped and we thought we lost him. Jeez, the deer was right beside us in some bushes and we could barely seem him.

I FELT LIKE A KID AGAIN. I knew what to do, but it all was new and somewhat strange to me. I learned, practiced, and overcame the problems of shooting on my knees from a cramped ground blind and still made the harvest. I made a double lung shot and never could find my arrow. Here is my pic. MV out!

Oh, I used a HOYT Vectrix 60 lb bow, 400 grain Easton St Axis arrows, HHA Sight, Wisker Biscuit, Tru-Fire release, and 100 grain Slick Trick Magnum broadheads.