Success

[Guest canuck]

Thursday morning started off like any other over the past week. I would get home from working midnights at 7am and prepare the children for their day at school. I drove the children to school that day loading up the van with all of my bow hunting gear for the much anticipated morning hunt.

I have been able to pattern a large Doe and twin fawns from the use of trail cameras. They have been coming into the area of my stand anywhere from 10:30am until 11:30am daily.

Earlier in the week they came in again like clock work however I was not able to take a shot at the doe as she stayed out of the shooting lanes that I have created. I could have harvested either of the buck fawns however had my eye on the large doe. One of the fawns even came to the bottom of my ladder for the stand...likely smelling the doe urine that I had placed on a drag and apparently gotten some on my boots.

Thursday morning was colder than the previous morning so I had to layer and us the H4 Jacket from ArcticShield which is designed for bowhunters with less bulk. I also had on the full set of XScent clothing which uses silver fibers to eliminate human odour by killing bacteria that causes odour.

With the heavy frost and the rain from the day before the ground was like stepping on broken glass with every movement. I had began with several sequences of rattling and the use of grunts and bleats with the hopes of enticing one of the bucks in the area to come out...and I might add that while driving out to the hunting location I almost hit one on the road a nice eight pointer.

With the bus being this way and very little wind to start the morning off with....every little sound was amplified. The squirrel and birds sounded like large animals coming in.

Just like all the times before I caught movement to the left of my stand..I could clearly see the Doe and the twins coming in out of the field. This time the Doe was in the lead and the twins straggling behind. They were walking directly to the largest shooting lane so I lifted up my Mathews Switchback and prepared for the shot. Just as the Doe disappeared behind a tree I drew back the bow anticipating her walking out broadside at 15 yards....as indicated by the Leupold RXII rangefinder.

I was going to release the Beman Blackmax tipped with a Montec 100 gr. broadhead...as I put my finger on the trigger of the Win release....the fawns picked up the pace and now were even with the doe.

I had hoped that she would continue out and the fawns would hang back however that was not the case....now I have been at full draw and started to get the shakes....I shoot sitting out of my stand so leaning a bit forward for the shot was making me shake.....and shake bad like a recovering alcoholic. I would have let down however the doe was looking directly at me and any sudden movement would have ruined the hunt. She put here head down to feed making the movement to let down easy.

Now she was playing me...making the fake head bobbing movements to get me to commit and move again...be damned if I didn't bite on one of them....now she was stairing and stomping her feet....I thought here we go they are going to bust out of here immediately...the fawns lost interest and went back to feeding as the Doe started to walk away and stomping her feet so I thought she was gone and I would have to settle for one of the fawns. No sooner did she walk twenty feet away she turned around and started back...as her head went behind a tree....I came to full draw....now I like to think of myself as strong and in decent shape (round is a shape right) man it felt like I was drawing back a truck. She stepped out from the tree quartering towards me just the front quarter of her. Now I would not normally take the shot but I felt comfortable at the distance knowing the arrow would penetrate easily. I settled the 20yard pin on her a little low and released the arrow.

The doe reared up and spun taking off in the other direction. I did not see the arrow impact but did here it so I knew she was hit....just how good was the question. I listened intently for the crashing to stop and it did...now I have not been on the property where she took off to so I did not know if she was heading for open field or towards the swamp so that weighed on my mind.

As I was contemplating the shoot I noticed my arrow sticking out of the ground right where she was standing. I noticed that the vanes appeared to be orange....well that was odd as they were flo. yellow and green when I released it. I waited for about 20 minutes before climbing out of the stand. As I approached the arrow I could see if was covered in blood and now visible was the blood trail a blind man could follow.

I nocked another arrow and began trailing the doe.....I went about 50 yards through the bush and found her in the grass.

The arrow had entered in the right chest and exited out the other side under the far front leg getting both lungs.

I was pretty excited to say the least. This is the first animal I have harvested with my bow....with the hopes of many more. I can now concentrate on a buck however will give this area time to settle down or work some other areas for the year and try there next year.

I apologize for the length of the post but I am still excited about the hunt....she is not a world class buck...but is still a trophy to me.

I hope that you enjoyed the story and here are the photos.

Shane

[GC 54 31]

Way to go Shane, nice deer and nice story!

[tracker 61]

Very nice. Good story. Can you email me the pictures.

[Guest canuck]

Very nice. Good story. Can you email me the pictures.

Already done Dennis.

Shane

[Buck 120 32]

Great story. I can't wait for my first!!!

[Guest Wes]

cool story. Gets me even more excited for my first big game hunt next weekend.

[Cheech 2]

Great job Shane.Congrats.

[Guest Beamer]

Excellent story and photo's Shane, congratulations on the first archery deer

Beamer

[Smokey 1]

Way to go, Congrats.

[Guest Patch]

That's hunting! You pre-scouted and learned the animals behaviour. You determined a plan of action and set up accordingly. You even knew which animal you wanted to harvest and waited for the right opportunity to do so. And you did it with a bow. Excellent job Congratulations.