Okay story time kiddies.
After class on Friday I rushed home and got enough stuff to last me a day and a half at my dad's camp which they had set on Thursday. Considering I had missed the first morning of the hunt,which was set for the 21-23, I was running blind. I hardly had time to get dressed for the hunt when we were off for the evening hunt.
My dad and his friend Wilbur had seen a whole bunch of deer down this one road around 5 pm on Thursday night so that is where me and Wilbur went. I had the option of hunting the right or left side of the road and considering we were taking this as a scouting trip I went left.
Upon going in the woods I get rerouted by a 10 foot deep ditch and decide to go onto the other side of it onto this oak flat that sits between a thicket and a powerline. When I started to look around, I noticed 4 or 5 trails that were about 2 or 3 inches deep into the ground that came together in one general spot. I hooked the climber onto a good looking white oak and shimmied up.
The wind was blowing every possible direction until about 5:10 when it started blowing to the west which was good for where I figured the deer would come from.
I started to get cold so I fished out my jacket which i promptly dropped 13 feet out of my tree...I thought to myself " Man this is gonna be a long night." So I just leaned my head against the tree and tried to stay as warm as i could. About 10 minutes later I hear a squirrel in the ditch. As i casually turn my head that squirrel turned into a doe and a fawn.
Now the pair is about 40 yards away and closing. They came from dang near downwind but when the doe dropped into the ditch the wind switched and hit me in the face. I planned on standing when they dropped into the ditch but the doe decided she wanted to be on my side in a hurry so I had to wait until she and the fawn and the other doe that showed up weren't looking until I could stand. When all that fell into place I got stood up and turned for the shot but I guess I sky lined myself because she pegged me.
After a one minute Mexican standoff she decides to move off the left which puts her right in front of my tree. I turn again and get ready to shoot when she passes this tree.
As she passes the tree I start to put pressure on the string. I get to half draw when she looks right at me again. Mentally I told myself " Anchor and shoot! Anchor and shoot!" which tossed my focus out of the window along with my realization that I was shooting in between two tree limbs that were about 10 inches apart.
So I hit anchor and drop the string. The second I left go I knew it was forward. The arrow hit her right behind her shoulder bone and she whirled on the impact and snapped my arrow. I'm freaking out at this point thinking I hit her in the bone but after running 80 yards in 10 seconds she falls.
I'm sitting up the tree just dumbfounded. I came into this spot blind and set up on a hunch and shot a deer at 12 yards on public land! This is great!
After I got down I went and got my arrow off the ground and noticed that it had gone in about 16 inches but backed out when she spun and she only broke off about 4 inches of the shaft. On the ground around her was a blood spot about 3 feet in diameter where I hit hit a ventricle of the heart.
When I got up to her I inspected everything and realized that she was barely quartering to me when I shot...I thought she was broadside (by the way thanks again for the advice Dendy).
We got her all taken care of and I made the hour and a half long trip back to get her to the processor down the road from my house across the Georgia line. While there this morning I met a muzzleloader hunter who had killed a six pointer. When I told him I had killed with a longbow he was nothing shy of amazed and tickled to death. That made me chuckle a bit to myself. She was actually a bit bigger than I figured at first. We guessed her at 90-95lb dressed which is good for TN. Anyways here she is. Sorry about the small picture size i had to use my phone instead of a good camera and i cant make it any bigger.
Still using the Zipper longbow with woodsman elites.
Topic: Number 2 down! (Read 261 times)
