Post by INBowhunter on Oct 25, 2005 10:46:17 GMT -5
Saturday morning began crisp and overcast with a hint of more rain. I climbed into my stand about thirty minutes before light wearing my rain suit just in case the sky decided to open up. Less than ten minutes after climbing my tree I hear crunching in the leaves thirty yards in front of me, followed by the crunching of acorns...it's a deer. She eventually made her way around me in the dim light until she was downwind, then smelled somethign she didn't like and ran off about fifty yards and began snorting. After she left, the morning was quiet and slow, occasionally broken up by squirrels.
Around 8:00 I thought to myself that the morning had turned out to be a bust and that the first doe of the morning probably ruined it for me. Not two minutes later a slight crunch snapped me to attention. A doe was twenty-five yards in front of me and coming in. I was sitting and thought I would be busted. When she stopped under the walnut tree twenty yards in front of me to investigate the fallen walnuts her head was hidden by another tree. This gave me the chance I needed to stand, remove by bow from its hook, and get into position. She made her way to my right picking up acorns as she went. It appeared that she was on her way to the food plot that sat 35 yards behind me. As she passed behind a tree I drew.
Shooting to the right from a treestand while wearing my safety harness is difficult. The tree strap on my harness is short and limits my mobility in that direction, so I was hoping to get a shot before she got too far to my right. At about the 2:00 position from my stand she stopped and I settled the pin behind her shoulder. In a split second my arrow was sticking in the ground, lumenock shining brightly, and she jumped and ran ten yards then looked back toward the arrow. She then flicked her tail in the "all's calm" signal and began feeding away from me. I thought I had shot under her. The more I studied the situation, the more I thought that she must have been standing at twenty-five yards....and I had held for twenty.
I mentally kicked myself but decided to sit for another hour to see if anything else would come by. My plan was that when the hour was over I would quietly walk to my arrow and check it, then sneak toward where I last saw the doe. As I quietly descended my tree I looked in the direction the doe had walked after the shot and halfway down my tree, I saw her white belly. I thought to myself "NO WAY!" Talk about going from the valley to the mountain top in a heartbeat. I was on top of the world.
This was the first time I've ever not field dressed a deer right where they died. I usually dress them where they expire because I don't think it makes much difference and it makes it easier to get them out of the woods. Picture 2 shows the reason that I didn't field dress this doe where she died. She expired ten yards from these two scrapes, and I didn't want to foul up the immediate area any more than I already had. This is the third year in a row that scrapes have appeared under the limbs of this beach tree. Hopefully I can cross paths with the buck that is tending them.
Pic 1...125 dressed wt doe
Pic 2...scrapes....hat placed for size reference
Around 8:00 I thought to myself that the morning had turned out to be a bust and that the first doe of the morning probably ruined it for me. Not two minutes later a slight crunch snapped me to attention. A doe was twenty-five yards in front of me and coming in. I was sitting and thought I would be busted. When she stopped under the walnut tree twenty yards in front of me to investigate the fallen walnuts her head was hidden by another tree. This gave me the chance I needed to stand, remove by bow from its hook, and get into position. She made her way to my right picking up acorns as she went. It appeared that she was on her way to the food plot that sat 35 yards behind me. As she passed behind a tree I drew.
Shooting to the right from a treestand while wearing my safety harness is difficult. The tree strap on my harness is short and limits my mobility in that direction, so I was hoping to get a shot before she got too far to my right. At about the 2:00 position from my stand she stopped and I settled the pin behind her shoulder. In a split second my arrow was sticking in the ground, lumenock shining brightly, and she jumped and ran ten yards then looked back toward the arrow. She then flicked her tail in the "all's calm" signal and began feeding away from me. I thought I had shot under her. The more I studied the situation, the more I thought that she must have been standing at twenty-five yards....and I had held for twenty.
I mentally kicked myself but decided to sit for another hour to see if anything else would come by. My plan was that when the hour was over I would quietly walk to my arrow and check it, then sneak toward where I last saw the doe. As I quietly descended my tree I looked in the direction the doe had walked after the shot and halfway down my tree, I saw her white belly. I thought to myself "NO WAY!" Talk about going from the valley to the mountain top in a heartbeat. I was on top of the world.
This was the first time I've ever not field dressed a deer right where they died. I usually dress them where they expire because I don't think it makes much difference and it makes it easier to get them out of the woods. Picture 2 shows the reason that I didn't field dress this doe where she died. She expired ten yards from these two scrapes, and I didn't want to foul up the immediate area any more than I already had. This is the third year in a row that scrapes have appeared under the limbs of this beach tree. Hopefully I can cross paths with the buck that is tending them.
Pic 1...125 dressed wt doe
Pic 2...scrapes....hat placed for size reference
