I posted this over at PBS but thought I'd share here as well.
Thought I'd share todays excitement since I know some folks' season hasn't begun yet. For backround, this year my goal is 100% ground, and 100% longbow. At the end of the season I plan on chronicling my trials and errors with ground hunting, but thats a ways off still. I hunt Ft Benning, not my #1 choice, but it is what it is and there's a lot of game there. So far this year I have been out 3 times and today was my most eventful. For years my prized spot on post is a surprisingly old tract of hardwoods (most of benning is pulp pine and buck brush) containing white oaks, hickory, and I believe some cedar among others. Theres a large quarry and on the back side the woods drop down for about 200 meters to a creek. In the past I have scaled an old wooded tree stand whose owner has long since moved on. But the deer always pass closer down the hill by the creek just out of range. This year since Im ground hunting only I have the chance to get closer. I carry some pruning shears with me and a tripod stool. So I brushed in a small brush blind to break my silhouette down by the creek. To my front I look up the steep hill, to my left is dense woods full of heavy deer trails and to the right the back corner of a bedding field. To my back is the creek with steep banks on either side. Perfect. A hardwoods/bedding field transition and a natural funnel all in one. I snuck in this morning under the chilly cover of darkness and found my "blind" as I left it on opening day when a bad storm ruined my hunt. I got my ghillie suit on and my stool out. I could hear the acorns falling like rain for the first hour or so. About 0830 I turn slowly to my left and there they are. They came in like ghosts! A full bodied doe and what I assume were her two older fawns. No spots and good sized but clearly smaller than mom. My reaction time was nil and mom was out front. Now normally I wouldnt draw up on a doe with fawns but these ones were old enough that they were either not her fawns at all, or if they were they would be plenty fine with out her. It was clear they were heading somewhere and not foraging and were not going to stop. I raised my bow and tracked her as she walked hoping shed pause. Before she left my lane she slowed her walk to as slow as I figured she was going to go. I drew, anchored, picked a spot, and loosed. And she stopped. Haha. Arrow stuck in the hill right in front of her chest and she turned up the hill. Not panicked, not fleeing, but trotting off non the less. I chuckled to myself and crept over to retrieve my arrow. Sure, it was a miss, but I had 3 deer within 20 meters. So, the combination of location selection, scent control (to include wind), the small brush blind, and the ghillie was successful. Ive never been so happy to MISS a deer! An hour later a coyote passed behind me on the other side of the creek. Im confident I am unnoticed on the ground. I will only get better from here on out, but im still pleased. To be free from the trees and still be shooting at game is the culmination of a lot of research, trial and error, and doubts on my part. Sorry this wasn't a dead deer thread. Maybe next time!
-Luke Walrod
Topic: A beautiful miss! (Read 487 times)
