My first deer
 

howdy all,

I finally shot my first deer with a bow and first whitetail altogether!

My friends and I have a lease up in Missouri ( despite what the bio info says, I live in Alabama now, no longer AK). I got up there Saturday about midnight. Bought my tags at Walmart and went to bed. after about 4 hrs. of sleep, I headed out to the stand I had been dreaming of hunting since we first worked the land in May.
When shooting light appeared, I was ready. I figured that with all the deer I would have a constant stream of them walking by (not quite reality, but a good dream anyway) well, a deer finally did appear, completely opposite of where I expected it. The deer was a rather nice sized doe. I stood up in my stand and got ready to shoot. I drew my bow back when she non-chalantly nibbled at an acorn. however, all she offered were quartering-to shots and I wanted broad side or quartering-away. as she passed, I expected her to give me a quartering-away but she stopped underneath some branches. I was still holding my draw (which didn' t seem to be a problem at all, probably the adrenaline) and she moved to my left, offering me a steeper than ideal, but still decent quartering away shot. I let the arrow go and I saw it buried up to the fletchings. I tracked her down on as I type this, she is in vacuum packed bags in the freezer!

I am just happy that after three years of bowhunting, I finally got my deer!
when I called my wife to tell her, she just said " well it' s about time!"

thanks for reading..

Beej

RE: My first deer
 

I tried to post a pic, but I don' t know how. any hints???

RE: My first deer
 

Congrats! Sound like a well executed hunt. I am still waiting for my opportunity this year. It is nice to see a few sucessful hunts posted. Seems to be lots of hunts this year getting posted that have a less than happy ending. So are we having steak tonight?

RE: My first deer
 

Congratulations to you. You never forget the first one. Time for a buck now. All the pressure is off. Relax and have a good time. I' m happy for you...Now if I could only get a deer in front of me.............

RE: My first deer
 

just curious...did the arrow ever come out, was there much blood, how far did she run? sorry for all the questions, i made a similar shot on a doe once without a successful ending.

RE: My first deer
 

congrats beej99, way to wait for the right shot!

RE: My first deer
 

thanks for all the congrats. it was truly exciting to finally connect.


NorhternMN - no steak tonight, but hopefully a roast this weekend! (I prefer roasts and polish/summer sausage).

buckmaster, no I didn' t get a complete passthrough. I was a bit surprised, but when I was gutting her, I shattered one of her ribs pretty good, so I think that is why I didn' t get as much penetration as I would have prefereed. she ran a good bit, more than I would have liked. tracking her occured like this. I shoot. The doe jumps out and through some bushes. I made a note of where she was standing and where she took off to. I then proceed to take in a huge breath of air and call just about everyone I know. I waited about a half hour/45 min and checked out the blood trail. It looked pretty good, but I was surprised because as you noted, no exit hole and with a steep shot, the entrance wound was up so high. as I proceeded a little ways down the blood trail, I noticed a lot fresher blood, so I backed off. waited another hour and got my partners to help me. we spooked her from under some bushes ( I am guessing that was where she went to die) when she jumped out and swam across a small pond/large puddle) I figured that my shot sucked and I was way to overconfident. well, we quickly went around the pond to see if she was still bleeding and found her dead. I guess she just had one more spurt of life in her. overall, I would guess she went 1/4 mile or 400-500 yds. My buddy who has been bowhunting deer for over 20 years assured me that I had made a good shot and this deer just had a bit more life in than most, though I hadn' t hit the heart like I had hoped and originally guessed.

RE: My first deer
 

awesome. congrats . MMMMMm... summer sausage you say? Now the wife really likes sausage. I' ll have to look into that.
David

RE: My first deer
 

Hey Beej,

First of all, Im not trying to preach. But with the way she acted and as far as she ran, Id say you only got one lung on your shot due to the steep angle. Dont be shy about letting her sit a while longer and expire.[X(] You take the risk of a 1 lung hit on that angle, and they can go a LOOOOOOOOOONG way on the other lung. Dont ask me how I know.[:' (]
Again Congrats on the deer. Enjoy the venison!!!:D

RE: My first deer
 

Congrats beej99. :)