So far this year, I haven't shot a deer with my bow yet. I have bow hunted for a few years now and have always killed deer with my bow and let quite a few keep walking. For some reason, this year I can't even get a shot off on the ones I want to shoot.
So I went out with my bow Saturday night and sat in a homemade ground blind. I saw a doe walk by at about 40 yds but she was in some light brush that I didn't want to try to thread an arrow through. I got the bright idea that I could intercept her when she came out of the woods, left my blind and slowly crept to the edge of the woods. I took a step out and saw a doe feeding along the woodline away from me that looked smaller than the one I had just seen and was slightly farther than I wanted to try a shot with my bow. I took one more step past a bush and that's when the second doe spotted me, blew at me and all 3 does that were there took off. They eventually stopped about 125-150 yds away and stared at me for a couple minutes before running back into the woods.
Sunday morning, I decided to hunt a stand I haven't hunted since opening weekend of bow season. And having not learned my lesson the night before, I took my bow again instead of a gun. Around 8:10am, I heard a soft grunt and looked left to see a pretty good size buck walking directly towards my stand. I clipped my release to my bow and waited for an opportunity to draw without being seen. The buck kept walking til he was within 5 yds of my stand and looked directly up at me a couple of times. Finally, he turned and started to walk away and I decided that was the time to draw. About halfway through drawing the bow, the buck turned his head slightly back toward me, saw the movement(I'm assuming), and immediately took off. My difficulty in controlling my breathing during the whole encounter probably didn't help much. Here's a trail cam pic of the buck.
Sunday evening, I decided to sit on the edge of a cotton field where I had seen a lot of activity. My setup was not ideal since I didn't plan to hunt there before the season and had not spent any time making a blind or setting up a stand. I simply picked a low hanging oak limb on the edge of the field and sat on a stool under it. Around 6pm, I noticed something sticking up over the cotton that looked out of place. After watching for a minute, I realized it was two sets of antlers in the field about 65-70 yds away. I had my rifle with me, so the distance wasn't an issue. I waited for the biggest of the two bucks to walk out of the field and dropped him on the spot. While I was waiting for my brother-in-law to get there with a truck, I heard several more deer come through the woods, including a slightly larger buck that stopped and stared at me and a doe that kept stomping and blowing, but they never entered the field.
Here's the buck I shot. Considerably smaller than the one I saw that morning. Up until this point, I was unaware that deer ate cotton plants.
So I went out with my bow Saturday night and sat in a homemade ground blind. I saw a doe walk by at about 40 yds but she was in some light brush that I didn't want to try to thread an arrow through. I got the bright idea that I could intercept her when she came out of the woods, left my blind and slowly crept to the edge of the woods. I took a step out and saw a doe feeding along the woodline away from me that looked smaller than the one I had just seen and was slightly farther than I wanted to try a shot with my bow. I took one more step past a bush and that's when the second doe spotted me, blew at me and all 3 does that were there took off. They eventually stopped about 125-150 yds away and stared at me for a couple minutes before running back into the woods.
Sunday morning, I decided to hunt a stand I haven't hunted since opening weekend of bow season. And having not learned my lesson the night before, I took my bow again instead of a gun. Around 8:10am, I heard a soft grunt and looked left to see a pretty good size buck walking directly towards my stand. I clipped my release to my bow and waited for an opportunity to draw without being seen. The buck kept walking til he was within 5 yds of my stand and looked directly up at me a couple of times. Finally, he turned and started to walk away and I decided that was the time to draw. About halfway through drawing the bow, the buck turned his head slightly back toward me, saw the movement(I'm assuming), and immediately took off. My difficulty in controlling my breathing during the whole encounter probably didn't help much. Here's a trail cam pic of the buck.
Sunday evening, I decided to sit on the edge of a cotton field where I had seen a lot of activity. My setup was not ideal since I didn't plan to hunt there before the season and had not spent any time making a blind or setting up a stand. I simply picked a low hanging oak limb on the edge of the field and sat on a stool under it. Around 6pm, I noticed something sticking up over the cotton that looked out of place. After watching for a minute, I realized it was two sets of antlers in the field about 65-70 yds away. I had my rifle with me, so the distance wasn't an issue. I waited for the biggest of the two bucks to walk out of the field and dropped him on the spot. While I was waiting for my brother-in-law to get there with a truck, I heard several more deer come through the woods, including a slightly larger buck that stopped and stared at me and a doe that kept stomping and blowing, but they never entered the field.
Here's the buck I shot. Considerably smaller than the one I saw that morning. Up until this point, I was unaware that deer ate cotton plants.
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