What a day! I shot my first traditional deer of the season yesterday evening at about 5:25pm over the river in Illinois. It is my 2nd season of hunting with a traditional bow and 4th year of hunting. It was a nice fat doe (I cant afford the buck fee over in Illinois). I am really excited.
I work at a private school. A work colleague of mine who manages our school's property asked me to hunt a property that he managed in a section of woods that none of his hunters ever hunt. I went and scouted it in august, and found that there were stands already located in that area, and since it was a small parcel, I asked if I could try somewhere with fewer hunters. He said that he would really like me to hunt there and he offered me an extra stand location (the school regulates the number of stands per hunter) if I would please hunt that area. I agreed, and thought I would spend a few token days out in the woods just to please my colleague.
Well yesterday it was about 82 degrees, and wasn't really going to cool down much, but the wind was right so I trekked in there with my untested climber stand bought off craigslist for $40 and thought I would give it a whorl. Arrived at 3:30 and the stupid climbing stand was almost the death of me by the time I got up into my tree at 4:30. I was sweating profusely at this point and figured I wouldn't see a thing.
However, 4:50 a coyote walked 25 yds from my stand (no clear shot opportunity). Didn't get a whif of me so I knew it might be alright. 5:20 I hear a deer like rustling just down the trail, when what should appear but a pair of does. I was a little annoyed because they were so close and the first one veered up the hill and didn't present a clear shot. I figured the second one would follow suite but I kept my bow ready and to my surprise she did not followed and continued on the path that I was gambling the deer would follow. She gave me a nice slightly quartering away broadside shot at 15 yards and I threaded the arrow through the lower boiler room.
I was ecstatic because the deer reacted well exploding forward like a racehorse nice and low to the ground, but the shot looked low and I could not see the arrow anywhere in the ground. I texted a friend to help me look for the deer and we examined the sight of the impact. No blood. No arrow. No hair. We followed her path. No blood, no arrow. Nothing. Followed her trajectory a full 1/4 mile. Nothing. At his point I was praying
but I was upset seeing as I had to be at work in an hour decided to zigzag back to my stand. Lo and behold about 35 yds. from my stand in a clearing the beautiful white belly, blood everywhere, but no arrow. What a relief!
When I dressed the deer I saw that the arrow entered slicing the kidney (nicked the stomach :mad: ) Sliced both lungs and practically split the heart in two. Why no blood trail? Where the heck is my arrow (I am assuming it is in the woods somewhere)? But the biggest question is the lack of blood trail? my arrow damaged or destroyed all 4 major organs and had a low entry wound. What's with that?
Regardless, a great hunt, hopefully a few more before seasons end
. So grateful that I found traditional bowhunting. I will post a pic when I can figure out how the heck to do it.
Topic: 1st Trad kill of the year (Read 409 times)
