Well it was a backwards weekend all the way around so it seams to reason that Sunday morning I would shot a deer in the wrong end.
Due to the odd year we have been having and the over abundance of inferior deer we have been seeing the lease manager and ranch owner have opened up the flood gates on culls and management deer, encouraging us to shoot everyone we see.
Sunday morning found me at full draw on a 4.5yr old “management deer†(anything under 120†@ 4.5 is considered management per our harvest criteria), feeding at a little less than ten yards.
After taking a few pictures and watching the deer for some time I decided that if he offered me a shot I couldn’t pass up I would go ahead and take him. Well as soon as that thought popped into my head he went from 30yds to inside of 10yds almost immediately. The next thing I knew his head was behind his body causing him to stretch out and flash the infamous white armpit. At this point I decided that this was God’s way of telling me to take this deer.
As I settled into full draw the buck twisted around a little to a moderate quartering away position. I shifted from my initial spot in the armpit to a tuft of hair about mid way back in the ribs. Once I was settled in I went into autopilot and the arrow was on its way. I would swear to you that the arrow hit that deer middle of the ribcage windage wise, but up in the back strap.
After the luck I have been having with deer this season I was feeling pretty sick. I didn’t feel that the deer could have moved at that close range so my shot must have been off.
After an hour of listening to the radio at the truck (I can’t sit still after a shot so I generally just leave the area), I took out tracking. After finding only two small swipes of blood about the size of a pin head, 75 yards from the place of the shot I began following a heavy set of tracks until I lost them in an area where the hogs had been the night before. Not positive that the minimal blood I found even belonged to my deer I headed back to camp to retrieve a dog. Since we have had minimal success with this dog I was not too confident, but figured it was better than walking around aimlessly.
After sniffing the blood the dog was plowing ahead and looked pretty intent. After 150yds of no sign we began to see blood, maybe the dog knew what he was doing after all. At 250yds the dog's handler rounded the brush ahead of me and said, "There is your deer."
The arrow had entered low in the ham, traveled trough the guts and liver, centered the offside lung, passed trough the ribs and stopped in the far shoulder blade. The muscle on the ham had mostly sealed the entrance hole (the arrow was still in the deer) and there wasn’t an exit hole which explains the lack of blood.
I had taken the shot through a small 4†wide window and due to the deer’s position could not even see the hams when I shot. As the tracker said, “It just goes to show you how fast they are and how slow we are.â€
I guess he took a step or spun when he heard the arrow. Our place was day hunted heavily last year so we have found the deer to be particularly jumpy, but I wouldn’t have thought they could move that fast.
Though he is only a management deer I am very pleased, more due to the knowledge gained after the shot than in the size of the antlers.
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I also shot a small pig on the way into the stand on Saturday morning an hour before sunrise. As I entered the area I heard, and smelled, 20+ pigs rotting up my area in the clouded moonlight. As I entered the area the dropping temperature (temp dropped 15 degrees in about an hour) caused my bow to sweat and my side plate to come off. I was simply going to run the pigs off and then head back to the truck to repair my bow, but when I turned the corner and saw how many their where I sent an arrow their way in frustration.
Latter that morning I went out to track the pig I had shot and found her floating in a drainage 100yds away. The arrow had entered just above the sternum, severed the heart and exited mid shoulder. So I made a better shot in the dark out of frustration at 20yds without my side plate then I did at less than ten with everything perfect. Like I said it was a backwards weekend.
Due to the odd year we have been having and the over abundance of inferior deer we have been seeing the lease manager and ranch owner have opened up the flood gates on culls and management deer, encouraging us to shoot everyone we see.
Sunday morning found me at full draw on a 4.5yr old “management deer†(anything under 120†@ 4.5 is considered management per our harvest criteria), feeding at a little less than ten yards.
After taking a few pictures and watching the deer for some time I decided that if he offered me a shot I couldn’t pass up I would go ahead and take him. Well as soon as that thought popped into my head he went from 30yds to inside of 10yds almost immediately. The next thing I knew his head was behind his body causing him to stretch out and flash the infamous white armpit. At this point I decided that this was God’s way of telling me to take this deer.
As I settled into full draw the buck twisted around a little to a moderate quartering away position. I shifted from my initial spot in the armpit to a tuft of hair about mid way back in the ribs. Once I was settled in I went into autopilot and the arrow was on its way. I would swear to you that the arrow hit that deer middle of the ribcage windage wise, but up in the back strap.
After the luck I have been having with deer this season I was feeling pretty sick. I didn’t feel that the deer could have moved at that close range so my shot must have been off.
After an hour of listening to the radio at the truck (I can’t sit still after a shot so I generally just leave the area), I took out tracking. After finding only two small swipes of blood about the size of a pin head, 75 yards from the place of the shot I began following a heavy set of tracks until I lost them in an area where the hogs had been the night before. Not positive that the minimal blood I found even belonged to my deer I headed back to camp to retrieve a dog. Since we have had minimal success with this dog I was not too confident, but figured it was better than walking around aimlessly.
After sniffing the blood the dog was plowing ahead and looked pretty intent. After 150yds of no sign we began to see blood, maybe the dog knew what he was doing after all. At 250yds the dog's handler rounded the brush ahead of me and said, "There is your deer."
The arrow had entered low in the ham, traveled trough the guts and liver, centered the offside lung, passed trough the ribs and stopped in the far shoulder blade. The muscle on the ham had mostly sealed the entrance hole (the arrow was still in the deer) and there wasn’t an exit hole which explains the lack of blood.
I had taken the shot through a small 4†wide window and due to the deer’s position could not even see the hams when I shot. As the tracker said, “It just goes to show you how fast they are and how slow we are.â€
I guess he took a step or spun when he heard the arrow. Our place was day hunted heavily last year so we have found the deer to be particularly jumpy, but I wouldn’t have thought they could move that fast.
Though he is only a management deer I am very pleased, more due to the knowledge gained after the shot than in the size of the antlers.
102_4504.JPG
102_4502.JPG
I also shot a small pig on the way into the stand on Saturday morning an hour before sunrise. As I entered the area I heard, and smelled, 20+ pigs rotting up my area in the clouded moonlight. As I entered the area the dropping temperature (temp dropped 15 degrees in about an hour) caused my bow to sweat and my side plate to come off. I was simply going to run the pigs off and then head back to the truck to repair my bow, but when I turned the corner and saw how many their where I sent an arrow their way in frustration.
Latter that morning I went out to track the pig I had shot and found her floating in a drainage 100yds away. The arrow had entered just above the sternum, severed the heart and exited mid shoulder. So I made a better shot in the dark out of frustration at 20yds without my side plate then I did at less than ten with everything perfect. Like I said it was a backwards weekend.
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