Opening morning was very uneventful. I bumped a deer while walking to my stand before daylight. I actually bumped it twice which really made me feel good. I sat until 10 am and never saw a deer. My son, Hunter, and I just cleaned up around camp and did a lot work finishing setting the camp up the way we wanted it.
Around 3 I started to get ready to go get in the stand. It was mid 80's and very little breeze so I waited until 3:45 to head out. I was on stand by 4 and noticed a perfect light beeze and everything just felt right. Until the sun popped out from behind the clouds and I swear it was 100 degrees in that tree. I cooked for about an hour and a half until the clouds rolled back in. Finally the sun started to set and I still had my perfect breeze blowing my scent out into an open clear cut that NO deer EVER come from.
I'm hunting in a long stretch of the thickest nastiest timber you can imagine. There are cut overs on both sides of me. The one to my east is brand new with virtually no vegatation. On the west side in an old clear cut that is grown over with cedar and green briar. About 60 yards in front of me is a deep canyon that is so thick you cant walk through it.
Anyway, Right before dark I was getting really discouraged. Hadn't seen a deer all day. I reached over and took my extra arrow and was about to put it in the quiver and start getting ready to leave when I heard footsteps. I put the arrow back and got my bow ready. I saw a huge bodied deer walking east at about 50 yards out. It was slightly coming my direction then I lost sight of him. I was looking as hard i could trying to see him again and then I noticed he had circled around and was standing DOWN WIND of me UNDER my tree. I just knew he was going to wind me and I really believe if he hadn't been SO close to me he would have. I think my scent was going over him.
He stood there for several minutes (seemed like hours). Finally he started walking again and as soon as I could see his head clearly he stopped again at 6 yards. ALL i could see was rack. My heart was hitting at dangerous levels at this point. Then he finally took two more steps and I realized that this was actually about to happen.
I picked my spot very low in his chest (which is hard to do at that steep of an angle). I was so "in the zone" that when I hit anchor all i could see was one hair in his armpit.
When I dropped the string the world blew up! The first thing I noticed was that he was leaving with my noctural flashing by above his back. He crashed into every tree he came to. He broke the arrow off about 25 feet into his run. When he got out of sight I heard him crash again and then he ran about 15 more yards and crash again then it got real quiet for about 5 seconds and then all heck broke loose again and I could tell he headed down into the canyon and then it got quiet again.
I WAS SICK. it appeared that I'd hit him too far forward and gotten very little penetration. I snuck out of there and went to camp. By this time another lease member and his son had shown up to camp with us. I told everyone my story and we decided to give him an hour and then go look. I really liked what I heard after the shot but I didn't like what I'd seen with the arrow.
When we got back out to my stand we went to the broken arrow there was about 10" of arrow missing. My Jack Russell found blood and then we started tracking. We could see where he'd smashed into trees and about 30 yards into the trail we see a huge dead log that had blood on it the the deer had crashed into it and moved the log about 4 feet. We were standing around looking for more blood and my buddy's son says there he is right there! I looked behind me and he was laying about 5 yards from me. I couldn't believe that he'd only ran about 35 yards.
The shot was perfect. The arrow had hit the offside leg and broke it. I LOVE killing deer with a longbow. There is nothing else like it on earth. I've Killed A LOT of deer in my life but nothing compares to traditional bow hunting. My goal this season was to kill a mature buck with my longbow. Mission accomplished on opening day. Pressure is off and the doe better hide because I'm not finished playing yet. lol
Oh yeah, I have to throw in that I went in the Thursday before the season and had Lasik surgery. Who does something like that two days before the opener?? It worked out perfect. I can see again! Sorry for the long read. I usually don't write alot but this one is different.
Around 3 I started to get ready to go get in the stand. It was mid 80's and very little breeze so I waited until 3:45 to head out. I was on stand by 4 and noticed a perfect light beeze and everything just felt right. Until the sun popped out from behind the clouds and I swear it was 100 degrees in that tree. I cooked for about an hour and a half until the clouds rolled back in. Finally the sun started to set and I still had my perfect breeze blowing my scent out into an open clear cut that NO deer EVER come from.
I'm hunting in a long stretch of the thickest nastiest timber you can imagine. There are cut overs on both sides of me. The one to my east is brand new with virtually no vegatation. On the west side in an old clear cut that is grown over with cedar and green briar. About 60 yards in front of me is a deep canyon that is so thick you cant walk through it.
Anyway, Right before dark I was getting really discouraged. Hadn't seen a deer all day. I reached over and took my extra arrow and was about to put it in the quiver and start getting ready to leave when I heard footsteps. I put the arrow back and got my bow ready. I saw a huge bodied deer walking east at about 50 yards out. It was slightly coming my direction then I lost sight of him. I was looking as hard i could trying to see him again and then I noticed he had circled around and was standing DOWN WIND of me UNDER my tree. I just knew he was going to wind me and I really believe if he hadn't been SO close to me he would have. I think my scent was going over him.
He stood there for several minutes (seemed like hours). Finally he started walking again and as soon as I could see his head clearly he stopped again at 6 yards. ALL i could see was rack. My heart was hitting at dangerous levels at this point. Then he finally took two more steps and I realized that this was actually about to happen.
I picked my spot very low in his chest (which is hard to do at that steep of an angle). I was so "in the zone" that when I hit anchor all i could see was one hair in his armpit.
When I dropped the string the world blew up! The first thing I noticed was that he was leaving with my noctural flashing by above his back. He crashed into every tree he came to. He broke the arrow off about 25 feet into his run. When he got out of sight I heard him crash again and then he ran about 15 more yards and crash again then it got real quiet for about 5 seconds and then all heck broke loose again and I could tell he headed down into the canyon and then it got quiet again.
I WAS SICK. it appeared that I'd hit him too far forward and gotten very little penetration. I snuck out of there and went to camp. By this time another lease member and his son had shown up to camp with us. I told everyone my story and we decided to give him an hour and then go look. I really liked what I heard after the shot but I didn't like what I'd seen with the arrow.
When we got back out to my stand we went to the broken arrow there was about 10" of arrow missing. My Jack Russell found blood and then we started tracking. We could see where he'd smashed into trees and about 30 yards into the trail we see a huge dead log that had blood on it the the deer had crashed into it and moved the log about 4 feet. We were standing around looking for more blood and my buddy's son says there he is right there! I looked behind me and he was laying about 5 yards from me. I couldn't believe that he'd only ran about 35 yards.
The shot was perfect. The arrow had hit the offside leg and broke it. I LOVE killing deer with a longbow. There is nothing else like it on earth. I've Killed A LOT of deer in my life but nothing compares to traditional bow hunting. My goal this season was to kill a mature buck with my longbow. Mission accomplished on opening day. Pressure is off and the doe better hide because I'm not finished playing yet. lol
Oh yeah, I have to throw in that I went in the Thursday before the season and had Lasik surgery. Who does something like that two days before the opener?? It worked out perfect. I can see again! Sorry for the long read. I usually don't write alot but this one is different.
Comment