The 2018 season has been full of adventures for me so far but has included its fair share of frustration and disappointment along the way. A Fantastic week in Wyoming chasing Mulies started the season and though the adventure was fantastic we just could not locate the one critter we had a tag for, then the Georgia season opens to hot, muggy weather conditions and a sparse mast crop (in my area) which made for some tough hunting conditions. The positive note was this had black bears moving a LOT more than in recent years and I ended up launching two arrows at bears, one found it's way into a 2" maple only inches from the bear's vitals and the other still haunts me. An awesome shot on a very large bruin who decided it would be a great idea to get away from the unseen assailant by going over a 200' cliff and into a fairly fast running river while I sat waiting for the "30 minute rule" to pick up the track. By the time me and a buddy reached the end of the blood trail at the end of a rolling, tumbling, blood strewn trail that led all the way to the water's edge it appears my bear had been carried away by the water. We spent nearly 8 hours searching but were unable to locate the animal.
Broadhead lodged in the maple on first bear attempt
Photo of my arrow after passing through the second bear attempted
This is about halfway down the path the bear took, rolling and tumbling all the way to the river.So I sat out for a little over a week, without the desire to launch another arrow. Then on Saturday 10/13/18 I decided to give it another go. I headed to a stand I had placed on a natural funnel back in August that I had only hunted once and had a perfect wind for that morning. A few hours into my sit I caught the very faint sound of footsteps (the stand is located in a stand of pines) and a few moments later a mature doe stepped out into a clearing at less than 12 yards form the base of my tree. The arrow was on the way in seconds and after 15-20 seconds of chaos I hear the familiar thrashing coming from a single point 60 or so yards away. This time Mother Nature would not rob me of my prize. The doe was a beautiful creature and after field dressing and getting her back to a more scenic location I set up the tripod and took a few photos.
Isn't she gorgeous?Flash forward 1 week and I return to the same general area, this time I plan to hunt a different stand on the edge of a transition zone. There is always a lot of sign here, and a solid location once the rut starts but I thought maybe something would cruise through and I am trying really hard this season to give every stand a 3 week rest between sits. Also it is the opening morning of gun season and I decided to do a little something different to mark the occasion so instead of my trusty longbow I am sitting in the stand with a vintage Savora Custom takedown recurve. I have only previously taken 1 deer with a recurve, I just prefer hunting with a longbow (for reasons that will come back to memory shortly). At around 9am I sense movement more than I actually heard or saw it. The night had left a heavy dew and the morning was foggy so everything was soaked. The trio of does appeared shortly after, the first two to make their presence known was an average size doe and a yearling in tow. Then shortly behind them was an older, much larger doe. She was coming down a trail that would take her right by me at maybe 12 yards. When she paused for a brief second at full broadside I watched my arrow disappear right on the tuft of hair I was staring at. The sound of hooves striking wet ground erupted but only lasted a second or two and then all was quiet.
I waited an hour before picking up the trail as it was a beautiful morning once the sun burned through the fog and I expected a short recovery. However, when I did climb down I did not find what I expected. The arrow was solid red and there was blood on the ground but not the trail I was expected. 15 minutes later I am still following the trail but it is much slower than I expected and soon led into the thickest, nastiest mix of privet and greenbriar that one can imagine. The recurve limbs are hanging on everything and between the snatching and cursing to free it I am making way more noise than I would like so I decided to backout and give it another hour then come back. So I went to grab a snack and I put the recurve back in the truck and extracted my longbow to resume the trail around noon. Now I had a family commitment that afternoon so I really needed to locate this doe, get her in a cooler and not be late getting home for fear of the wrath of the Mrs. if I am late! (Did I mention it was my wife's birthday?) To shorten this story I did find the doe about an hour later, she had never bled a lot until the last 5 yards or so and covered a lot of ground for the hit she had taken. The creatures will never cease to amaze me. So without the equipment or the time to setup for a proper photo I snapped on with my cell phone and got down to taking care of business.
Not the blood trail I was expecting
Yet all is well that ends wellI have already had a sample of the tenderloins from that first doe, there is nothing like fresh venison to remind one why we do this........the adrenaline rush is just icing on the cake. Also, for anyone wondering I did make it back in time for the wife's birthday! WHEW!!!!
Topic: A pair of delightfully delectable does to kick off 2018 deer season (Read 2356 times)
